Chapter XIII: Letter XI: The Labyrinth, the 25th June, 1843

These lines are written to you from the distinctly recognised Labyrinth of Mœris and the Dodecarchs, not from the doubtful spot whose identity is still contested, of which I myself was unable to form any conception from the hitherto more than deficient descriptions even of those who have removed the Labyrinth hither. An immense cluster of chambers still remains, and in the centre lies the great square, where the courts once stood, covered with the remains of large monolithic granite columns, and of others of white hard limestone, shining almost like marble.

I approached the spot, fearing that we must only endeavour, as others had done before us, to confirm the information of the ancients on the geographical position of the place; that all form of the edifice itself had disappeared, and that an unshapely heap of ruins might deter us from making any examinations. Instead of this, at the first superficial survey of the ground, a number of complicated spaces, of true labyrinthine forms, immediately presented themselves, both above and below ground, and the eye could easily detect the principal buildings, more than a stadium (Strabo) in extent. Where the French expedition had vainly sought for chambers, we literally at once find hundreds of them, both next to, and above one another, small, often diminutive ones, beside greater ones, and large ones, supported by small columns, with thresholds, and niches in the walls, with remains of columns, and single casing-stones, connected by corridors, without any regularity in the entrances and exits, so that the descriptions of Herodotus and Strabo, in this respect, are fully justified. But at the same time also, the opinion, which was never adopted by me, and is irreconcileable with any architectonic view, that there are _serpentine_, case-like windings, in place of square rooms, is decidedly refuted.

The whole is so arranged, that three immense masses of buildings, 300 feet broad, enclose a square place, which is 600 feet long and 500 feet wide. The fourth side, one of the narrow ones, is bounded by the Pyramid, which lies behind it; it is 300 feet square, and therefore does not quite reach the side wings of the above-mentioned masses of buildings. A canal of rather modern date, passing obliquely through the ruins, and which one can almost leap over, at least at the present season, cuts off exactly the best preserved portion of the labyrinthian chambers, together with part of the great central square, which at one time was divided into courts. The travellers preferred not wetting their feet, and remained on this side, where the continuation of the wings of the buildings is certainly more concealed beneath the rubbish. But the chambers lying on the farther side, especially their southern point, where the walls rise nearly ten feet above the rubbish, and about twenty feet above the base of the ruins, are to be seen very well even from this, the eastern side; and viewed from the summit of the Pyramid, the regular plan of the whole design lies before one as on a map. Erbkam has been occupied ever since our arrival, in making the special plan, on which every chamber or wall, however small, will be noted down. The farther portion of the ruins is, therefore, by far the most difficult to record. On this side it is an easier task, but so much the more difficult to understand. Here the labyrinth of chambers passes on southwards. The courts were situated between this and the Pyramid lying opposite on the northern side. But almost all of these have disappeared. We have, therefore, nothing to guide us but the dimensions of the square, which lead us to suppose that it was divided into two halves, by a long wall, against which the twelve courts (for we cannot, indeed, with any certainty, make out that there were more) abutted on both sides, so that their entrances turned towards opposite sides, and had immediately facing them the extensive mass of innumerable chambers.

But who was the Maros, Mendes, Imandes, who, by the account of the Greeks, erected the Labyrinth, or rather the Pyramid belonging to it, for his tomb? In the Manethonic list of Kings, we find the builder of the Labyrinth introduced towards the end of the 12th Dynasty, the last of the Old Monarchy, shortly before the invasion of the Hyksos. The fragments of the mighty columns and architraves which we have dug up from the great square of the halls, exhibit the name-shields of the sixth king of this same 12th Dynasty, Amenemha III. Thus the important question of its place in history is answered.[23] We have also made excavations on the north side of the Pyramid, because it is here that we conjecture the entrance must have been. But it has not been hitherto discovered. We have only as yet penetrated into a chamber which lay in front of the Pyramid, and which was covered by a great quantity of rubbish, and we have several times found the name of Amenemha here also. The builder and occupier of the Pyramid is therefore determined. But this does not refute the statement of Herodotus, that the Dodecarchs, only 200 years before his time, had undertaken the building of the Labyrinth. We have found no inscriptions in the ruins of the great masses of chambers which surround the central space. It may be easily proved by future excavations that this whole building, and probably also the disposition of the twelve courts, belong only, in fact, to the 26th Dynasty of Manetho, so that the original temple of Amenemha formed merely part of this gigantic architectural enclosure.

So much for the Labyrinth and its Pyramid. The exact position which its builder occupies in history is by far the most important result that we could altogether hope to obtain here. I must now say a few words respecting the other world’s wonder of this province, Lake Mœris.

The obscurity which has hitherto hung over it seems at length to have been dispersed, by a beautiful discovery, which was made a short time ago by the excellent Linant, the director of the water-works of the Pascha. Hitherto there was only one point of agreement, that the lake was situated in the Faiûm. Now, as at the present day there is only one single lake in this remarkable semi-oasis, the Birqet-el-Qorn, which is situated in its most remote and lowest parts, this must be the Lake Mœris; we have no other choice. Its celebrity, however, rested principally upon this, that it was an artificially designed (Herodotus says an excavated) and extremely profitable lake, which was filled by the Nile when it was high, and when the water was low, flowed off again by the connecting canal; and irrigating on the one side the grounds of the Faiûm, on the other, during its reflux, the adjacent tracts of the Memphitic district, at the same time yielded extremely rich fishing near the double sluices at the mouth of the Faiûm. To the annoyance of Antiquarians and Philologists, not one of all these peculiarities belonged to the Birqet-el-Qorn. This is not an artificial, but a natural lake, which is only in part fed by the water of the Jussuf canal. One of its useful qualities can be hardly said to exist, since no fishing-boat enlivens its surface, encircled by an arid desert, because the brackish water contains scarcely any fish, and is in no degree favourable to the vegetation on its shores. When the Nile is at its height, and there is a more abundant supply of water, it certainly rises; but it is situated at far too low a level to allow a drop of the water with which it has been supplied, ever to flow back again. The whole province must be buried beneath the flood before the waters could find their way back into the valley, for the artificially lowered rocky channel through which the Bahr Jussuf is brought hither, branching off from the Nile about forty miles south, lies higher than the whole oasis. The surface of the Birqet-el-Qorn is now about seventy feet below the point where the canal flows in, and can never have risen to a much greater height,[24] which is proved by some remains of a temple upon its shores. As little does it agree with the statement, that the Labyrinth, and the capital Arsinoë, the present Medînet-el-Faiûm, were situated on its shores.

Linant has now discovered huge dams, miles in length, of the most ancient solid construction, which separates the uppermost portion of the shell-like, convex-formed basin of the Faiûm from those parts which are situated lower and lie farther back, and, according to him, could only have been intended to retain artificially a great lake, which now, however, since the dams have been long broken through, lies completely dry. This lake he holds to be that of Mœris. I must confess that the whole thing, when he first communicated it to me by word of mouth, impressed me with the idea that it was an extremely happy discovery, which will also spare us in future many fruitless researches. An inspection of the ground has now removed all my doubts as to the correctness of this view. I hold it to be an insubvertible fact. Linant’s treatise is now being printed, and I will send it to you as soon as it is to be had.[25]

But finally, if you ask me what the name of Mœris has to do with that of Amenemha, I can only answer, nothing. The name Mœris neither appears on the monuments, nor in Manetho. I rather think that here again we find one of the numerous misunderstandings of the Greeks. The Egyptians called the lake, Phiom en mere, the Lake of the Nile-inundation (Copt. ⲙⲏⲣⲉ, _inundatio_). The Greeks made out of _mere_, the water which formed the lake, a King Mœris who designed the lake, and then troubled themselves no further about the true originator, Amenemha. At a later period the whole province received the name ⲫⲓⲟⲙ, Phiom, the Lake, from which the present name Faiûm has been derived.