While he was talking, Joe pulled up a website featuring pictures of the pyramids. He pointed to them so she could get a visual as they talked.
“Unbelievable.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
“Yeah,” their host responded. “It kinda is.”
Sean decided to play devil’s advocate for a moment. “Unbelievable…except for the fact that the pyramids at Giza and most of the others in Egypt were used as burial sites. The ones in the western hemisphere were mainly for rituals of state religion.” His statement was blunt. “If they were built by the same people, wouldn’t they be used for the same purpose?”
“Right you are,” Mac responded. “But excavations of many of the newly discovered pyramids of Central America have revealed large burial chambers. These rooms were filled with the remains of what are believed to be priests and royalty.”
After a minute of quiet contemplation, Sean asked, “How long have you known about all this?”
“I learned about some of it before I started working at the park. In fact, that’s partly why I took the job and left the forestry service. When I discovered the legends and saw the similarities, I had to do it.”
“You said there was other evidence suggesting this?” Allyson pressed him.
“Absolutely,” Joe agreed. “In the areas I mentioned, the Cherokee and ancient Mississippian villages and towns were designed exactly like those in Thebes, Luxor, Hathor, take your pick. The streets and city plans were extremely close from the looks of them. Another interesting fact is that the Indians in the Americas used totem poles which are very similar to some structures in Egypt, save for the fact that the ones here were primarily made from wood. And last, but not least, the gods which the Ancient Nile dwellers revered were very much like the animals held in high regard by the American Indians.”
She didn’t know much about what these two guys were talking, but from what they’d said so far, she was convinced. “So, how does this play into finding Tommy and the golden chambers?”
“I like her,” Joe commented. “She’s direct. I hate beatin’ around the bush.” He winked at Sean and went on. “I would guess that whoever took Tommy is trying to find the Chambers of Ahkanan because it would be the most significant treasure discovery since Tut’s tomb. That’s a significant amount of gold and as history shows us, people will do almost anything for money.
“As the story goes, when the early Egyptian explorers came here, they were sent by one of their leaders, Prince Akhanan, to establish a new empire. Now, gold was something the ancients revered as powerful and sacred. To them, the value of the yellow metal was more spiritual than material. Of course, down through the ages, people’s perception of it became perverted through greed and the concept of supply and demand. But in the beginning, gold was believed to have supernatural powers, and it was treated as a gift from the gods.”
Joe stopped for a second to let the information settle in before continuing. “You know what reason these settlers could have had for constructing giant golden rooms?”
The visitors stared at the floor for a moment, deep in thought. Then Sean said, “My first thought would be that such a structure would show potential newcomers or enemies that their tribe was powerful, like a symbol of strength.”
“And…,” Mac persisted.
“And not only were they a strong people, but they were blessed by the gods as exhibited by the amount of gold they had. The thinking being that no enemy would dare attack a city that was protected by the gods.”
“Very good, my friend; both excellent points. But there are two other reasons for the rooms. One of the purposes we can extrapolate is that of religious control. The ancients understood that if they could not maintain some form of crowd management, the ensuing chaos would destroy them all. As the old saying goes, ‘He who owns the gold, makes the rules.’ There is, however, another power behind the gold.”
Again, Joe returned to the desk, his fingers flying over the keyboard. “I’m a big fan of the History Channel, ya know. Can’t get enough of it.” He turned his head for a second, grinning at Allyson. On the screen appeared the home page for the History Channel website. After entering a few more words, some pictures popped up of golden boxes under the heading, ‘ancient ark technology.’
Allyson tilted her head quizzically. “That looks a lot like the Ark from the Indiana Jones movie. Don’t tell me you’re looking for that.”
Joe had to laugh. “Not at all, Miss Webster. But I do believe the technology behind the Ark may play into what we are looking for.
“A couple of months ago, I saw a program on the History Channel about how the Ark worked. I was fascinated about how they discussed the design and purpose of it. Many Christians around the world would give credit to Moses designing it. But, as the show pointed out, these people forget where Moses spent at least a decade of his life before going into the wilderness.”
“In the courts of the Pharoah,” Sean said, citing the Old Testament.
“Exactly,” his old friend gave him a smirk. “Down through the centuries, many arks have been discovered in Egyptian temples and burial sites. Until recently, their purpose had been thought to be ceremonial. However, as HC pointed out, there is an amazing science behind the purpose of the gold boxes. Have either of you read about the power of the Ark of the Covenant in the book of Genesis?”
They both shrugged. “Maybe a long time ago,” she said nonchalantly.
“Well, it is fascinating,” Joe didn’t let their ambiguity slow him down. “There are several instances where the people of Israel bore witness to the great power the Ark possessed: Uzzah was killed instantly when he reached up and touched it to keep it from falling off a cart, the walls of Jericho crumbled before it, and the Philistines were struck with what seems to be some kind of radiation sickness after they stole the box from the Israelites. The program on the History Channel said the reason the Ark had such amazing power was that it was essentially a superconductor for static electricity.
“Researchers discovered that there are certain points on the surface of the earth that collect more of this electric energy than others. Non-coincidentally, most of the hotspots for this geo-static power are where Egyptian temples were built. It seems the Egyptians had discovered a way to harness electricity. To what ends is still a mystery.”
Sean was starting to understand, “So these arks were designed by the Egyptian leaders to control the people with displays of electric power. To the ordinary citizen, the arcs of “lightning” they produced would appear to be some kind of divine power.”
“Yep,” Mac agreed.
Allyson was also starting to draw the connection. “Do you think that these golden chambers were designed for a similar reason?”
Joe shook his head. “I honestly don’t know. But I do know that Egyptians had a far greater understanding of gold and its uses in science than we could have ever imagined. Just makes me think that if they constructed four golden chambers, there must have been two reasons.”
“Two reasons?” Allyson’s eyes scanned him curiously.
“Most definitely,” Joe chuckled. Then he said, “If we find one chamber, we should be able to find the next one.”
“Why is that?” She wondered aloud.
His voice grew a little quieter, “The other reason the chambers were built was to point the way home.”