To Mandine,
"The earth has always been a mystery to us. We know it like the palm of our hand; in this age, we know every inch of it. Yet, at the same time, we remain ignorant of much of its history, of the peoples who once walked upon it, just as we do today. How they lived, how each of them built civilizations that we now believe to be unparalleled. But if we pause for a moment and consider those civilizations whose remnants have managed to survive, we see a striking similarity between them. Let us first look at the civilization that continues to impress us—the Pharaonic civilization—and at the opposite end, the Mayan civilization. These civilizations were as far apart as the Atlantic Ocean that separated them, and they built their monumental structures at a time when crossing that ocean was unthinkable. Yet, both the Egyptians and the Mayans built pyramids that are remarkably similar in shape.
You may ask, 'How can this be? Is it merely a coincidence?' And I tell you that coincidences do not happen so easily. What if, instead, these civilizations—and others—are simply the result of a singular civilization, one that left no clear trace for us to find, or one whose traces were swallowed by the sands of time? You may wonder now, 'What am I rambling on about?' After all, the book in your hands, dear, contains more than what you might have expected. The story of King Abu Bakr, set in the fourteenth century AD—over three thousand years after the rise of these great civilizations—will lead you to a time when these civilizations first began, back to their very origins. It will answer, if you wish to know, an important question: How was it possible for these civilizations to be so similar, when there was no means of communication between them?"
"I want to go to Egypt," was the first thought that crossed Mandine's mind after finishing the letter. She remembered saying those very words to her mother as a child, after reading about the Egyptian civilization. That question—the one that had haunted her for so long—was what had brought her to this point, and now it felt as if she were closer than ever to the answer. Her head spun with the weight of it all, yet at the same time, she felt an overwhelming urge to read more, to uncover what lay hidden in the pages of the book.