herodotus

that he of them who should pour a libation with a bronze cup in thetemple of Hephaistos, should be king of all Egypt (for they used toassemble together in all the temples). 148. Moreover they resolved tojoin all together and leave a memorial of themselves; and having soresolved they caused to be made a labyrinth, situated a little abovethe lake of Moiris and nearly opposite to that which is called theCity of Crocodiles. This I saw myself, and I found it greater thanwords can say. For if one should put together and reckon up all thebuildings and all the great works produced by the Hellenes, they wouldprove to be inferior in labour and expense to this labyrinth, thoughit is true that both the temple at Ephesos and that at Samos are worksworthy of note. The pyramids also were greater than words can say, andeach one of them is equal to many works of the Hellenes, great as theymay be; but the labyrinth surpasses even the pyramids. It has twelvecourts covered in, with gates facing one another, six upon the Northside and six upon the South, joining on one to another, and the samewall surrounds them all outside; and there are in it two kinds ofchambers, the one kind below the ground and the other above uponthese, three thousand in number, of each kind fifteen hundred. Theupper set of chambers we ourselves saw, going through them, and wetell of them having looked upon them with our own eyes; but thechambers under ground we heard about only; for the Egyptians who hadcharge of them were not willing on any account to show them, sayingthat here were the sepulchres of the kings who had first built thislabyrinth and of the sacred crocodiles. Accordingly we speak of thechambers below by what we received from hearsay, while those above wesaw ourselves and found them to be works of more than human greatness.For the passages through the chambers, and the goings this way andthat way through the courts, which were admirably adorned, affordedendless matter for marvel, as we went through from a court to thechambers beyond it, and from the chambers to colonnades, and from thecolonnades to other rooms, and then from the chambers again to othercourts. Over the whole of these is a roof made of stone like thewalls; and the walls are covered with figures carved upon them, eachcourt being surrounded with pillars of white stone fitted togethermost perfectly; and at the end of the labyrinth, by the corner of it,there is a pyramid of forty fathoms, upon which large figures arecarved, and to this there is a way made under ground.149. Such is this labyrinth; but a cause for marvel even greater thanthis is afforded by the lake, which is called the lake of Moiris,along the side of which this labyrinth is built. The measure of itscircuit is three thousand six hundred furlongs[131] (being sixty/schoines/), and this is the same number of furlongs as the extent ofEgypt itself along the sea. The lake lies extended lengthwise fromNorth to South, and in depth where it is deepest it is fifty fathoms.