Pharaoh
David Gibbins
Dell
I'm probably going to ruffle a few feathers here, but I've never been a Dan Brown fan.
Thus, I did not show much enthusiasm to read Pharaoh when it was described on the back as "The Da Vinci Code of the deep sea".
But I enjoyed David Gibbins's novel. And how.
The story begins in 1351BC with Akhenaten, the Sun-Pharaoh, disappearing beneath the sands of the Great Pyramids of Giza.
On to AD1884, when a British soldier serving in Sudan comes across the remains of a submerged temple showing signs of human sacrifice.
Present day, and Jack Howard and his archaeology team are on the trail of the mystery, diving into the Nile in a bid to discover the truth behind the Sun-Pharaoh's disappearance. The deeper the team dived, the more I became engrossed.
It was Gordon of Khartoum's period I found most fascinating. Gibbins's description of the battle scenes are horrific - "Another officer with a knuckleduster grasped a dervish in a headlock and punched his nose upwards so that it shattered into the man's brain" - it was often a relief to get back to the relative peace of modern day.
cwhebell@thenational.ae
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Temple numbers
Expected completion: 2022
Height: 24 meters
Ground floor banquet hall: 370 square metres to accommodate about 750 people
Ground floor multipurpose hall: 92 square metres for up to 200 people
First floor main Prayer Hall: 465 square metres to hold 1,500 people at a time
First floor terrace areas: 2,30 square metres
Temple will be spread over 6,900 square metres
Structure includes two basements, ground and first floor
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Squid Game season two
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun
Rating: 4.5/5
Scoreline
Arsenal 3
Aubameyang (28'), Welbeck (38', 81')
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Red cards: Stephens (90' 2)
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
The specs
Engine: Direct injection 4-cylinder 1.4-litre
Power: 150hp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: From Dh139,000
On sale: Now
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