To their left, the true entrance of the temple was packed with rubble and debris, and Cade realized it would have taken them hours to clear it had they not found the collapsed wall.

But it was not this that drew the eye. Rather, it was the enormous statue at the top of the stone staircase. A bearded man, seated with an intricately carved cape over his head and an unrolled papyrus in his hands.

As for the walls, they were decorated with scenes of life and surrounded by colorful hieroglyphics. Men gathered reeds from the swollen banks of a great river, while others dragged enormous square blocks. Both the writing and the art style were undoubtedly Egyptian.

“Whose tomb is this?” Scott asked.

The Codex was swift to respond.

“Imhotep died in 2950 BC. He was the greatest architect of his time and was the first builder in history to use stone, as well as pioneering the use of pillars. As the high priest of Ra and Egypt’s vizier, he was ruler beneath the pharaoh in all but name. So great were his achievements that he was deified as a god himself and would be worshipped by cults for thousands of years. His remains and the grand tomb he was buried in have never been found.”

“Damn,” Scott said after a moment’s silence. “Dude was badass.”

Cade chuckled and stepped closer to the stair’s edge.

“Come on,” he said. “If we’re lucky, the animals that live here don’t go down there.”

His words were hollow though, for he could see well-worn claw marks running down its center.

Still, they had no choice but to go deeper. Cade began the slow descent into darkness.

It was only after a full minute of descending that he began to understand the true scale of the tomb. Not only was the ceiling so high above them that they could no longer see it, but when they approached the bottom he could see that there were other stairs, leading back up, opposite them and to each side.

He stopped, staring.

“What is it?” Amber asked. “Do you hear something?”

“It’s a pyramid,” Cade whispered.

“What?” Scott said, confused. “Do you even know what a pyramid is?”

Cade shook his head and pointed.

“It’s an inverted pyramid,” he said. “It’s genius.”

“Nerd,” Scott said, nudging him good naturedly.

They went on, edging deeper into the darkness, until they reached the very bottom. There, a square of flat ground marked the nadir of the pyramid’s stair, with a large, square coffin at its center.

A bearded man was depicted upon it in an intricate wood carving, painted in gold filigree and studded with colored stones: jet, jade, and lapis lazuli.

“Was this guy a giant or something?” Scott asked. “It’s huge.”

The entire thing was almost as long as a school bus and as tall as Cade’s chest.

Cade cast around, looking for some other doorway or hole in the ground. There was nothing.

“What now?” Amber asked, sidling closer. “I thought there was supposed to be treasure here. And where are the other tombs?”