By pure chance Mark discovered something quite remarkable! As we trekked through the sweltering rain forest stone statues of Mayan deities loomed up out the trees almost as if they guard the very soil we tread upon, we have decided to make camp for a while until the sunsets and the humidity becomes more bearable. While many of us decided to nap and regain our strength Mark went off on a short walk around the area, not much time had passed when we heard him call out excitedly. Rushing towards the sound we found him crouched beneath the statue of the Mayan god Quatzequatel; He was closely studying a large chunk of stone that had broken off of the base of the statue. After a few moments he explained to us that as he studied the statue he noticed the glyphs matched the ones we had found in Tik’al and upon closer inspection found the stone with a cipher. The curious thing about it is that on the cipher is a carving of each glyph and next to it an English word that seems to match the meaning to each glyph. It is strange as the Spanish where the first major European country to colonize the Yucatan peninsula, Mark had made a copy of the cipher and the guide we hired has agreed to show the party the way to the wall then take us back to Flores and return for the rest of our group tomorrow. Mark and I plan to return to Tikal and attempt to translate the glyphs, it is all very unexpected and exciting!
Over the past two days Mark and I have been slowly translating the strange glyphs, they seem to hint at an advanced culture that predated even the Mayans in Tik’al. The city of Tik’al could be even older than previously thought! Another part of the glyphs tells of a pyramid built by this unknown people deep in the rain forest, Mark and I plan to return to Flores and hire the guide again to see if we can locate it. Hopefully we can locate it without too much difficulty. If we were to make a discovery of this magnitude we would be the first people in recorded history to study this civilization. But enough with this journal, I must get back to work!
Success! We have found it at last; the mysterious hieroglyphs Mark and I found in Tik’al have led us to a Pyramid deep in the rain forest. We are about to begin studying a race of people we know nothing about. We have decided to call them the Antiquus Natives or Ancient Natives. Nothing is known about this race but with the discovery of the cipher and the pyramid we will finally be able to start to learn more about this advanced culture. The pyramid we found looks like a combination of an Egyptian burial pyramid for the pharaohs and a Mayan temple used to worship and the winged God Quatzequatel. We have decided to set up camp in the shade of the pyramid, the temperature and humidity in this forest are unbearable and we will have to wait until the sunsets and the temperature drops to explore further. But while we are waiting Mark plans to translate some of glyphs that cover the walls of the pyramid, hopefully this will give us some insight into who this race of people was before we enter the pyramid.
The temperature has finally dropped enough for us to explore the pyramid without fearing dehydration or heatstroke. The inside of the temple is covered with the mysterious glyphs of Antiquus Natives; Mark translated some of the glyphs which seem to indicate the leader of the Antiquus, Rexroi, had this pyramid constructed as a burial place for himself. If this is so there may be treasure deep inside the burial chamber of this pyramid. Booby Traps are making the progress slow but we are determined to reach the burial chamber. With my archeological studies I have been able to disarm each trap as we come across it, trip wires, trap doors all leading to some gruesome fate to be sure. The builders of this pyramid seem to have been some kind of hybrid culture between most of the ancient civilizations, strange because most of them never came in contact with each other. Hopefully we can unravel this mystery.
I have had another strange dream but this time it was not pleasant, Mark and I stood in the burial chamber of the pyramid encircled by untold riches, he thought we should wait for a full scale archeological team to arrive before we touched anything and I consumed by greed waited till he turned around then hit him over the head with a large gold scepter, it was then that I awoke. This is something that I would never do but still it disturbs me to even dream of it.
We are getting ever closer to the center of the pyramid, traps become more frequent as we do; it will take a couple more days to reach the stairs we can see descending into what we think is the burial chamber. We want to make sure it is safe to proceed before we go any farther but the thought of what we may find keeps us pushing on. The dream still lingers on the edge of my mind even though it was just a dream it bothers me an abnormal amount and I am not sure why, maybe with time it will pass. I can think of no reason why I would ever murder Mark he has always been a great friend of mine and I loath the very idea of even murdering him in a dream, I must try to clear this thought from my head maybe I have been inside this pyramid to long and the heat is getting to me. After this discovery we will be famous anyways! Returning home I can afford to retire early, relax and spend some time with my family, but for now we must push onwards.