Legacy

Returning from vacation and touring old Tibetan Monasteries a group of people with very little in common past interest in ancient buildings were aboard a small Leer Charter Jet heading toward their next stop in India.

Unexpectedly they ran into a huge storm, lightening was fierce and a bolt struck the airplane, minor damage was done to the tail rudder making steering a bit difficult.  But worse, their electrical system was heavily damaged and the radio and navigational instruments were rendered useless.  The pilot flew the best he could, but landmarks were not looking familiar and fuel was fast running out.

The pilot had to look for a place to sit down and find one quickly.  The area was mountainous and offered little possibility of a safe landing.  Fortunately as he passed a big red mountain it opened up to desert type landscape and there was plenty of flat ground.  The pilot was able to make a safe landing.

The passengers, seven in all and the pilot making the eight person; debarked and began to look around.  The pilots name was Roger Markston a British citizen, the passengers consisted of Ralph and Mary Perkins from Oklahoma, where Ralph was a Professor of Archeology. Twin brothers Todd and Brady Hauser from Australia, professional photographers getting shots for National Geographic Magazine; and lastly Tom Brody, John Shulton, and Susan Brown, all Eastern History Majors from a College in Connecticut, it was a study field trip for them.

The subject of where are we came up. Ralph Perkins had the answer to that to some extent.  He said we are somewhere in North Western Iran, that red mountain we passed is Mount Eynali.  It is north of the Iranian City of Tabriz.  How far north I’m not sure, but its said that because of the redness and the red soil surrounding it that it can be seen from Tabriz.  According to the books I’ve read said Professor Perkins that on top of that mountain is an ancient tomb; housing to ancient Clerics of some renown.  Also a radio tower for relaying satellite broadcasts.

It is rumored, but unsubstantiated that the tomb may hide the entrance to an ancient Zoroasterian Temple.  Everyone agreed that was interesting, but how can we get to safety was the groups main concern.  After a short discussion it was agreed that their landing probably went unnoticed and help would not come.  The five Americans were extra worried about even being found on Iranian soil.

The twin brothers from Australia said they had some experience with having to cover great distances in the outback hot arid Australian desert areas when their truck broke down. The important thing was to salvage as much water as possible, along with any foodstuffs there might be.

Surviving in such conditions would be difficult, so anything to improve the odds was a good idea.  They took inventory of what was on the airplane.  Not the greatest amount of needed items, but some.  There was in the cargo hold in addition to their luggage. Two cases of bottled water, a half liter each totaling 24 bottles.  Not much, however some of the passengers had empty canteens in their backpacks and about five gallons more was gleaned from the toilet flush tank.  That’s the pure water, not the used water.

A few candy bars and granola bars were counted.  A few blankets were also found.  Good to have as the nights were as cold as the days were hot.  As low as the supply inventory was, it was more than they could simply carry.  The twins from Australia were on top of the situation again.  They said lets take and inflate the life raft.  Before they could say why, there was some laughter and it was pointed out they weren’t in the water.

The laughter turned to sighs of awe when it was explained the ground was relatively smooth, and the life raft could be filled with the supplies and then pulled like a sled.  Two at a time would pull and the chore would be rotated.

Making a general directional guess shored up by prayer and hope, they set out to try and get to civilization alive.  They had trekked for two days and came to some moderately high sand dunes.  It was hard work and took four of them at a time to get the life raft/sled pulled up those dunes.

As the reached the top someone said I bet we could ride it down the sand.  That caused some laughter because to fit them all in they would have to abandon the supplies.  But it was a fun idea and kind of relieved the mental stress of their ordeal.  As they looked ahead they spied a pipeline for oil.

That was like finding a mountain stream to follow to civilization.  A lot of rejoicing was done.  Then it got even better, as their eyes followed the pipeline they saw a pumping station.  Those weren’t usually manned, but probably had a working communication device of some sort in them.

That would allow them to call for help.  They headed that way in great haste.  They had gotten about halfway there when their weight caused the ground to give way and down they went about twenty five feet.  Landing was rough and knocked the wind out of them, but no bones were broken because of the sand that went down ahead of them provided a bit of a cushion.  They were happy to be in one piece and they looked up at the daylight showing through the hole that was created when the ground gave way.

The three Eastern History students eyes focused sooner as they were younger and the exclaimed almost in unison that they had all fallen through the collapsed roof of some sort of ancient temple.  About that time Professor Perkins had his flashlight going ever which way and with an astonished exclamation of it must be the ancient Zoroasterian Temple, originally thought to be somewhere within the red mountain, Eynali.  But obviously it was a few miles to the south of there at a lower level.  Sandstorms had covered it over hundreds of years ago.

How to get out was the next order of business.  Twenty five feet was going to be hard to negotiate.  Once again the twin Australian brother came to the front with an idea.  Got to love those guys don’t you?  Anyway they said that from their college days, sneaking out of the second floor of the dorm when the doors were locked for the night was accomplished by tearing up some sheets and fabricating a rope.

We had eight blankets and about twelve feet of regular rope that had been used to pull the life raft/sled.  The idea was to tear up the blankets into strips, then braid them together to get something strong enough to hold their weight. Then piece the blanket rope to the regular rope, find something that might work like a grappling hook, and toss it up and out of the hole.  Once the homemade grappling hook caught on something, the lightest person would scale the rope, get out and secure it solid.

A sizable piece of bone, probably animal was the only thing they could find to make a thing that might catch on something outside the hole.  With great exuberance they sat down and put the material together.  Whether or not that bone would catch and hold would never be known, because try as hard as they could no one could get enough swing to it to get out of the hole.

Discouragement set in and the group spirit went to very glum.  The pilot said lets look, maybe there’s a way out somewhere.  Well of course they couldn’t find one. It was all under the ground.  Professor Perkins being a nosy type kept his flashlight working, looking all around.  Then with a great aha! He spied going up to a second floor like ledge, two old wooden ladders.  They were about fifteen feet each.  Thousands of years old, but still usable because they had been preserved in a cave like atmosphere and did not rot.

However, fifteen feet still fell ten feet short, and obviously you couldn’t stack them together.  Then Susie, one of the students said her father was a house painter and she knew one didn’t stack ladders, but extension ladders worked because two sections were over lapped.  Okay, now they had a plan. Fifteen and Fifteen equaled thirty, leaving five feet to spare.  That meant the two ladders could be overlapped by two and a half feet or thirty inches.

That was barely adequate for safe stability, but doable. So now using the original rope and the pieces made from the blankets they lashed tightly the two ladder sections together.  The two sections were very heavy and it to three of the men to get it lifted and leaned against a solid part of the holes edge.  Having got that job done, one by one they scrambled back to the surface and away from the hole.

They headed again for the pipeline pumping station hoping for no more surprises.  They got there and went right in.  No locks on the door probably because way out there why bother.  Sure enough there was a working shortwave radio in there.  The next question was how to call for help and say where they were and be understood.  Again Susie came to the front.  It seems as part of her Eastern History studies she had learned to speak Farsi, the Iranian language.

The pilot gave her information as to the airplane and it identity.  The call was made and they were told to stay in there out of the sun and help would arrive in about two hours, three at the most.  That was good news, but the Americans still worried about how well they would be received.  Fearing they might be accused of being spies which was a fairly common thing for the Iranians to do.

Help arrived.  The plane had been reported missing and internationally it became a known fact.  So no one was terribly suspicious of the passengers.  When the Iranian rescue force was in formed of the ancient temple being found, they were so happy they were jumping for joy.  It was a great thing to them to have an important piece of their ancient history uncovered.

The Iranians and their government were so happy over the discovery they didn’t even ask about passports.  They gave everyone a peoples Hero medal for doing the country an enormous service with their discovery.  They wined them and dined them for a few hours and then put them on board an Iranian Airliner to take them to India which had been the next stop they wished to make.

Back in the states Professor Perkins was welcomed by his College in Oklahoma, and congratulated on his roll in the important discovery.  After finding out he had tucked an ancient piece of leather parchment with ancient writing under his shirt.  The College awarded the professor a permanent chair.

While the path to safety had been problematic, it got every one home.  Newspaper accounts in the weeks that followed indicated the Iranian government while finding no classic treasures, did find many old artifacts and documents written on leather or cut into stone.  New invaluable understanding of that time period was gained.