The Final Bend

Polly woke up early, and her heart was already beating fast. The canyon grew darker and narrower around her, until the walls almost closed together above her head.

Then she saw it. At the final bend, a thin line of light stood waiting between the dark walls, like a door that someone had left open.

Polly hopped around the bend, and the wall simply opened. In front of her rose a great temple, carved straight into the cliff, rose-red and glowing in the morning light, with tall columns climbing up the rock. People call it Al-Khazneh, the Treasury.

Nobody built this temple with bricks. Workers carved the whole building out of the living cliff, starting at the top and working down to the floor. And the little water channel ended here too. It had led her the entire way. Polly sat down in the sand and looked up for a long, long time.