Book 1 · Fire - Sun Land
The Secret of the Sun Pyramid
Hot dunes, dried-up riverbeds and pyramids nobody understands any more. Only one old man insists that water once flowed here.
The Land
Desert and dunes, ancient pyramids and temples, dry riverbeds, the remains of oases, abandoned fields and empty canals.
The Society
Water is collected and rationed. Architecture is built for shade and cooling, catchment systems stand everywhere. People live at the few remaining water sources; most of the old fields have been given up.
The Guardian
An elderly, eccentric man who lives among the pyramids and maintains the old structures like a lighthouse keeper. Everyone thinks he is mad. He says: "I do not believe it. I know it."
The Trial
Find out what the Sun Pyramid was built for. The children discover shafts, canals, basins, mirrors and mechanisms - and by the end grasp only one thing: a great deal of water once ran through here.
In focus
Leon feels superior in the heat, runs ahead and triggers a trap. The chamber heats up, everyone argues. Only when they fall silent does Sina hear a faint dripping - and that leads to the solution.