Temple of the Ancients

It was now completely dark, but the light from the gibbous moon was just sufficient to complete the climb without recourse to artificial light. We'd be camped now, had it not been for Hendrick's sprained ankle... or my own insistence that we reach the plateau. Still, no use dwelling on what-ifs. The guides were confident that our object was somewhere off this next plateau, in this curious region of sharply-ridged peaks, tinged with blue-veined granite and deeply scored by passes and watercourses. We were here illegally, of course, knowing that the Chinese Government would never sanction such an expedition without full disclosure of its aims. And we must make the discovery without being hampered by any form of censorship. The trans-Himalayan trek had been amazing, but we were, as a group, beginning to tire, hence Hendrick's ankle.

Before we crested the ridge I stopped... and I knew: "We're here", I said, simply. And so we were. Instead of the great sweep of plateau expected, we emerged onto a kind of sub-level. To the left, nestled between natural peaks and the plateau proper, was a structure worn, but most definitely not fashioned, by Nature: the Temple of the Ancients, whose existence was merely a rumour among Westerners with an occult leaning, scorned by those of strictly scientific bent who argued that no traces of any civilisation preceding Egypt had ever been found in these parts. Well, now we would show them. I asked Temple, the synchronously-named research assistant, to unpack the Klieg and spend a little precious battery-power in celebrating this moment.

The satisfyingly resonant 'click' of the spot transformed the scene: the configuration of the temple complex now became apparent, a large central pyramid flanked by two subsidiaries enclosing a kind of ceremonial drive to the principal. In this wind-whipped and rarefied air, the markings seem to stand out preternaturally, great tablets of carved stone, badly weathered but still showing their form. The entire party thrilled with awe. Although we turned off the light and began setting up camp so as to get some rest before the next day's work, I knew that sleep wouldn't come this night...