Daniel Jackson and Teal'c had started with the 'classic' Egyptian Pyramid. The verdant greenery had to be chopped away from the doorway on the north face of the structure, but once they had gotten through the overgrowth the young archeologist had to search for a while before they located the entrance and mastered the lock on the huge swivel door. The stones were so perfect a fit that the door could have scarcely be detected if Daniel hadn't known where to look. There was not enough crack or crevice around the edges to gain a finger hold on the joints from the exterior. Its locking mechanism was a puzzle based on the riddles of the Sphinx legend that had surrounded the monolithic statue on the Giza Plateau.

Interestingly enough, it used the same legendary riddle that the statue asked of its challengers. 'What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three legs in the evening?' Daniel had smiled secretly to himself and pressed the proper hieroglyphs on the huge swivel door. The door, weighing approximately 20 tons by eye measure was so well balanced that it opened by pushing with only minimal force. But the mammoth door opened to reveal 'nothing'. There were only corridors, no burial chamber, no sarcophagus, no mummy's curses and no Goa'uld. It was almost as if the pyramid had been left there to confuse or misdirect the searcher.

But the two men determined that at least the measurements could be taken and the inscriptions videotaped for later study when more time could be had. It used the expected hieroglyphs, hieratic script and the not unexpected Goa'uld markings. Daniel was handling the video cam with one hand and doing a running translation as he passed over the ancient markings. Occasionally he'd call on Teal'c to assist him with a marking that he wasn't familiar with. The large alien was always amazed to watch the younger man working. The words and ideas seemed to leap fully formed from the wall's facing to Jackson's brain and proceed out his mouth as if a high speed computer was at work. After several hours hard at it in the dark abscesses of the Teal'c called a halt to his progress.

"Daniel Jackson, did not O'Neill require us to return to base camp at 1200 hours?"

"Uh, yes. But we're so close to finishing this inscriptions...I can't quite 'get' this last part. Can you make out this hieroglyph? I can't tell if it's Gould or if it's just unreadable."

The Jaffa examined the etched symbol. "I do not recognize it. Perhaps it is unfinished or damaged."

"Perhaps," Daniel stepped back a few feet and looked into his flashlights dim beam. "Or perhaps we might be able to recognize it if the damned flashlight would work properly."

Teal'c looked at him curiously. "It does appear to have diminished in its strength in a very few hours. Did you not check the batteries?"

Jackson nodded, frowning. "I put new ones in before I packed the light." He shook his head. "Oh well, maybe these were weak or even old. I didn't check the date on the box." He then looked up towards the bright outline of the door and down at his watch's illuminated dial. "It is 1147, and Jack will come looking for us if we're late. We'll go back to camp, keep him happy and get some more batteries." He grinned up at the larger man. "A happy Jack is a happy camp."

"Indeed, O'Neill is always pleased when things go as planned."

"And so am I, Teal'c." Daniel replied as they emerged from the darkness of the stone building. "I don't want to wind up in the infirmary this time." He spoke under his breath as he packed the video machine and tapes in their carrying case.

"Oh?" Teal'c eyed him appraisingly.

Daniel glanced at the Jaffa and blushed slightly. "Uh, yea... well, I've made some plans for this weekend and I don't want to be...uhm, unavailable."

Teal'c nodded. "With Majorcarter."

Jackson laughed self-consciously and shook his head. "It's that obvious?"

"You forget Danieljackson. I know you both well. I also know that there has been no contact between you and she. After our discussion of your proposed plans. I did not know of your decision or what has made it." The Jaffa looked at him curiously. "Something must have occurred to encourage you."

He nodded at the older man. "You said once, on the Salish planet that Jaffa do not believe in such things as ghosts but Teal'c..." Daniel looked over at him. "I believe I was visited by one...at Jack's house last month."

"What 'ghost' was it, Danieljackson?"

He stopped and tipped his green camo boonie hat back off his forehead. "Sha'uri came to me. She said it would be a good thing, that the child would be a ...a pure thing that we could have... with no sorrow, no grief, and no sadness." Daniel looked up at his friend. "I would like that very much, Teal'c...to create something that wonderful."

"Such it is with all children, my friend. When you look into the eyes of your child, there is none...there is only caring. Caring for it and for the woman who gave it to you." Teal'c nodded at his young friend. "But that was no ghost my friend...that was a vision...a true seeing. That...that Jaffa do believe in."

=======

The two men returned to the campsite just in time to assist with the preparation of lunch. They normally only had a simple meal at noon, comprised of MREs and fresh coffee. The four team members compared notes and determined what could be done in the remainder of the afternoon. It was decided that O'Neill would return with Daniel to the pyramid and attempt to complete the exterior measurements. Teal'c would accompany Carter and assist with the sample gathering. By this time the meal was ready and they sat down to eat together.

"So, did you find anything interesting in there this morning, Daniel?" Jack pressed his friend for any important information.

Daniel looked at him from where he was seated on the ground eating. "Interesting? Yes. Of military value, no. I'm afraid that this particular pyramid is pretty much empty...like it was built but not used."

Carter looked over at him from her place on the ground. "Really? Isn't that unusual, to put that much effort into building something like that and just going off and leaving it?

"Well," Daniel got the professorial glint in his eye. "Actually, yes. It took so many man-hours to build an edifice like this in the relatively primitive ages of their constructions; it would be very unusual. However since we really don't know what the purpose of building them here so closely together, was anyway, well I just can't say right now." He finished his cup of coffee and poured another one. "Traditionally all of theses uh, monuments served for one or more of three main purposes...as a tomb of a king, a place of worship and sacrifice or as a celestial observatory to note and chart the movement of the stars, planet, seasons et cetera. All of these cultures that are represented here practiced these traditions. We have an Egyptian Pyramid, a Mayan step-pyramid and a Sumerian Ziggurat."

"But Daniel," Carter asked. "There weren't the only societies to practice these activities were they?"

"Oh, no. By no means...it's just that these are the ones that are here. Almost all societies had places for performing similar rituals. These were the most well known due to their imposing size and advanced design." He smiled at her and pushed his glasses back up on the bridge of his nose. "But now I know that this pyramid is directly related to the ones on earth. The have so many similarities."

O'Neill had been listening intently to his friends. "Like what?"

Jackson glanced in his direction and nodded. "Well, for one thing... the 'key' to the pyramid is the Sphinx riddle. I had to properly encode the answer into a mechanism to open the door."

"Like you did on the Russian planet with the Marduk legend?" Jack prompted.

"Exactly."

"What is the Sphinx riddle?" Carter asked confused.

"It's a classic riddle that supposedly the Sphinx would ask of penitents that requested his help." He sat back and looked at O'Neill. "What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three in the evening?"

Sam watched him intently then said. "Well, so what's the answer?"

O'Neill shook his head and dumped his remaining coffee on to the fire. "Mankind."

"Mankind?"

"Sure," he grinned impishly at his second in command. "A baby crawls on all fours, an adult walks on two feet and an old person uses a cane."

She looked back and forth between O'Neill and Jackson. "Is he right?"

Daniel nodded and laughed. "Oh yea. Exactly right. So all I had to do was press the proper hieroglyphs and, voila! Open sesame." He nodded at the Colonel. "Very good, Jack. I'm proud of you."

"Thanks, and I can open a Gordian knot too."

Daniel laughed out loud at Jack's announcement. "I bet you can."

=======

After cleaning up the 'kitchen' area, the two pairs split up and went their separate ways. Carter and Teal'c went off towards the cliff face to look for minerals and Jack and Daniel headed back to the Pyramid.

"So Daniel, what are we up to this afternoon anyway?"

"Oh, I'd say about 5812.98 Pyramid Inches or 184.722 meters." Daniel replied as they reached the foot of the massive structure."

"184.722 meters?" Jack looked at Daniel blankly.

"Yea, I'd say about."

"That's high."

"Yes, it is, Jack. It's high, about 606 feet. We're going to measure the pyramid to see if it's as big as the Great pyramid on earth."

O'Neill made a face at Daniel. "I thought you were afraid of heights?"

"No, Jack, just falling off heights. It's kind of hard to fall off a pyramid."

"I guess that makes sense. They don't jump around much." O'Neill craned his neck to look at the top. "Okay, you bring the tape measure?"

=======

Several hours later found the two men still diligently measuring but with instruments, not tape measures much to O'Neill's relief. But none the less, they had been toiling up and down the sides, widths and lengths of the huge building. Finally, as the last item, Daniel climbed up to the very apex, standing literally on the capstone. He took a moment to straighten up and look across the landscape. He could see the other two 'temples' standing out proudly from the trees and undergrowth, but then something caught his eye. "Jack. Jack, come up here. There's something you should see."

O'Neill had been sitting about a third of the way down taking a drink from his canteen. "Is it a mother ship?"

"No."

"Good, then I don't need to see it."

"Ah, Jack. I think you'll want to see this." Jackson's insistent voice echoed down on his tired head.

"Is it Thor's ship?"

"Jack! No, it's not an Azgard ship."

"Then I don't want to see it." He looked up at the younger man. "Don't fall off, Daniel."

"Jack, get up here, please." Daniel's voice sounded excited. "You'll be interested...I promise."

Releasing a long deep sigh, Jack closed and secured his canteen then got to his feet and wearily started climbing the pyramid's steep side. Once he arrived he stood next to Daniel and looked in the direction his younger friend was pointing to. "Okay, what's the deal?"

"Look over there Jack, just under the setting sun."

"It's a hill Daniel. I climbed a pyramid to look at a hill. I don't get it."

The patient professor primly pronounced pedantically. "It's not a hill, Jack. It's a Tor."

"What? What's tore? The hill?" He had a small urge to push Daniel, just a tad. "The hill is tore?"

"No, Jack. The hill is a Tor; the Tor is a hill. You know, O'NEILL. A Tor!"

"Daniel, this was fun five hours ago, it's not fun anymore. What the hell are you talking about?"

"A Tor, Jack O'Neill, is a manmade structure used at either a burial place for a high king, a druid religious place for worship or sacrifice or celestial observation in ancient Celtic times in what is now Great Britain." Daniel looked down at him from his lofty perch. "Irish stuff, Jack."

Jack rolled his eyes, shook his head and dropped his chin to his chest. "And this means what, Daniel?"

"It's a fourth structure. It's man-made and it's totally unconnected to the other three in terms of history, location or civilization." Daniel looked as happy as if he'd caught Santa and all his reindeer on his roof on Christmas Eve. "We have mystery Jack. We have archeological ambiguity. We have...Can you tell if there's any structures on it? There, that glint of white through the trees."

Jack obediently pulled out his field glasses and trained them at the indicated spot. "Hum, well. Maybe. There's something there all right. I can't tell what it is though. Structure or just a rock." Jack lowered the glasses, rubbed his eyes and gazed back at Daniel. "Daniel, we have 1800 hours and twenty minutes until dark. Let's climb down Egypt and worry about the old country tomorrow."

"O'Neill, you have no...."

"Energy, strength, power, youth and enthusiasm." He reached up and grasped Daniel's hand. "Come on, Danny. Let's go back to camp. I promise I'll be enthusiastic tomorrow."

Jackson looked down at his friend and realized that Jack was tired. And truth be told, he was too. Tomorrow, the Tor would still be there and so would they.

The two friends got back down safely, just beating the coming of darkness. By the time they had made it back to base camp, the fire was burning cheerfully and dinner being prepared by Carter. Teal'c met them at the end of the fire's glow. "We were becoming worried O'Neill." He commented sounding almost disapproving of their lateness.

Daniel spoke up. "Sorry, it was my fault". He dropped his backpack and settled onto a log that faced the campfire.

"Yea, Daniel found something and had to show it to me." He looked at the other two team members. "And our radios went dead. Batteries drained."

"Are you sure, Sir?" Carter formed a concerned look on her face. "We haven't had any problems this afternoon, but Teal'cs also showed low power."

"My flashlight went dead inside the pyramid this morning." Daniel commented. "I put new batteries in at noon." He pulled it off of his utility vest and clicked it on and off a few times. "Hum, that's funny." The light still worked but it was dim. O'Neill's had been fine when they used it to come back to camp.

"The only common thing that comes to mind, Daniel is that you and your partner worked in and around the pyramid all day. I and mine worked away from it." She seemed to chew on this along with her Chili-Mac MRE. "Isn't the shape of a pyramidal construction supposed to have some magnetic powers?"

Jackson shook his head. "That's a new age idea. Supposedly small crystal ones can re-charge batteries, store meat and milk, and assist in the mummification process. It's never been scientifically proven that I'm aware of."

"Key word though Daniel is re-charge...not drain." O'Neill was still thinking about the hazards of equipment failure this far from the 'Gate." It was a problem that he couldn't ignore. "Well, tomorrow when I do sit-rep to Hammond, I'll have some more, newly checked batteries delivered. Moonlight may be romantic, but I prefer my Mag-lamp."

=======

After finishing the evening meal, while Jack and Teal'c cleaned up and set up the security perimeter, Daniel and Sam both checked all the battery operated equipment in the camp. All the pieces that were in direct use in and around the pyramid showed definite draining of their power cells. Of the pieces that Carter had used and the ones left in camp were fine. The two scientists started throwing out ideas of causes and preventions.

"What is the pyramid made of, Daniel?" Carter asked curiously.

"I'm not really sure." Her teammate replied thoughtfully. "It appears to be an almost exact replica of the Great Pyramid on the Giza Plateau. But, it's never suffered the damage that the original has." He looked at her over his glasses. "Between wars, looting and out and out vandalism, ours has not had an easy go of it. There's a lot of Egypt in France and England."

"I know, when my family was stationed in England Mom took Mark and I to every single museum within driving distance of Bentwaters-Woodbridge AFB. I think I saw Tut's tomb's stuff once or twice a year."

"I don't doubt it. It's an archeologist's nightmare. What should be there isn't and what is there is often damaged." He shook his head. "A lot of history has been lost. But to answer your original question, this one is untouched and is still covered with a sheath of a quartz mineral of some sort, grainy and reflective. It even still has its capstone in place. No one in recorded history ever saw the capstone on the one in Giza."

"Anything inside?"

"No, interestingly enough. It's empty. Curiously enough though, this one has hieroglyphs, hieratic and Gould markings."

"So there's no doubt, it is Gould in origin." She asked.

He nodded. "They were here, but why or when? I don't know. And why three, well four different cultures represented? I just don't know enough yet."

"Did you say four cultures? I thought there was only three structures?" She looked at him curiously.

"Oh, yea. That's why we were late." Daniel replied in a more animated voice. "I went to the top of 'Egypt' to check the height. When I got up to the capstone, I looked around and saw a fourth structure." He continued on excitedly. "There's a Tor, just past the Ziggurat. Appears to be intact with something on top."

"You mean like Glastonbury Tor--Chalice Hill?" She looked at him in surprise.

He returned her expression with a startled on of his own. "Yes, exactly, only well, I haven't been there so I can't say if there is a structure on the top. It's very overgrown, like everything here. I could see something, but we couldn't tell if it's a structure, a stone ring or just large rocks."

"This is amazing, Daniel. Why four temples? All different but all for the same purpose, well on Earth anyway."

"Exactly, it's unprecedented. We've never found such diversity within such close proximity...."

A large and ominous shadow cast itself across the two scholars. "It's 2130." Jack announced in a spooky, hollow sounding voice. "Do you know when your watch shift is?"

"It can't be that late..." Daniel protested as he glanced at his wristwatch. "My watch has stopped." He announced in an irritated voice.

Carter checked her's. "It is that late." She agreed with their team chief. "Well, Colonel, all the equipment is checked out for the evening. Which watch do you want?" Sam asked as she got to her feet to get ready for bed in her own tent.

"I'll take graveyard and wake you for early." He looked down at the two younger members. "Daniel, you want first shift since your still in energizer archeologist mode? Teal'cs doing kel-nor-reem now. You can wake him next."

Daniel looked up at him with a grin, his eyes dilated from the darkness, almost black. "Sure Jack. Suits me. Anything you want me to do before I get to bed?"

O'Neill looked around casually. "Sure, stoke the fire...it's gonna get cold. Set up a pot of coffee for me and warm your feet. Goodnight." He turned and walked over to their shared tent, waving as he slid inside.

=======

The next morning, O'Neill woke Carter for her early watch at sunrise. As she pulled her boots on, Teal'c came out of his tent.

"Good Morning, Teal'c."

"Good morning, Majorcarter, O'Neill."

"Teal'c". Jack nodded. "Want to take a hike with me?"

The big man nodded amicably. "To perform the Sit-Rep to the S.G.C?"

The Colonel threw out the dregs of his coffee cup. "Yea. We need to do one and get some fresh batteries since something is draining them." He glanced at Carter. "Did you get any ideas as to what's causing it?"

"No Sir. I talked to Daniel last night about any properties that the crystalline covering of the structure might have. He said he'd never seen anything like it."

"Yea, I've seen the pyramids before Carter. They don't look anything like this one does, at least not any more." O'Neill nodded in agreement. "Danny said that this one is pristine, where the Earth's version is badly damaged."

She nodded. "I've seen lots of things in England and France that came form the various tombs of Egypt. Evidently whatever conqueror was in power at the time, just took what they wanted from them."

"Yea." He chewed on his lower lip. "Conquerors have a bad habit of taking souvenirs to show the folks back home to prove what a great deal he got for them."

O'Neill stood up and stretched to his full six foot two inches and sauntered over to 'his' tent. "Daniel! Daniel! Wakey, wake." He ducked his head into the tent. "Daniel!"

"What is wrong, O'Neill?" Teal'c had followed his leader to the tent's opening as Jack pushed his way inside.

The Colonel was kneeling by Daniel as he lay in the sleeping bag. "Daniel." O'Neill grasped the younger man's shoulder and shook him. "Danny! Wake up!" Nothing happened. O'Neill, growing concerned, shook him again. "Daniel." The younger man's limp body rolled over to face the tent's ceiling, arm splayed out beside him. "I don't know...I can't wake him up!"