The Nameless City Summary

The Nameless City starts with the narrator coming upon the ruins of an ancient city under the moon light in the Arabian Peninsula. He describes the city as “crumbling and inarticulate”, being that the ruins were mostly hidden in sand. The author goes on to talk about how an ancient mad poet named Abdul Alhared dreamed of on the same night he sang a couplet, “That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons, even death may die.”

The next day the narrator continues to explore the city and upon nightfall discovers an opening in a cliff in the city, that leads to a temple with a large flight of steps that lowered beneath the ground. Armed with his one torch, the narrator braves on down the spiraling abyss, until his torch goes out. Being too far down, he continues going further as the steps grow narrower. At the bottom, the narrator discovers a corridor lit with luminous stones and lined with wood and glass boxes, similar to coffins. The narrator then sees depictions on the wall of what appear to be reptilian like people creating a large civilization. However, he realizes that these creatures are not dead, remembering what Alhared had sung, the narrator attempts to flee but fails to escape in time as the sand dune closes off his exit of escape. However, the narrator does escape a day later, but with severe damage to his psyche.