RLH Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hello MJ
>
> I think when Al Mamun got close to reaching the
> plugstones as he was tunneling in to find the yet
> undiscovered passages and the original entrance
> the banging caused the stone cover to fall and
> that is where the story came from.
>

Highly unlikely.

The story goes that his tunnel was going in the entirely wrong direction (which is supported by fact... the tunnel DOES go straight in and not at an angle), and it was the sound that caused them to change direction.

They were never close enough to cause the coverstone to shift, and so they would never have heard the sound. This means they had dug in and were turning toward the plug stones on purpose.




> Or it could be that after finding the yet unknown
> plugstones he tunneled under them and then the
> cover stone fell.
>


Again, why would they have turned the tunnel to the left unless they had a target in mind?

Blind luck? The odds are infinitesimally small that the popular account, not written by Al-Mamun, by the way, is actually what happened. Remember... the Descending Passage was well known just a few centuries earlier. Why wouldn't Al-Mamun have known about it?



Anthony

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him think.