The two-hundred-foot stepped pyramid of dark red stone rose from the floor of the drained basin like a resurrected mountain.
Water from the retreating peat bog still cascaded down its massive granite tiers, glistening like liquid silver in the autumn sunlight.
For ten thousand years, the ancient monument had been entombed beneath fifty feet of stale slime.
Now, scoured clean by Giles Croft’s self-running drain tube network, its polished stonework stood without a crack or a seam.
Giles climbed the massive southern stairway, his boots clicking crisply against steps carved from single forty-ton giant pillars of dark grey stone.
Under his arm he carried his brass sighting scope and tripod. Meanwhile, Toby Karr followed three steps behind, lugging the heavy dark wood case of survey standards and brass target plates.
When Giles reached the flat, sixty-foot square summit of the pyramid, he paused to catch his breath.
The view took the engineer’s breath away.
