***** Vol.3 Chap.50 Exploration time *****

Now that he had been inside the cavern for quite a while, his eyes have grown accustomed to the darkness and, surprisingly, he could see well without the flashlight. Perhaps the rocks were somehow fluorescent because there was a dull glow on the rock face, something that he had not noticed the night before. He took his time to re-examine the wall paintings.

He was amazed at the ingenuity of the Egyptian builders and their engineering skills in constructing the Sphinx. As he carefully studied the building process, he noticed stone arches were intentionally put in to create the room that he was standing in. So, there must be a strong relationship between the Sphinx and the upright stone structure. It was possible that the relationship could be more explicitly told if he could read all the hieroglyphics on the murals.

After examining the murals, he walked around the room, looking especially at the ground for clues. The ground was a solid rock with a thin layer of sand on top. It almost seemed that the place was swept clean a long time ago. He could not find even a thread or a piece of shoelace.

While crawling on all fours, as he approached the center stone slab, he noticed that the air was fresh. He would have expected that the air to be stale by now, but the air was fresh. That must be why he felt a draft of air from the stone while he was outside the Sphinx. He quickly went to his backpack and struck a match. Sure enough, the flame told him that there was air rushing out from underneath the stone stab.

There must be something underneath the stone stab. He thought to himself.

He fell to his knees and examined the stone slab carefully. It was smooth, although there were some rough spots here and there. From the mural, the size of the stone slab matches the stone structure, showing that this could be a door. But He found no keyholes, no latches, and no handles. He was on his knees, examining every inch of the stone slab. He found nothing.

Brushing away the loose soil around the slab, only solid stone was underneath. Again, he found nothing. Undaunted, he used his hands to feel around the slab. Sure enough, there was a small crack around the stone slab separating the slab from the rest of the stone floor. He tried lifting the slab, but to no avail.

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As he cleared the dirt from the stone slab, he discovered some curious carvings in the rock face. The markings appeared artificial. Quickly clearing off the remaining sand and soil, several curious indentations were etched on the slab.

Four large squares were seen laid out on a line. Within each square, a series of small circles laid in a concentric pattern, from a slightly larger circle to the center of the square.

In the first square from the left, there were six rays emanating from the center, each ray containing four small circles.

On the second square, there were five rays emanating from the center. Each ray had three small circles carved into it.

On the third square, there were no emanating rays, but there were four concentric circles, each with three circles on it.

The last square had three concentric circles. The first one had two small circles, the second one had eight circles, and the third one had eight circles.

For the next two hours, he combed through the slab and the surrounding area, brushing off loose soil to reveal the stone face underneath. He kept running into stone and nothing else. He dug around the pencil-thin crack that separated the slab from the rest of the stone face, but he found nothing.

In desperation, he concluded that the stone slab could not be opened from the outside, it can openly be opened from inside with some kind of mechanical contraptions. He must be looking at the wrong place.

The switch to open the stone must have had something to do with the stone carvings.

Perhaps the stone carvings are parts of a combinational lock. He remembered that on the mural, a vizier seemed to have his hand on the stone structure at a place close to the carvings. In vain, he examined the carvings from all angles, trying to find if there were any buttons to push or if the circles move.

What is crazy is not crazy anymore. He worked the carvings repeatedly, thinking of all kinds of ways that one can design a combinational lock with these carvings. After a couple more hours of frustrations, He was starving and tired, but he kept pushing the tiny circles, and fidgeting different parts of the carving.

He tried logically pushing the circles, though he does not know what whether the push was effective at all. He pushed the circles softly in sequence. Nothing happened. He pushed the circles hard until his fingers hurt. Nothing happened. Towards the end, he was half pushing and half pounding on the carvings. Still, nothing happened. He was getting really frustrated and hungry.

Perhaps he could work better when he was fresh. Laying down on top of the stone slab, he wanted to be awakened if for any reason the stone slab might move. He was not about to miss it.