You’re driving along, you’ve got cameras in the car, when suddenly you spot something that begs a second look. You go back, take photos, avoid another car that also went back to look again, and pantomime shrugging and “I don’t know either” as you drive past them. You’ve had a “what the hell is that?” moment.

We had one today. David and I drove aimlessly, more or less with the object of getting to a beach or park along the shore of Lake Michigan, so we meandered along northwards along Sheridan Road, which is one of those historic byways that has a rather colorful past and a sketchy present. It goes by some gorgeous
North Shore houses, and through some pretty dicey areas south of the old Fort Sheridan Army post, which is now partly overflow housing for Great Lakes Naval Training Station, and partly tony new homes made from historic old buildings.

We eventually got to Illinois Beach State Park, and walked up the shoreline pathway to within a few hundred yards of the nuclear power plant, then came back.

It was a perfect day – warm, breezy, not hot, and there weren’t that many people. Just a few idiots on jetskis and scattered groups of people enjoying the day without feeling it necessary to play boom boxes and annoy everyone else. Like I said, perfect day, and very relaxing.

On our way back, we improvised a different return route and wound up headed south on Dilley’s Road, a mile or two north of Grand Avenue and the access to I-94. And there it was by the side of the road – an iron-fenced compound, with two Egyptian papyrus-stalk stone columns and a stone statue of a pharaonic sarcophagus. I made David turn around and go back to see “what the hell IS that.”

The front gate consists of decorative iron fencing that has been further decorated with gold paint and some rather cack-handed looking Egyptian bas-reliefs stuck on the fence on metal shields. The gates are reinforced with diagonal rods that coincidentally form a perfect pyramid shape. You can see the tall statue (which at the time sported a flock of birds perched on the head, and peeping up over the medallion or cartouche thing, the top of the pyramid.

There’s a concrete fence with faux Egyptian designs painted all along the front and sides. All the fence posts have busts of a Tut-like pharaoh. There’s a very big statue that resembles the ones of Rameses, standing all alone in the middle of what appears to be a concrete-block supply company. There’s a side temple near the front that’s built out of 5-foot blocks – the kind used for temporary construction alongside road-building projects. Farther in the compound, there was another mound that looked like a temple buried under tons of gravel. And all the way at the back of the otherwise big empty graveled lot, there was a modern pyramid with windows set into it, and an ordinary car parked to the side.

The hell?? What?? Is it?? It looks like a concrete supply yard owned by a guy with a King Tut fetish… and a lot of time on his hands.

I couldn’t find anything on the web to explain it.

And tours are available. Sheesh. From the road, it looks like a gravel pit in King Tut drag.