Living like King Tut

COLUMBUS, Ind. -- Patrick Conner acknowledges that the two pyramids in his side yard are a bit unusual and attract a lot of attention.\n"People stop by every day and ask about them," Conner said. "They are kind of hard to miss."\nThe two large structures are visible from U.S. 31 and curious motorists often use the front yard of his home as a parking lot, so they can get a closer look.\nBut if those visitors think Conner's outside pyramids are unusual, they should peek inside his house. The interior looks like the inside of the pyramids used as burial chambers for ancient Egyptian royalty.\nThe walls are coated with hand-painted symbols, each relating to individuals or events from early Egyptian history.\nSome are meaningless. \n"They're from when I got started and was just looking around for images to put on the wall," Conner said. But many have specific meanings that are akin to the messages put on tombs with instructions relating to the afterlife.\nEven his bathroom has the feel of an Egyptian burial place. The toilet seat and countertop are coated with a black granite-like substance and the ever-present symbols look down on the scene from the walls. Above the paintings are shelves holding depictions of individuals and objects from Egyptian history.\nConner pointed to one female likeness, describing her "as the most beautiful queen in history."\nHe added that a more famous queen, Cleopatra, was "smart, but she was also ugly."\nIt's difficult to maneuver in his bedroom and den because of all the Egyptian objects on the floor, on the furniture, on the shelves and on the wall.\nHe points to an ornate headdress that looks like something Yul Brynner might have worn in one of the Moses movies.\n"Made it myself," he said. "Actually, it's part of the costume I have that I wear around at Halloween."\nConner has made many of the ancient Egypt-looking objects, just like the outdoor pyramids. He painted all the figures on the wall after researching them from the hundreds of books and periodicals he has in his library.\nHe pursues his interest during the day, because he works nights at The Republic Printing Center.\nHe calls himself a self-taught Egyptologist who is a "big, big fan" of Ramses the Great, a long-ago departed Egyptian leader.\n"He was a much more important leader than Tutankhamen," Patrick said of the boy-king whose body and a trove of invaluable treasures were discovered early in the 20th century. "If his tomb hadn't been found, nobody would have heard of him."\nSitting in the background was his mother, Anna, who had a tolerant air about her as she talked about her son's activities. "It keeps him busy and out of trouble," she said. "Sure is better than drugs."\nConner traces his interest back to school history classes.\n"I always made excellent grades in history," he said. "My favorites though were ancient and medieval histories."\nWhile he was watching a program about ancient Egypt on the History Channel a few years ago, his interest was moved to a higher level.\n"They were showing how the ancient Egyptians created all of these paintings, and I thought to myself, I can do that," he said. "So I just went out and got some supplies and started painting."\nHaving conquered the wall paintings, he moved to exterior construction.\n"There was a difference in how the Egyptians built their pyramids and what I was doing," he said. "They had slaves. I was my only slave."\nConner used a lot of concrete blocks and cement in the production of his pyramids. "One of them took exactly 153 cinder blocks," he said.\nHe has plans to add a third pyramid to the mix.\n"I'm setting out to recreate the Giza Plateau in Egypt," he said. "That's the one with a lot of pyramids."\nGiza Plateau features the famed Sphinx, a huge lion-like figure in stone and Patrick's Giza Plateau will also have a Sphinx.\n"I'm going to put it in my driveway," he said excitedly. "It's going to be elevated so that people can drive in under the paws"