Doubt as to really in chambers, ther was twelve kings, and mid proba AFRICA. really 3000 chambers, as Herodotus mentions; for CHAP. IV. the exactness of the statement must entirely rest on the fidelity of his guides. He himself was evidently whether it in a state of utter bewilderment, and only came cluded 3000 away with a vague impression of "no end" of halls, and whe chambers, colonnades, and corridors. It is also built by the very improbable that the Labyrinth should have been commenced and completed by the twelve contained kings; and though it certainly was an Aegyptian their tombs. fashion for a prince to prepare a tomb for himself during his lifetime, yet it is not at all likely that the Dodecarths should have been deposited there after Psammitichus had dethroned them. Besides, the statement of Herodotus to that effect is contrary to Aegyptian usages, which would scarcely permit the same building to be used as a palace and a cemetery, though it is not unlikely that embalmed The Pyra- crocodiles were deposited in the vaults. Most probly the bably the Pyramid mentioned by Herodotus was pulture, and the place of sepulture, and the Labyrinth was the the Laby royal palace, and it is thus that Strabo describes royal palace. them; and the subterranean communication between the two may have led to our author's conPyramid at founding them with one another. The Pyramid is plainly to be identified with that of Howara, which stands about 5 miles to the south of the ruins of Crocodilopolis, and near the point where the gorge from the Canal of Joseph spreads out into the basin Discovery of of Fayoum. Its sepulchral chamber has been exAmmene plored by Lepsius, who discovered the name of Amthe last king menemes III., the last king in the twelfth dynasty of the Old of the Old Monarchy. The shield of this sovereign also occurs everywhere in the ruins of the Labyrinth, nor has any other name been found by the Prussian Expedition. This discovery removes all doubt respecting the time and purpose of the erec rinth the present known as the Pyramid of Howara. the name of mes III., Monarchy of Menes. 2 1 Strabo, lib. xvi. pp. 787, 811. 2 The name of Ammenemes also occurs in a quarry of hard white stone, in the Mokattam mountains. Here there is an inscription, which records the working of the quarry in the reign of a sovereign of that name. Vyse's Pyramids of Gizeh, vol. iii. CHAP. IV. tion of the pyramid, and enables us with tolerable AFRICA. certainty to assign the foundation of the Labyrinth to the same monarch, Ammenemes.1 and con mid. The Pyramid is about 80 feet from the remains Dimensions of the Labyrinth, and is composed of bricks of im- struction of mense size, which appear to be very ancient. When the Pyraentire it must have been about 348 feet square. Strabo says it was 400 feet it was 400 feet square, and of equal altitude. Herodotus says it was 40 orgyae, or 240 feet, high. Its present height, according to Mr. Perring, is about 106 feet, and its base 300 feet, as already mentioned. It appears to cover a rock, which rises to a height of about 40 feet within it. Several stone walls, intersecting it in regular lines, act as binders to the intermediate mass of brickwork, built in between them; and the outside was apparently originally coated with a stone casing.2 ris. Hero LAKE MOERIS is described by Herodotus as being Lake Moeeven a more surprising work than the Labyrinth. dotus's de 1 Cf. also Kenrick, Ancient Egypt, vol. ii. Probably the erection of the Labyrinth was attributed to the twelve kings, from the circumstance of its including twelve principal courts. Strabo (xvi. p. 787, 811) describes the Labyrinth as consisting of the same number of palaces as there were anciently Aegyptian nomes. Herodotus, as we have seen, mentions that there were twelve courts or palaces; and the establishment of an oligarchy of twelve, during the temporary suspension of monarchy, points to the previous existence of a territorial division into twelve nomes, which probably corresponded to that of the temples of the twelve gods of the second class. The account of Diodorus differs from that of Herodotus. Diodorus (i. 66) follows Herodotus in stating that the twelve kings wished to leave behind them a common memorial, and he describes them as building a square fabric of polished marble, measuring one stadium in length on every side, and supported round by pillars, forty on each side; whilst the roof was composed of a single stone, splendidly carved and painted. The site of this enormous sepulchre he fixes near the Lake Moeris, and consequently on or near the same spot as the Labyrinth. The Labyrinth however he says, (i. 61,) was built by a king who lived before the foundation of the pyramids, and who was called Mendes by some, and Marrus by others. Mr. Kenrick has pointed out that even here there is some analogy between Diodorus and Herodotus. Mendes, or Marrus, was made king immediately after the termination of the Aethiopian invasion under Actisanes, and was followed by an interregnum of five generations; and in Herodotus the retreat of the Aethiopians was followed by an interregnum of the priest Sethos, and then by the builders of the Labyrinth. Mendes was also of the same peaceful character as Sethos. 2 Wilkinson, Modern Egypt and Thebes, vol. ii. Vyse and Perring, Pyramids of Gizeh, etc., vol. iii. scription. AFRICA. It was situated near the Labyrinth, and near the CHAP. IV. city of Crocodiles. It was 60 schoeni, or 3600 sta Attempt to find the site of Lake Moeris dia, in circumference, an extent equal to the seacoast of Aegypt. It stretched lengthways from north to south, and was fifty orgyae, or 300 feet, deep in the deepest part. That it was all artificial was proved by the circumstance, that two pyramids stood in the middle of the lake, each rising fifty orgyae, or 300 feet, above the surface of the water, and extending just as deep down, under the water. Upon each pyramid was a stone statue, sitting on a throne.' The water did not spring from the excessively dry country in the neighbourhood, but was conducted from the river Nile by a canal; and for six months it flowed from the Nile into the lake, and for the other six months out of the lake again into the river. Whilst the water was flowing out, the fish from the lake yielded a silver talent every day to the royal treasury; whilst however the water flowed in the fish only produced twenty minas per diem." The natives assured Herodotus that the lake discharged itself through a subterranean passage, running westward into the Libyan Syrtis; and that the excavated soil was thrown into the Nile, and soon dispersed by the river.* In endeavouring to find Lake Moeris on the modern map, the reader must bear in mind the the modern physical features of Fayoum-an oval basin, 40 miles by 30, sloping in three distinct terraces, from east to west, and terminating in a rapid decline at the low salt lake of Keïroun. A branch from the Canal of map. 1 Thus the pyramids were one hundred orgyae in height, which were equal to a stadium of six plethra; the orgyae measuring six feet, or four cubits; the cubit being six palms, and the foot four palms. Herod. ii. 149. 2 Lake Keïroun is now farmed for 30 purses (£210) annually. Of every 90 piastres derived from the sale of fish, 10 are paid for the boat, 40 to the fisherman, and 40 to the farmers of the fish. In 1837 there were only six boats in the lake. 3 ii. 149. 4 ii. 150. From the saltness of the waters, and the sandy nature of the surrounding soil, Strabo also conjectured that this lake had once been connected with the Mediterranean. No such communication, or outlet, however is at present known. 3 CHAP. IV. identified pect of Joseph enters a gorge at the eastern extremity, and AFRICA. spreads in various small channels over the district; and the remains of the city of Crocodiles, and those of the Labyrinth, are both situated near the entrance of the basin.1 Lake Moeris has been generally identified with Lake Keïroun. Pliny however says Generally that the Lake Moeris was between the nome of with Lake Arsinoe and that of Memphis;' and Lake Keïroun is Keïroun. not situated between the two districts, but at the western extremity of the nome of Arsinoe. Pomponius Mela also says that the site of Lake Moeris was formerly a champaign country; but this is an aspect which Lake Keïroun could never have presented. In the present day it is on a level with the Present as sea; its water, as well as its soil, must always have Keiroun. been impregnated with various salts; and it must always have been either covered with water or else have been a salt marsh. Accordingly, it has been supposed that the Lake Keïroun anciently extended from the mountains, which now bound it on the northwest, to the line which terminates the second terrace of Fayoum.* To this hypothesis the following Reasons objections have been raised. Between the line forward by which terminates the second terrace and the east- for disbe ern borders of the lake there are some ruins; and lieving in along the chain of mountains north-west of the lake cation of are some excavated sepulchres, in which mummies Ker have been discovered. Consequently it is difficult to grant that the waters of the lake ever reached either points. Herodotus also says that for six months 1 See also page 423. 2 Pliny, v. 9. It must be remarked that Pliny uses the word "fuit,” and is therefore speaking of the Lake Moeris at a time when it had ceased to be. 3 Pomp. Mela, De situ Orbis, lib. i. c. 9. The line here alluded to is not the line which separates the second from the first, or highest terrace, but the one which separates the second from the third, or lowest terrace. It is the north-western extremity only of this third platform which is at present occupied by Lake Keiroun. 5 Some slight layers of mud however are still to be seen in various places along the north-western borders, and also some shells; but if those places had been under water during all the period of the existence of Lake Moeris, the mud would entirely have covered them, and the mark of the level of the water and some remains of shells would brought M. Linant the identifi Moeris with 2 1 3 AFRICA. the Lake Moeris flowed into the Nile; and that for CHAP. IV. the other six months the Nile flowed into the lake, and the statement that Lake Moeris was intended as a receptacle for the surplus waters of the inundation is confirmed by Diodorus and Strabo. But Lake Keïroun is 15 or 16 feet deep; and the surface of the second terrace is 65 feet above the surface of the lake, and yet 6 or 7 feet lower than the bottom of the channel which communicates betwen Fayoum and the Canal of Joseph, and which is cut through the rock. Thus all the mass of water below the level of the bottom of the channel leading to the Canal of Joseph would have been useless for irrigating purposes; and if it ever rose to that level it must have covered the whole of the second terrace, and thus have converted nearly all Fayoum into an immense lake, a state which is totally irreconcileable with the existence of the numerous towns whose ruins still remain. The second terrace, in short, presents no symptom, either in its soil or in its superficial configuration, of having been ever covered with water. On the other hand, the first or highest terrace has evidently been formed by the deposition of sediment on a portion of the second terrace. cond terrace Linant's Thoroughly dissatisfied with the identification of discovery of a dyke end- Lake Moeris with Lake Keïroun, and convinced that ing these Lake Moeris ought to be looked for in the highest of Fayoum. part of Fayoum, M. Linant at length discovered a dyke composed of flint, gravel, and in some places of masonry, and extending round the whole of the limits of the first terrace. Numerous gaps were of also have been seen at the same height. But these phenomena do not exist, and the ground is either stony or sandy. The small quantities of mud which are to be seen may be attributed to the deposits left from great inundations, or to the rupture of dykes in the Fayoum, when the water would flow in vast quantities towards the Lake Keïroun. Linant. 1i. e. the Canal of Joseph, which communicates immediately with the Nile, through a branch called Tourat el Magnoun, a little to the north of the spot where the other branch flows by Illahoun into the basin of Fayoum. 3 Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 811. 2 Diod. Sic. lib. 1. The circumstances connected with the discovery of the dyke are very interesting, and convey to the reader of the Mémoire a pleasing impression of its author. M. Linant was resting himself in the ravine |