...After we reached the site we pitched camp. The next day we started the excavations. It was hard work. The sand was treacherous and obstinate, and for every bucket we took away two more seemed to take its place. Sometimes we hit upon something valuable by pure chance, but usually it took hours to find some lucrative spot because you could never tell if a site was promising without having to perform extensive excavations first. And still the real thing eluded us. The remnants of the legendary cities of old seemed lost to the desert. But we carried on...