World first visited by Russian Stargate personnel during their short-lived Stargate program in Siberia. The mean surface temperature is over 130 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade. Commanded by Colonel Sarkalov, the Russian team entered the ziggurat near to the Stargate and investigated it in the hopes of locating the Eye of Tiamat, possessed by the Goa'uld Marduk. They located the Eye but never made it out alive. Unlike Phoenician cuneiform, the symbols on the doors of the ziggurat are pictographic. The combination to open the door is of a standard retelling of the ancient Babylonian Creation myth. According to legend, Marduk slayed a winged serpent Tiamat, using half of her to create the sky and the other half, the earth (also, presumably, constructing the Eye in the process). By pressing down on the parts of the text that have deliberately been placed out of sequence, one can open the door. Inside the ziggurat, stepping near Marduk's sarcophagus immediately reseals the door to the structure, making it impossible for anyone to escape unless they know where the secret opening is to access the Goa'uld transport rings. Marduk survived for countless years within the sarcophagus where his host's corpse and an alien creature resided, leaving the body of the host and blending with the creature. HOME TO - Uninhabited FIRST APPEARED - The Tomb KEY EPISODE(S) - The Tomb - SG-1 follows in the original Russian team's footsteps with Colonel Zukhov and his own Russian team to P2X-338 in the hopes of rescuing or discovering the fate of the first team, ultimately burying the Eye of Tiamat and encasing the Goa'uld Marduk under hundreds of tons of destroyed ziggurat.  |
