Page 244 - The Tigris Expedition

Wc Search for a Pyramid and Find Mahan

goats, and the tree seemed to thrive ^"V^ ^^trce-dwellers
tenants. We were told that even when these r°aminS , h
moved into a real house they would leave the floor empty and g
all their possessions from the ceiling and on the wails.
In this barren landscape wc reached the biggest of the d y
beds, known as Wadi al Jitti. Like a broad motorway paved with
smooth pebbles, it wound through a sandy plain flanked y n s
and peaks where worked chips of jasper and a prehistoric stone
circle were the only trace of man to be seen between the sparse
thorn-trees. Along the inland horizon, still far away, were the tall
jagged crests of the west coast mountain chains, rising one behind
the other in ever higher rows, as if set to block the passage to both
Saudi Arabia and the gulf. In contrast, the wide wadi ran like a flat
gravel-road in the opposite direction, straight to Sohar and the open
seaside beach from where we had now come. Without a road we
drove on until we rounded a black, conical peak that served Costa as
a landmark, and on the open plain before us lay what we had come
for.
We were still in the Land Cruiser when some large chocolate-
coloured boulders, superimposed to form the terraced wall of a
partly buried building, struck my eyes before Costa even had time
to point in that direction. It was difficult to remain calmly seated
until wc came to a stop at close range. This was what I had hoped for
but had not dared to believe. There was no longer any doubt.
As Norman and I walked up to the structure with Costa, Norris
rushed into position with his sound camera to record the first arrival
in untold centuries of reed-boat voyagers from Mesopotamia at
what may once have been a Sumerian sanctuary. We stood at the
foot of a partly ruined, man-made mound, still well enough pre­
served to show its main form. While we were gazing at the big,
brown boulders in the walls, Costa opened with a solemn speech:
Unless we can make a thorough excavation of this site, ’ he said,4 we
cannot say whether it is possible to date it to the third millennium
bc, but we can
say that this huge structure is a unique feature,
square, stepped and made of random stones with perfect masonry
work, it is in the middle of a plain surrounded by hills and in this
position is obviously not a fortification, so we can say that it is
certainly a temple.’
Norman and I listened and swallowed the big mound with our
eyes as Costa took us to the side where a long, narrow ramp led
trom the ground up to the top terrace. Gherman was almost beside
himself with excitement; this was a stepped pyramid of the type we
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