章節 61: Chapter 61

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Early the next morning, right after the buffet, our tour group of brave Englishmen, most of whom were dressed like Indiana Jones, were loaded onto a bus and driven away.

When we arrived at the museum, we were caught in a huge line of other tourists even before it opened. There were a lot of different people here - Asians, most likely Japanese, always taking pictures of everything, and various Europeans, quietly discussing something, and Russians, judging by the loud, cheerful speech and inappropriately rich and colorific clothes. In general, there was quite a stir.

We already had the tickets, so we just waited for the opening, and when our group was approached by our guide, of course, Egyptian, we went inside.

The museum itself was a large and beautiful brick color building with just giant arched windows on the first floor. On the grounds around it, among the varied greenery of native plants, we could see monuments and other exhibits, whether a statue or the top piece of some tetrahedral spire. For about half an hour, they took us around the outside area, showing and telling us about this or that exhibit, and only after this walk they took us into the museum itself.

The variety of exhibits and rooms was astounding. I do not know how much time I will need to look through all of them, but I doubt that a month will be enough. The largest and heaviest exhibits were on the first floor, whether they were statues, obelisks, various sphinxes, sarcophagus lids, or the like. The most monumental things were on display in the central hall, and the two statues of Tutankhamun's ancestors are seven meters high. According to the guide, they were first brought to the first floor, and only then, around these statues, was the museum itself built.

I found another interesting thing. Each exhibit had a magically enchanted plaque next to an ordinary one, hidden from the eyes of ordinary people. It either duplicated information or gave additional information related to magic. The museum also had magic exhibits and judging by the presence in the halls of invisible people in red and beige uniforms, there were wizards guarding the museum as well.

Though the items are magical, they have mostly lost their magical value long ago. For example, a cremation toolkit had a number of special enchantments, underwent special ritual preparation, and more. But, unfortunately, after so many years, the tools have completely lost their properties, and only from the residual traces of magic, it was possible to assume the approximate area of enchantments.

The Golden Room, with its gold sarcophagi and other exhibits made of gold, was also impressive. The Hall of Mummies was no less impressive. Interestingly enough, absolutely every exhibit had a magical story to tell. There were descriptions of various charms, traps, and other things that were put on this or that exhibit. But unfortunately, the exhibits had no practical value.

The only active artifact was the mask of Tutankhamun. There is still an unexplored curse active on it, but there are too many conditions to activate it, so there are no special precautions. You can't touch it or do anything else with it anyway, and the special protective charms are so strong that they discourage any ridiculous desires, even from the strongest mages.

The excursion was far from complete because you can really walk around for a week if you read a little bit, and for the whole day if you just walk around without stopping. After this event, our whole group got back on the bus and headed for the pyramids. Those three, the most famous ones: Cheops, Chephren, and Menkerin. Of course, there are others, no less famous for those who are interested in this matter in general, the necropolis of Dashur, Medum, something in Saqqara, I do not remember. But, in Giza, these are the most famous, and very many people associate them with Egypt.

The bus took us almost to the very site, to the foot of the pyramid of Cheops. By the way, there was a small house standing nearby, protected from ordinary people by magic. There were dozens of wizards bustling about and several roads led from the house itself, one of them to a bus stop.

"I think there's a tour for us," I stressed the last word.

"Do you want to go now?" John asked. I am glad that they are not offended by this division of the worlds.

"And what about you? We can go together."

"No!" John and Sarah were both indignant at the same time.

"As I said, I'm not interested in magic. When you go to space, you can call me." John continued, and Sarah nodded accordingly.

"I see. Shall I go then?"

"Of course! If there's anything really interesting, especially about normal history, be sure to tell me. And don't touch anything."

"Sure, we have a simple rule - don't touch any crap with your hands."

"That's a good rule."

I slowed down a little and stepped behind the bus. With a neat move, I put a muggle-repellent spell on myself. Huh, that's funny. I examined myself. And a few hours ago, I was criticizing the British guys for looking like Indiana Jones. Except that I myself am in strange sand-colored breeches, a T-shirt, and a sleeveless shirt, and a hat on my head. A typical British man on a camping trip. There's a special holster on my belt for the wand, but there's also one on my forearm, though with the five runes of aversion burned into it for normal people. Basic stuff, by the way, and almost the first rune model in a textbook from Hog's library.

Like that, and with a bag on my shoulder, I headed down the road toward the hut. The hut was a decent-sized European-style building of large stone blocks with a very high quality finish. It was two stories high, and there was no "parking" for air or other vehicles. It is probably larger on the inside than on the outside.

Above the entrance, above the wooden door, was a bilingual inscription, Arabic and English. "Three-by-three pyramids." What is that? Three-by-three?! They're freaking geniuses! They counted the pyramids! Or is there some kind of sacred meaning to it? I'll have to find out.