 In cutting down the length of the story , Hergé removed various isolated scenes that added nothing to the development of the plot , such as those in which Tintin confronts a bat , a crocodile , and snakes . The Arabian city that Tintin and Snowy searched for in the story was no longer identified as Mecca , while the Maharajah 's three advisers were removed . New elements were also inserted ; Hergé added a depiction of ancient Egyptian pyramids into the background . Hergé also retroactively added the character of Allan into the story ; he had originally been introduced in the later , 1941 adventure The Crab with the Golden Claws , where he was Rastapopoulos ' henchman . Hergé inserted an allusion to his friend and collaborator Edgar P. Jacobs into the story by including a mummified professor named E.P. <unk> in the Egyptian tomb . 
