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Moreover, they decided to preserve the memory of their names by a common memorial, and so they made a labyrinth 1 a little way beyond Birkat Qarun [30.666,29.466] (salt lake), Egypt, Africa lake Moeris and near the place called the Kiman Faris [30.833,29.316] (deserted settlement), Al-Fayyum, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa City of Crocodiles . I have seen it myself, and indeed words cannot describe it; 2
Moreover, they decided to preserve the memory of their names by a common memorial, and so they made a labyrinth 1 a little way beyond Birkat Qarun [30.666,29.466] (salt lake), Egypt, Africa lake Moeris and near the place called the Kiman Faris [30.833,29.316] (deserted settlement), Al-Fayyum, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa City of Crocodiles . I have seen it myself, and indeed words cannot describe it; 2
[2] if one were to collect the walls and evidence of other efforts of the
Greeks, the sum would not amount to the labor and cost of this labyrinth. And yet the temple at
+Ephesus [27.316,37.916] (deserted settlement), Izmir Ili, Ege kiyilari, Turkey, Asia
Ephesus
and the one on
Nisos Samos [26.8,37.75] (island), Samos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe
Samos
are noteworthy.
[3] Though the pyramids beggar description and each one of them is a match for many great monuments built by
Greeks, this maze surpasses even the pyramids.
[4] It has twelve roofed courts with doors facing each other: six face north and six south, in two continuous lines, all within one outer wall. There are also double sets of chambers, three thousand altogether, fifteen hundred above and the same number under ground.
[5] We ourselves viewed those that are above ground, and speak of what we have seen, but we learned through conversation about the underground chambers; the
Egyptian caretakers would by no means show them, as they were, they said, the burial vaults of the kings who first built this labyrinth, and of the sacred crocodiles.
[6] Thus we can only speak from hearsay of the lower chambers; the upper we saw for ourselves, and they are creations greater than human. The exits of the chambers and the mazy passages hither and thither through the courts were an unending marvel to us as we passed from court to apartment and from apartment to colonnade, from colonnades again to more chambers and then into yet more courts.
[7] Over all this is a roof, made of stone like the walls, and the walls are covered with cut figures, and every court is set around with pillars of white stone very precisely fitted together. Near the corner where the labyrinth ends stands a pyramid two hundred and forty feet high, on which great figures are cut. A passage to this has been made underground.
Histories. Herodotus. ed. A.D. Godley. Cambridge. 1920-1925.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.
Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.