CHAPTER ONE

Pages 1-5 are a modified and expanded version of the epilogue of The Pyramid of the Sorcerer.

The book opens with Indy and Bert exiting the Hall of Records. In The Pyramid of the Sorcerer, the Hall of Records was shown to be the Akashic records of the religion of theosophy, being a compendium of everything that has ever happened, is happening, or will happen, to everything in the universe, living or dead. In the preceding novel, the Hall of Records was shown to be temporarily located in the Pyramid of the Sorcerer (the real world Pyramid of the Magician in Yucatán).

As Indy muses on the fading of the Hall of Records into another dimension, he feels that was something new that even Albert Einstein would appreciate. Dr. Albert Einstein is the renowned German theoretical physicist who refused, during a visit to America, to return to Germany after Hitler came into power, and became an American citizen.

The deceased Professor Brooksbank and Major Nichols inside the vanished Hall of Records are characters whose fate was seen in The Pyramid of the Sorcerer.

On page 2, Indy meets with Colonel Musgrove in a temporary office in Mérida, Yucatan, not far from the pyramid's location in Uxmal, one day after the events at the pyramid. Uxmal is an ancient Mayan city considered one of the most important archeological sites of that culture and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, lying about 45 miles south of Mérida. In The Pyramid of the Sorcerer, a meeting very much like this one between the archeologist and the army intelligence officer takes place two days later, in a hotel bar in the city.

Musgrove mentions Hitler's previous obsession with finding the Ark of the Covenant for its lethal power. This is a reference to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Adolf Hitler, of course, was the evil Chancellor of Germany from 1933-1945. The Ark of the Covenant is a wooden, gold-covered chest that carries the Ten Commandants, as stated in the Bible.

Page 3 has Indy thinking of the first time he met Musgrove, at Marshall College five years before. This is another reference to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indy was teaching at the fictitious Marshall College at the time (he is at Barnett College at the current point of his career).

On page 3, Musgrove refers to Indy's history of "grave robbing", but Indy corrects him with "artifact preservation".

On page 5, Indy walks along the streets of Mérida near the Plaza Mayor. More commonly called the Plaza Grande, it is the historic and cultural heart of the city.

As he walks, Indy thinks of Lawrence of Arabia with whom he had some childhood adventures in Egypt. We saw these adventures in "My First Adventure" and "Daredevils of the Desert". Lawrence of Arabia (T.E. Lawrence) was a British army officer, diplomat, and writer known for split loyalty to the British empire and the Middle Eastern Islamic world. He died in 1935 as stated here.

On page 6, gringo is a term referring to any English-speaking foreigner in a Spanish language country and calle is the Spanish word for "street".

Feeling like he's being followed, Indy notices a man with two parallel scars on his neck casually reading a newspaper. Indy muses whether the man is a Mexican vampire. Indy had a run-in with a supposed vampire, General Mattias Targo, who believed he was reincarnation of Vlad the Impaler in "Mask of Evil".

Near the end of the chapter, a Mayan street merchant offers to sell Indy a Panama hat, but Indy says, "No, gracias. Prefiero quedarme con mi propio..." This is Spanish for "No, thank you. I prefer to keep my own..."

At the end of the chapter, Indy recalls a name he'd not thought of for a while, Oxley. This turns out to be a reference to Dr. Harold Oxley, a cohort of Indy's with whom he's currently on the outs. Oxley does not appear in this novel, but will be seen in 1957 in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

CHAPTER TWO

As the chapter opens, Indy is in a hotel suite he has rented along with Bert. He pays her what he owes for airplane rides of the last few days. It's not clear here whether they slept together the night before.

The hotel room overlooks the Parque Hidalgo. This is an actual park in Mérida.

On page 8, Bert tells Indy, "I'm a mercenary. Just like you," to which Indy responds, "I'm not a mercenary. I just act like one."

Indy and Bert head out on horseback for Itzamal.

Indy tells Bert that he and Oxley went to the same college together. He is referring to the University of Chicago, where they both studied archeology under Dr. Abner Ravenwood.

On page 11, Indy tells Bert the road they're travelling on is a sacbe, a Mayan road at least a thousand years old. Indy asks her if she thinks the Pennsylvania Turnpike will still be around that long. A sacbe is a network of paved roadways constructed by the Maya that spread across the Mayan civilization, joining all the major ceremonial centers of the Mayan empire.

On Agent Z-733's dead body, Indy finds a note from his superior, Obergruppenführer Helmut von Mephisto. Obergruppenführer means "Senior Group Leader", similar to lieutenant general in the regular army. "Mephisto" (or "Mephistopheles") is a chief demon in German literary tradition.

At the end of the chapter, Indy mentions Uncle Sam and Ahnenerbe. "Uncle Sam" is a common personification of the United States government often depicted on propaganda and pop culture materials as a man in a star-spangled suit and top hat with white hair and goatee. The Ahnenerbe  was a branch of the Nazi SS dealing with research on the history of the Aryan race (Forschungs- und Lehrgemeinschaft Das Ahnenerbe, which translates to Research and Teaching Community of German Ancestral Heritage).

CHAPTER THREE

Indy finds his old friend Peku, driver of a horse carriage taxi, in front of the Convent of Saint Anthony de Padua. This is an actual convent in Itzamal. St. Anthony is one of the most beloved of saints in Christianity as the patron saint of lost things, known for helping the poor and protecting the downtrodden and interceding on behalf of others.

On page 17, Indy scrutinizes the small yellow buildings that make up the small town. Itzamal is now known as the Yellow City for its yellow structures...but this was not until 1959, when the mayor ordered the commercial signs that overwhelmed the walls and roofs of the buildings to be removed and the buildings painted yellow and white.

On page 18, Indy and Peku exchange a few lines of Mayan language:

"Ba'ax ka wa'alik." "What do you say?"

"Yohel maya le ts'ulo." "The foreigner knows Maya."
"Dyos bo'otik!" "Thank you!"

Reflecting on some incident from their past, Peku says to Indy, "When the Contessa found out you were broke, I thought she would kill you," to which Indy responds, "She would have. But Backlum Chaam protected me." Backlum Chaam is the Maya god of male sexuality and fertility.

Peku tells Indy and Bert that "Itzamal" as the name of the city means "Place of the Hills" (the "hills" are the remains of ancient pyramids). While that is one of the nicknames of the city, from what I've found Itzamal actually translates as "dew that falls from the sky".

Peku shows Indy and Bert some of the pyramids in the city and Indy comments they are as big as the ones in Giza. He is referring to the Great Pyramids on the Giza Plateau at Cairo, Egypt.

When Peku offers to climb up one of the pyramids, Indy says he'd rather go underneath and Bert is incredulous. Peku remarks, "You forget, Señorita Bert. Most pyramids have big underground structures." While many ancient pyramids do have underground chambers associated with them, it's an exaggeration to say that most do. In fact, since Mesoamerican pyramids were usually temple platforms, they tend to be less likely to have underground portions than their Egyptian and Nubian counterparts.

CHAPTER FOUR

Underneath the pyramid, Indy and Peku walk along a tunnel that Peku tells him goes all the way to Chichén Itza, which Indy remarks is more than two hundred kilometers away. Chichén Itza was a pre-Columbian city of the Maya. As far as I can tell, there is no such lengthy tunnel leading to and from the city. Also, the ancient city site is only about 75 kilometers away from Itzamal.

On page 23, a startled Peku hits his head on the ceiling of the tunnel, saying "In pol!" This is Mayan for "My head!"

On page 27, Peku says, "De nada," when Indy thanks him for saving his life. This is Spanish for, "It was nothing."

Also on page 27, a cenote is a sinkhole that has exposed groundwater within after the collapse of limestone bedrock under the ground.

On the island stela found in the cenote, Indy sees the figure of a bearded man holding a key which he thinks is of the kind held by kings in Mesopotamian sculpture. Mesopotamia is an historical region located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely encompassed by modern Iraq. It began with the proto-civilizations of around 10,000 BC to mid-7th Century AD.

On page 28 Indy finds a cigarette lighter on the ground of the island with the German inscription "Zu meinen fuzzy bär". His translation of the German as "To my fuzzy bear" is accurate.

On page 30, Peku says, "Sí, señor." This is Spanish for "Yes, sir."

Page 31 mentions that Indy had tangled with the Ahnenerbe before. This occurred in "The Tomb of the Gods" storyline. 

CHAPTER FIVE

Bert tags along with Indy back to the U.S. on a Mexicana Airlines Douglas DC-2. On page 32 she says, "Thanks to the Benjamins you gave me [...] I can go home in style and lord it over my folks." "Benjamins" refers to $100-dollar bills, so-called because they have a portrait of Benjamin Franklin (1705-1790), one of the founding fathers of the United States and a polymath. The DC-2 was a twin-engined propeller-driven aircraft produced by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1934-1939.

On page 32, adios is Spanish for "goodbye".

Also on page 32, Bert pops some Beemans chewing gum into her mouth. This gum has been popular with aviators, supposedly bringing good luck, since the 1910s.

Page 32 reveals that Indy had written a paper on Egyptian hieroglyphics when he was a student.

On page 33, Indy shows Bert his paper copy of the Mayan inscriptions he found on the cenote stela, telling her that no one has ever decoded Mayan glyphs. This was mostly true at the time, but in the 1950s a breakthrough was made when Russian linguist Yuri Knorozov demonstrated that the script largely represented sounds or syllables, not just ideas, and decipherment grew from that point on.

Also on page 33, a stewardess offers Indy and Bert Coca-Cola.

    Indy consults with his father in Ferndale on the Mayan glyphs. Ferndale is a small town in Sullivan County, New York. It was established that Henry, Sr. lived there in The Last Crusade.

    The novel reveals that while father and son had repaired their estrangement and grown closer after their adventures involving the search for the Holy Grail (in The Last Crusade), they still had disagreements about politics and family life, and Senior wanted Indy to settle down and give him some grandchildren. Indy, on the other hand, is described as not ready to give up his gun belt.

Bert claims that her parents live in Ferndale as well, but are out of town until the next day, so she accompanies Indy to his father's house.

On page 34, Newark Airport is an actual airport in Newark, New Jersey.

Henry, Sr. is said to have a housemaid named Hilda.

The doorway to Henry's kitchen is said to be framed by medieval paintings of dragons and Grail knights. The Grail knights were the knights in medieval Arthurian legend who sought the Holy Grail, the mysterious sacred vessel most often identified with the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper.

Page 35 reveals that Indy had canceled his plans to teach summer school and lecture on The Importance of Egyptian Mystery Schools in Hellenistic Culture when he took on his current work for the government. Mystery schools (or mystery religions) are ancient or esoteric traditions of hidden spiritual teachings, usually kept secret from the general public, with structured systems of initiation often involving rituals, symbolic teachings, and personal transformation.

Henry is rather disgusted that his son is working for the government, calling it "that gang of New Deal has-beens, those illiterate boobs..." "New Deal" refers to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1933-1938 New Deal program of financial reforms, regulations, and public works projects to rescue the U.S. from the Great Depression.

Henry points out that one of the Egyptian hieroglyphs in Indy's notes is that of the phoenix. In most mythological accounts of the phoenix it as a type of bird, who could arise anew from it's own ashes (or that it gave rise to its offspring in this manner), originating in Greek mythology, but with analogs in Egyptian and Persian myth.

On page 37, Henry mentions Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival. Wolfram von Eschenbach (c. 1160 - c. 1220) was a German knight, composer, and poet. Parzival is his epic chivalric romance about the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail. 

Indy and his father have a discussion about the Grail on page 37 which builds upon the Grail legend as seen in The Last Crusade and expands on it to include other versions of the Grail mythology.

As far as I can tell, Karl Richard Katz, an author mentioned on page 38 is fictitious. Jean-François Champollion, also mentioned on this page, was a real world French philologist and orientalist who deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphics through his study of the Rosetta Stone, an Ancient Egyptian stele transcribed in 196 BC, featuring a text in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic script, and ancient Greek.

The Sumerians and Babylonians mentioned on page 38 were ancient civilizations of 3000 and 1894-539 BC, respectively.

On page 39, the Kabbalists are an ancient esoteric school of mysticism in Judaism.

CHAPTER SIX

On page 41, Henry asks his son whatever happened to Marion. Indy only says he doesn't know where she is. Marion Ravenwood, of course, is the woman with whom Indy has had a tumultuous on-again, off-again relationship for most of his adult life, up to and including age 70 in the The Dial of Destiny, since she was a teenager.

Henry tells Indy that, based on Plato's writings, he'll have to try to find whether any of Solon's lost writings actually did survive in the secret library of the Vatican. Solon (c. 630-560 BC) was an ancestor of Plato and one of the Seven Sages of Greece. The Vatican does not have a "secret" library (as far as is known publicly), but Henry may be referring to the Vatican Secret Archive, now known as the Vatican Apostolic Archive; the word "secret" in this sense is not like the modern meaning of "covert", but rather simply "private".

On page 44, Benito Mussolini was the fascist dictator of Italy from 1925-1945.

CHAPTER SEVEN

As the chapter opens, Indy and Bert are walking in Rome along the Tiber River on the way to Vatican City. The Tiber is the longest river in Central Italy, flowing from the Apennine Mountains to Ostia and into the Tyrrhenian Sea.

On page 46, Indy and Bert pass through the Via del Corso and Indy spots the famous Roman Pantheon between two Renaissance palaces. The Via del Corso is a main street in Rome's historical center. The Pantheon in Rome is a 2nd Century Roman temple that was converted into a Catholic church (Basilica of St. Mary and the Martyrs) in 609 AD. The two Renaissance palaces Indy sees are probably the Palazzo Madama and Palazzo Montecitorio, though they are not right next to the Pantheon.

The Italian spoken on page 46, "Buongiorno, signore!", "Ciao!", and "Mi scusi, devo andare," mean "Good morning, sir!", "Hello!", and "Excuse me, I have to go."

On pages 47-48, "Dove hai trovato questo?", "La Polizia," "Sei affamato?", "Si, bella donna!", "Si, signorina," "Andiamo, Isabella e Giovanni," and "Fantastico" are Italian for "Where did you find this?", "The Police," "Are you hungry?", "Yes, beautiful woman!", "Yes, young lady," "Come on, Isabella and Giovanni," and "Fantastic."

On page 47, "Il Duce" is essentially Italian for "the Duke" and was a nickname used by Mussolini.

As Bert decides to buy a meal for a pair of siblings whose parents have been abducted by the Fascist police, Indy continues on the way to the Vatican, crossing the Ponte Cavour bridge over the Tiber, and spotting the Castel Sant'Angelo and St. Peter's Basilica. The Ponte Cavour is an actual bridge in Rome.

On page 48, Indy wonders how he's going to get into the secret library, let alone how to find the writings of Solon he's looking for, with scrolls and books back to the time of Noah's flood and maybe even before, lining the library's miles of shelves. Noah's flood, of course, to the Biblical account of the flood and Noah's Ark. Indy found what was believed to be Noah's Ark on two different occasions, in 1927 in The Genesis Deluge and in 1937 in The Great Circle.

Indy also muses on Solon's notes on Atlantis. He had previously recollected Solon's notes on the subject in his own Atlantis adventure in "The Fate of Atlantis" (Part 2).

On page 49, OVRA (Opera Vigilanza Repressione Antifascismo, or Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism) was the secret police of Mussolini from 1927-1945.

On the politicos' Vatican tour, Indy meets the Baroness de Schlembraign. This appears to be a fictitious noblewoman. In fact, "Schlembraign" does not appear to be an actual name of any person or place in the world. It's possible it's a joke by the author; "schlem", in Luxembourgish, means "poor" and "braign" could simply be an alternative spelling of "brain".

On page 50, a gentleman in the tourist group tells Indy, "Siamo in attesa di" Il Duce. This is Italian for "We are waiting for" Il Duce (Mussolini).

    When Mussolini enters the room, Indy notes that one of the two officers accompanying him is wearing the red enameled scudetto identifying him as a captain in the well-known Sirte Division of North Africa. A scudetto is a small shield pin in the tri-colors of the Italian flag, known today for being worn by the annual champion teams of Italian sports; there does not seem to be any particular exceptional use of the scudetto for captains of the Sirte military division. Sirte was a settlement established by the Italians on the coast of Libya during WWII which has since grown into a city. I'm also not certain that Italy's Sirte division of its military forces was all that "well-known" other than that the forces there were led by German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (the Desert Fox) for a time.

    Indy also had a close brush with Mussolini in The Great Circle.

On page 51, Indy notes that the Lateran treaties in which the Italian state had formally recognized Vatican City as fully sovereign and independent had improved relations between the two. This is more formally referred to as the Lateran Pacts, consisting of three treaties signed in 1929.

Also mentioned on page 51, Pius XII was the pope of the Catholic Church from 1939-1958.

Indy recognizes one of Mussolini's officers as Rudolfo "The Butcher" Grazieni. Grazieni (1882-1955) was an Italian military officer and prominent member of the National Fascist Party. He was known for his brutal and repressive measures against the countries and regions his forces invaded on behalf of the Kingdom of Italy from 1936-1941.

The Vatican tour commences, accompanied by two members of the Pontifical Commission. A pontifical commission is a committee of Catholic experts gathered by the Pope for various specific purposes. Probably the commission represented on this tour would be the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State.

    The tour includes a visit to the Pauline Chapel with viewings of the last two frescoes of Michelangelo, the Crucifixion of St. Peter and the Conversion of St. Paul. Michelangelo (1475-1564) was an Italian artist and engineer. These two frescoes are actual frescoes in the Pauline Chapel, a chapel inside the Apostolic Palace. The chapel is not included on any normal public tours. As the tour guide informs the group, the chapel was commissioned by Pope Paul III in 1538.

    On page 52, Indy wonders if his two childhood friends, Pablo Picasso and Norman Rockwell, whom he met in Paris, had ever made it to this room to study the two masterpieces. He met the two painters when he was 9 years old in "Passion for Life". Picasso (1881-1973) was a Spanish painter and sculptor who lived most of his life in France. Rockwell (1894-1978) was an American painter and illustrator.

   On pages 52-54, "Scusatemi. Devo respondere al telefono dal Führer," "Cosa?", "gli inglesi", and "Aspettare..." are Italian for "Excuse me. I have to answer the phone from the Führer," "What?", "the English", and "Wait..." And "Guten morgen mein freund! Kein grund zur aufregung," "Ja! Ja! Ja! Ja! Ich weiB es--die Englander...", "Dummkopf...sie haben den Code gebrochen!" and "Nein!" are German for "Good morning, my friend! No need to get worked up," "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! I know—the English...", "Idiot...they've broken the code!" and "No!"

    The title Führer is German for "Leader".

On page 53, a woman on the tour examines a small Byzantine icon in the chapel. The Byzantine Empire was another name for the Eastern Roman Empire, which existed from the 6th-15th centuries AD.

Over the phone, Mussolini tells Hitler he knows the English are reinforcing Malta. Malta is an island nation in the Mediterranean Sea.

CHAPTER EIGHT

As the chapter opens, Indy slips into the Vatican Secret Library and finds the librarian, a giant man in a black beret with a heavy Swiss-German accent. Indy pegs him as a member of the Vatican's Swiss Guards and thinks this librarian is a far cry from Mrs. Blumenthal at Marshall College. The Pontifical Swiss Guards are honor guards for the pope and his palace within Vatican City. This is the first and only mention of Mrs. Blumenthal. It seems a bit odd that Indy would be thinking of a Marshall College librarian considering he teaches at Barnett College at this point in his career. Perhaps he was just particularly fond of Mrs. B.

On page 56, Indy says, "Hold on, bitte," to the Swiss Guard. Bitte is German for "please".

On page 57, Indy, in the secret library, spies a couple of volumes on a bookshelf with the names Francis Bacon and Bernard de Clairvaux. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was a renowned philosopher and author. Bernard de Clairvaux (Saint Bernard), was an abbot, mystic, and a co-founder of the Knights Templar.

On page 58, Indy sees the name of Aristotle's Protrepticus on an aged parchment. Aristotle was a brilliant student and then teacher of science, philosophy, and the arts in ancient Greece. Protrepticus is a lost work by Aristotle on encouraging his followers to study philosophy.

Indy meets the Archivist of the Vatican libraries, Rafaelo Mercati, whom he refers to as monsignor. This is a senior title of a Roman Catholic position.

On page 60, Mercati opens a drawer labeled 0010A1308 to show Indy some ancient documents. Notice that if you omit the 0s and the letters from the drawer label, you get 1138, an in-joke to George Lucas' first film, 1971's THX 1138.

On page 61, "Benben", in the ancient Egyptian religion of the city of Heliopolis, is the mound of earth which rose from the primordial waters and on which the creator god Atum landed. So, the "land of the Benben" mentioned by Mercati is the holy land...the land of Mount Sinai, where the Abrahamic religions say that God gave Moses the Ten Commandments.

On page 61, shem-an-na is a term from ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian mythology associated with a legendary, cone-shaped bread or powder. In esoteric traditions and alternative history, it is equated with the biblical "manna" and described as an alchemical "white gold" powder used by gods and kings.

CHAPTER NINE

On page 63, "Fermare!" and "Questo uomo e una spia!" are Italian for "Stop!" and "This man is a spy!"

Grazieni approaches Indy with a Beretta pistol in hand on page 63.

On page 65, aprirlo is Italian for "open it".

On page 66, Mussolini argues with Hitler over the phone, saying that the Germans did not conquer Greece, it was his Italian troops that did it, with only a tiny bit of help from Hitler's forces. In truth, both armies fought in unison against the Greeks, but Germany started the invasion (on April 6 of 1941) and it was to Germany that Greece first surrendered later that month. The formal surrender agreement was signed on April 23, including both Germany and Italy. Mussolini was said to have been touchy about it.

On pages 66-67, the following German and Italian words and sentences are spoken in broken dialog:

"Nein, I conquered Greece with just a tiny--ein ganz klienes bisschen--of your help." ("No, I conquered Greece with just a tiny bit of your help.")

"Nein, The Germans did not conquer Greece--nein...NO!" ("No, The Germans did not conquer Greece--no...NO!")

"Mi perdono, pardon me." ("Forgive me, forgive me.")

"Nein--I do not need reinforcements, no U-boats--wir sind gut!" ("No--I do not need reinforcements, no U-boats--we are good!")

"Spia!" ("Spy!")

"Questo e un dead-end, stupido!" ("This is dead-end, stupid!")

On page 66, Indy finds his way blocked by Blackshirts. "Blackshirts" in Italy at the time were the MVSN (Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale; Voluntary Militia for National Security), the paramilitary wing of Mussolini's National Fascist Party, distinguished by their black uniforms.

On page 67, Indy ascends the Tower of Winds. This is a square tower (also known as the Gregoria Tower) and early observatory on the Apostolic Palace, connecting to the Villa Belvedere.

Sliding down from the top of the tower on some telephone cables to a pole, Indy collides with a telephone repairman working on the pole and the pair of them plummet onto a fruit stand on the street below. The repairman moans, "Diavolo! My ribs." Diavolo is Italian for "devil".

On page 70, "Et tu, Brute?" is Latin for "And you, Brutus?" This is a famous line from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. 

Indy is faced with an AB40 armored vehicle as he tries to leave the street market. The AB40 (Autoblindo 40) is an Italian armoured car manufactured by Fiat-Ansaldo during WWII. (Photo from Tanks Encyclopedia).

On page 70, Schutzstaffel is German for "Protection Squadron" and was the secret police of Nazi Germany from 1925-1945.

Von Mephisto tells Indy he is a "knight of the Black Order, representative of his eminence Heinrich Himmler." "Black Order" is another term of the Schutzstaffel, though it was not used in its time, but applied by some later writers of the history of the organization. Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) was leader of the Nazi secret police.

On page 71, "Third Reich" refers to the German state under the Nazi Party of dictator Adolf Hitler.

On page 71, Mephisto says, "Danke!" when Indy returns the lighter that had been a gift from his dear mother. He then says, "Ich bin ein bad boy!" These are German for "Thank you!" and "I am a bad boy!"

CHAPTER TEN

On page 72, "Jawohl!" is German for "Yes."

On pages 73-74, the following German and Italian words and sentences are spoken in broken dialog:

"Bravo! Bravo! L'americano e molto intelligente! Molto coraggioso!" ("Bravo! Bravo! The American is very intelligent! Very brave!")

"Mach schnell! Machen sie einen U-turn!" ("Hurry up! Make a U-turn!")

"Come on--fai presto!" ("Come on—hurry up!")

"Buongiorno, fratello!" ("Good morning, brother!")

On page 77, the Ponte St. Angelo is an actual bridge over the Tiber River in Rome, originally built in 134 AD by the Roman Emperor Hadrian. 

Von Mephisto says he was at Wewelsburg Castle and knows the secrets of the Schwarze Sonne. Wewelsburg Castle is a Renaissance era castle in the village of Wewelsburg, Germany. During the war it was the central SS training site. The Schwarze Sonne (Black Sun) is a symbol that was built into the marble floor of Wewelsburg Castle's north tower and the symbol (original meaning unknown) was adopted by Himmler as one of the symbols of the Schutzstaffel.

On pages 78-79, untermensch and "Tried ihn jetzt!" are German for "subhuman" and "Try him now!"

On page 79, Indy shouts at Mephisto, referring to him sarcastically as "Superman". Indy is likely relating the Nazi's use of the word untermensch (subhuman) for that of German philosopher Nietzsche's use of ubermensch (superman) in his work of philosophical fiction, Thus Spake Zarathustra, published in parts from 1883-1892.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

On pages 82-83, "Attenzione!", "Aqua minerale, per favore!", "Grazie," "boconotto", and "Grazie, signore," are Italian for "Attention!", "Mineral water, please!", "Thank you," "bocconotto" (an Italian pastry) and "Thank you, sir."

On page 84, Indy, Bert, and the two children drive out of Rome in an NSU Fiat 500 two-seater, taking Via Aurelia to Civitavecchia. "NSU" (NSU Motorenwerke) was a German automobile manufacturer, but it seems to be misused here, as the Fiat 500 two-seater, nicknamed "Topolino" ("little mouse"), was manufactured from 1936 to 1955 by Fiat alone. The author seems to have confused it with the later 1959–1963 NSU/Fiat Weinsberg 500. The Via Aurelia is an actual road in Rome (originally constructed in 241 BC).

The next leg of the quartet's journey is to Port Said on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Indy employs the services of Captain Toma Dzhmiliv (recommended by Musgrove, having earned his department's trust over previous missions) and his ship, the Jenny, to take him and his threesome across the Mediterranean to Port Said.

On pages 88-89, "Si," and "Arrevederci" are Italian for "Yes," and "Goodbye."

On page 89, in Port Said, McDonald asks Indy if he's there to see the Imam. Imam is the title of someone who is a prayer leader of Islam. Later in the book, it turns the Imam in question is the same one Indy went to see to translate the markings on the headpiece to the Staff of Ra in

Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Page 90 reveals that Indy is wearing an A-2 bomber jacket. A-2 jackets are leather flight jackets made in the 1930s-40s and known especially as being a favorite among U.S. Army Air Forces pilots, bombardiers, and navigators. While the leather jackets worn by Indy in the movies were inspired by the A-2, they all had various modifications made to them for styling, stunt, and performance reasons.

At the docks of Port Said, Indy admires the beauty of the HMS Napier, an N-class destroyer ship of Australia. The Napier was an actual destroyer of the British Navy built for Britain's sister country of Australia during WWII. While the text here in the novel uses the ship prefix "HMS" (His or Her Majesty's Ship), the actual destroyer used the prefix HMAS (His or Her Majesty's Australian Ship).

On page 91, Port Said is struck by a flight of Stuka dive-bombers. "Stuka" is a German contraction of Sturzkampfflugzeug (dive bomber), usually referring more specifically to the German Junkers Ju 87 dive bomber of World War II. 

McDonald drives Indy and his crew away from the battle of Port Said in a Bantam. The Bantam is an American Bantam off-road vehicle constructed in 1940 in a small number of a couple thousand and was the precursor to the Jeep.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

On page 94, Bedouins were a nomadic Arab ethnic group of the deserts, now mostly settled in the modern cities of the Middle East.

On page 95, Indy sees a membership card for the Bund in the glove compartment of McDonald's Bantam. The German American Bund was a pro-Nazi pre–World War II organization whose members were all Americans of German descent who wished to promote a favorable view of Nazi Germany.

Indy asks McDonald if they are headed for An Nakhi, which the driver confirms. Possibly, they are referring to the town of Nakhl, the administrative center of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and not too far from what is traditionally accepted to be the modern day Jebel Musa ("Mountain of Moses").

McDonald drives his charges in the Bantam through the mountains of the Mitla Pass. This is an actual mountain pass in the Sinai Peninsula.

Indy asks McDonald what he thinks of FDR. FDR are the initials of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States from 1933-1945.

On page 96, McDonald tries to tell Indy that the Germans are just protecting themselves from the Ruski Bolsheviks. "Ruski" is a term used for a Russian. The Bolsheviks were a radical Marxist faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, founded by Vladimir Lenin and Alexander Bogdanov.

On page 98, Indy and the Bedouin man exchange greetings, "Es salaam aleikom," and "Wa aleikom es salaam." These are Arabic for "Peace be upon you," and "And upon you be peace."

On page 99, the Bedouin refers to their destination as the Veil of Death. I am not aware of any real reference to a location by that name or as a reference to Mount Sinai. Indy, on the other hand refers to the Land of Fayrouz. This is an Egyptian name for the Sinai Peninsula and it means "Turquoise Land" in honor of the historical turquoise mines there.

At the end of the chapter, the three camels bearing our heroes and the Bedouin into the desert are referred to as the three "ships of the desert". Camels have been referred to by that term for centuries because they are like ocean-going ships in that they travel an ocean of sand, carrying both passengers and cargo.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

On page 100, Indy sees a symbol on the Bedouin guide's ammunition pouch that denotes him as a member of the Muzziena tribe. This is an actual tribe of Bedouin in the southern Sinai Peninsula.

On page 101, the Bedouin refers to Bert as seydah. This is an Arabic term for "lady".

On page 102, Indy is brought into the presence of the Imam, who says to him, "You seek my help," and Indy responds, "Ya Mu'aleem." This is Arabic for "Yes, teacher."

Indy asks the Imam about how Sallah is doing and is informed that he fights the barbarians (Nazis) in his own way.

The Imam refers to Ormuzd, or Ahura Mazda, as the Persian God of Light and Life. This is correct, from Zoroastrianism.

When the Imam asks Indy if he's familiar with inter-dimensionality, the concept of another world, another dimension, Indy responds that is he is, a little, thinking to his experience in the Hall of Records. Again, this was in The Pyramid of the Sorcerer.

The Imam's description of ormus, the so-called Bread of the Gods, made from several metals that when heated takes on mystical qualities, is one that has been promulgated in some 20th Century esoteric literature. In this realm of knowledge, it is referred to as Ormus (ORME, Orbitally Rearranged Monoatomic Elements). Believed related to the manna mentioned in Chapter Eight.

The Imam tells Indy that the Order of the Knights Templar were familiar with the bread, having found the ancient scrolls hidden under King Solomon's temple. This is also part of modern esoteric/mystical canon. The Knights Templar were a Catholic military order from 1139-1312, often associated with secret societies and Catholic mysticism in modern mythology. King Solomon is a Biblical monarch of ancient Israel, the son of King David, and was famed for his wealth and wisdom and his temple was a central place of worship in ancient Israel, traditionally believed to have been built by King Solomon in the 10th century BC in Jerusalem.

On page 106, Indy asks the Imam if manna is the power the alchemists searched for, such as Magnus and Newton. Magnus refers to Albertus Magnus (c. 1193-1280), a medieval scholar, Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and theologian of whom medieval legends claim he was also an alchemist who had discovered the Philosopher's Stone. Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) is often considered the father of modern science, though he was also very interested in alchemy.

At the end of the chapter, Indy tells Bert that the thinks what they find on Mount Sinai may make TNT look like a cap gun. TNT is Trinitrotoluene, a chemical compound best known for its use as a powerful explosive. A cap gun is a toy gun that makes a sound and smoke like a gunshot when the gun's hammer hits a very small paper or plastic cap of gunpowder loaded into the toy.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

When Isabella tells Indy that she doesn't like the camels and remarks that they smell like her tutor, Indy comments in agreement, "I know what you mean. My tutor when I was a boy, Miss Seymour, if she forgot to put on her perfume, she smelled like a baseball mitt." Miss Seymour was seen in a number of episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles as Indy's aged tutor.

Page 108 describes the children as finally falling asleep around the witching hour. The "witching hour" time can vary by tradition, but is generally considered to be midnight to 1:00, a time when supernatural forces are supposedly at their height.

On page 110, the Bedouin tells Indy and Bert they are nearly at the location of Mount Sinai, halfway between the Gulf of Aquaba and the Gulf of Suez. These are both bodies of ocean at the northern tip of the Red Sea.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

On page 113, Roca checks his Krag–Jørgensen rifle to make sure its loaded when the group sees the Nazis have beat them to the base of Mount Sinai. The Krag–Jørgensen is a repeating bolt-action rifle designed by Norwegians Ole Krag and Erik Jørgensen in the late 1880s.

On page 115, two German sentries spot Indy trying to climb the cliff above them and exchange, "Was fur ein idiot!" and "Ja!" These are German for "What an idiot!" and "Yes!"

On page 117, "Guten morgen, fraulein," "mein frauchen", and "herr" are German for "Good morning, missy," "my mistress," and "sir".

Von Mephisto relates more of his medals to Bert and the kids, mentioning the Iron Cross, the Blue Max, and the JagerSchaft. The first two medals are for military distinction in Germany in the early 20th Century. The JagerSchaft was a hunting society in Nazi Germany, meant not only to improve German hunting culture, but also to promulgate Nazi ideology.

Bert refers to von Mephisto as "herr mac", much as Marion Ravenwood had referred to the Nazi agent Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark. "Mac" is a slang term for "fellow", but it may be that she is referring to the fact that von Mephisto is wearing a trench coat, also known as a "mac".

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Climbing Mount Sinai on page 118, Indy arrives at the Egyptian Temple of Hathor, called the Mistress of Turquoise. While the Temple of Hathor is real, it is not located on the slopes of Mount Sinai, but on a mountain plateau near the famed mountain called Sinai. Hathor is the ancient Egyptian goddess of the sky; she was called the Mistress of Turquoise.

On page 119, Indy sees evidence that the Temple of Hathor has architectural traits and glyphs that date it to the Middle Kingdom, about 2025 BC, and some from the New Kingdom, about 1550 BC. He makes a mental note to write an article about his observations for National Geographic Magazine. Generally, the Middle Kingdom is considered to have begun at about 2040 BC, so Indy's 2025 date is a bit earlier and seems odd for him to reach that year unless he had spent weeks or more studying the site to find that earlier date.

On page 120, Anubis is the jackal-headed god of the afterlife and mummification in ancient Egypt.

On pages 120-121, Indy reads an inscriptions on an altar in the temple which invokes Ra and the Elohim and which reminds him of prayers in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. "Ra" is the name of the ancient Egyptian sun god. "Elohim" is a Hebrew word that means "gods" or "those of godhood". The real world Book of the Dead is actually a selection of varying scrolls of funerary rites which the ancient Egyptians referred to as the Book of Coming Forth by Day; these books are meant to tell the soul of the deceased the proper procedures and incantations for proceeding to the afterlife.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

On page 124, an SS guard fires an MP40 Maschinenpistole at Indy, shouting "Er ist hier!" The MP40 is a submachine gun designed by the German Heinrich Vollmer in 1938. The guard's vocalized burst is German for "He is here!"

Page 126 describes giant monsters sculpted out of marble, stone, and bronze behind each of two immense slabs of stone in the interior temple. Indy compares them to the Colossus of Rhodes. The Colossus of Rhodes was a statue of the Greek sun god Helios in the city of Rhodes, and was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It said to have stood 70 cubits (or about 108 feet) high.

On page 126, "Nein! Nein! Ich werde nicht geben!", sturmscharfuhrer, "Mach schnell!", "Erbarme dich," and obershutze are German for "No! No! I will not give!", stormtrooper leader, "Hurry up!", "Have mercy!", and sergeant major.

On page 128, "Ah, mein dear kinder," is German for "Ah, my dear children."

CHAPTER NINETEEN

On pages 130-131, Totenkopfring and Hochschullehrer are German for "skull ring" and "university professor". The skull ring (death's head ring) of the SS of Nazi Germany was an award that was personally bestowed by Himmler on SS members of distinction. Von Mephisto claims he earned his as a descendant of Frederick the Second of Prussia. Frederick II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1220-1250.

On page 133, schadenfreude is a German term, now used in English as well, for the experience of pleasure or joy at the misfortune of others.

On page 133, Mephisto observes that heat seems to have activated anti-gravitational forces on the colossal statues and Giovanni exclaims to Isabella that it's fairy dust just like in Peter Pan. Peter Pan is a 1911 fantasy novel by J.M. Barrie about a boy who can fly. In the novel the character of Tinker Bell uses fairy dust to enable other children to fly and follow her to Neverland.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Proceeding past the Colossuses, Indy finds a huge chamber in the center of which is a towering obelisk. He observes that it is covered with hieroglyphics like the other obelisks he'd seen in Egypt, Paris, Rome, and London. There are indeed Egyptian obelisks now located in these locations.

On page 136, Mephisto says "N'est-ce pas?" This is French for "Isn't that right?"

On pages 137-142, "Jawohl!", "Schnell!", "Schnell, sie schmutzige hund!", "Achtung!", "Fertig!", Steilhandgranate, "Nien, sie idiot!", and "Keine panik!" are German for "Yes!", "Quick!", "Quick, you dirty dog!", "Attention!", "Ready!", stick grenade, "No, you idiot!", and "Don't panic!"

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

No notes.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The proverb on page 148 ("An army of sheep led by a lion would defeat an army of lions led by a sheep") is based on a quote attributed to the ancient Greek conqueror, Alexander the Great (353-323 BC), a Macedonian king who ruled one of the largest empires of the ancient world and who was never defeated in battle.

On page 152, Indy hands over the vial of white powder and the alleged recipe for it to Musgrove, who says "We'll get our top men right on it," and Indy remarks, "Yeah. I've heard that before." This is a reference to the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where the government tells Indy they have "top men" studying the recovered Ark of the Covenant.

    Musgrove hands Indy his next assignment, having to do with supernatural experiments in Japan (Land of the Rising Sun), code name: Tsuzumi Boshi. "Tsuzumi boshi" is a Japanese term used to help children visualize the Orion constellation, a tsuzumi being an hourglass shaped drum, similar to the shape of the constellation.

   The story ends on this thread, likely intended to lead to another book in the series. Because the series was discontinued, the Japan story has never been told.