The Gondwana Shrine

The Gondwana Shrine (Le sanctuaire du Gondwana)
Date	16 January 2008
Series	Blake and Mortimer
Creative team
Writers	Yves Sente
Artists	André Juillard
Original publication
Language	French
Translation
Publisher	Cinebook Ltd
Date	September 2011
ISBN
Translator	Jerome Saincantin
Chronology
Preceded by	The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent, Volume 2: Battle of the Minds
Followed by	The Curse of the Thirty Denarii

The Gondwana Shrine is the eighteenth Blake and Mortimer comic book in the series. The book was published in France and Belgium on March 28, 2008.

In Tanganyika , Professor Heidegang discovers in the lake of the Ngorongoro crater a secret entrance leading to a sort of sanctuary. He seizes a ring as proof of his discovery but menacing men appear and he must flee, wounded in the thigh. In London, professor Philip Mortimer, fatigued and suffering from memory problems since his experience in the sarcophagi of Açoka 1, is recommended by his doctor to rest. Nastasia Wardynska, of the CSIR , brings the results of the analysis of the rock he brought back from Antarctica : it is a 350 million year old gold and diamond rock on which is Engraved with enigmatic signs that would prove the existence of a civilization at that time.

At the Centaur Club , Mortimer shared his discoveries with his friend Captain Francis Blake, who had to go to France to meet Professor Labrousse , their French meteorologist friend, about his invention, Subglacior II. Mortimer went to the Daily Mail archives where Mr Stone showed him an article on Dr. Heidegang that paleontologists Mr and Mrs Leaky had found delusional and clasping in their hands a ring engraved with the same enigmatic signs. On his return home, Mortimer immerses himself in reading his memories and discovers that the writer and amateur archaeologist Sarah Summertown, with whom he had an adventure in his youth, is a friend of the Leaky. In the archives of the Daily Mail, a mysterious man manages to consult the article on Prof. Heidegang by posing as Mortimer's assistant to Mr Stone. The next day, Mortimer went to Sarah Summertown for the first time in many years. After having told each other their lives, Sarah agrees to help Mortimer on the condition that she accompany him on her adventure, and later Nastasia imposes her presence on the teacher.

At the London airport, Mortimer, Sarah and Nastasia board for Nairobi under the surveillance of the mysterious man. In the plane, Sarah talks to them of artefacts engraved with the same enigmatic signs found in the four corners of the world, which could indicate the existence of a civilization at the time of the unique continent of Gondwana . In London, the mysterious man enters Blake's house during the night and threatens the captain with a pistol. He just asks him to listen to what he has to say and gives him his gun as a pledge of good faith. The next day, Blake took the plane and went to Antarctica with Professor Labrousse to take delivery of a mysterious cargo. Meanwhile, the mysterious man is handed a passport, a plane ticket to Nairobi and cash by David Honeychurch, who received instructions from his superior Blake. Arriving at his destination, he settles in the same hotel as Mortimer and his two friends, and turns out to be Colonel Olrik in disguise. Meanwhile, Mortimer, Sarah and Nastasia are in the hospital to visit the delirious Dr. Heidegang. Mortimer manages to make contact with Heidegang by speaking German and learns that the guardians of Gondwana demand that the ring be returned to them.

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