The beginning of the excavations at Irem were smooth, though workers had to be imported from another
country, and kept separate from the local population.
The two Arabs who consented to guide the expedition to the site. The one on foot is Hassan ibn Da'oud, who was mysteriously murdered the third night on site, and the horseback rider is Hajii Yusuf ibn Yakub, who three months later rode off into the desert, shrieking "Ia! Ia!."
He was never seen again.
An idea of the scale of this building can be gathered from the fact that the shadowy form to the right of the right-hand gate (or door) is the leader of the expedition. He stood six feet four inches tall, and is dwarfed by the architecture.
This is all that remains, and the photo was taken from the interior.
The complete skull that was retrieved from the dig proves to be something
of a mystery. The overdeveloped canines and the lack of a bridge of the nose, plus the fact that carbon-dating
proved unable to give an age as the skull was not old enough, have concerned many scientists around the world.
This photograph shows the physical differences in the bone structure of the legs of many (but not all) of the remains found at Irem.
The skeleton on the right was wearing jewelry of curious manufacture, which was engraved in an unknown
alphabet.
The mummy that was found beneath the Great Altar Stone has puzzled scientists for many years. The evident skeletal differences, and some obvious soft tissue changes, have convinced many that this mummy in life was not quite human.
It was discovered that the wearing of rubber gloves while handling the remains was a required prophylactic measure, as those who neglected this precaution tended to develop fish-like scales on their hands, and the bones fused into flippers.
The body was stolen in the winter of 1949, and has never been located. A substantial reward is offered
by the University for its return.
The bones found just outside the City disturbed the native workers greatly. When reconstructed, the bones indicated their owner stood ten feet two inches tall. They were NOT fossilized, and apparently their owner had died only two years previously.
