The Rise

In December of 1945, in the Upper Egyptian desert, an Arab farmer and his brother left their village in search of sebakh, a soft soil which was used to fertilize crops, and while digging in the foot-hills of the mountains near the village of Nag Hammadi, they found something else.

In the hole the brothers created, they stumbled upon a sealed earthenware jar which contained thirteen books, or codices, all bound in thick leather that was thousands of years old.

The Egyptian government caught wi...