Secret_History

Chapter 8: The Culture of Stones 295
We seem to have a bit of a problem here. Notice that Pliny assures us that
Herodotus was wrong not only about who built the labyrinth, but also about when
it was built. Pliny dates it to almost four thousand years before his own time. He
also makes the most interesting remark that the building was regarded with
extraordinary hatred. That would certainly be true of a structure that was utilized
for dreadful sacrifices. Pliny mentions the mythical labyrinth of Crete, though it is
a certainty that the temple at Knossos that was identified as the labyrinth by Arthur
Evans was no longer available for view in the time of Pliny. It seems that Pliny,
along with everyone else just took it for granted that the legends of the labyrinth
on Crete were the truth.
So it is that we have found that the earliest known written account of the
existence of labyrinths appears in the writings of the Greek historian Herodotus in
approximately 450 BC. He describes a great labyrinth located in Egypt at the
ancient site of Arsinoe on the eastern bank of a large body of water, Lake Moeris.
The labyrinth was constructed in the style of a great compartmental palace with
3000 different chambers, 1500 of which were above ground and 1500 were below
ground. The foundation was approximately 1000 feet long x 800 feet long. He
claimed that it was built by Ammenemes III in the twelfth dynasty of the Old
Kingdom in approximately 2300 BC. He further said that its primary purpose was
for burial, and many kings were buried there. Pliny verified Herodotus’ account in
his writings on the four famous labyrinths of antiquity in approximately 50 AD.
The remains of the city of Arsinoe have been excavated, but a great labyrinth to
the extent of Herodotus’ description has never been found.
Flinders Petrie did extensive excavation of the city of Arsinoe in 1888, but he
never discovered the fantastic site that Herodotus described. Petrie found only a
great bed of fragments which he believed was the labyrinth. The body of
Ammenemes III was supposedly unearthed corroborating Herodotus. A sufficient
quantity of the original foundation was unearthed which handily allowed it to be
measured at 1000 feet X 800 feet which is exactly the dimension quoted by
Herodotus! That it was definitely a labyrinth could not be determined.
More recently, Egyptologists have decided that the so-called “pyramid of
Hawara” is the famous Egyptian labyrinth, but that makes no sense at all.
Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo and Pliny all describe so marvelous a structure that
we are hard put to not think that there is truth behind what they were describing.
The various propositions for what must be the “remains” of the structure simply do
not fit the descriptions. And, while we can have some doubts about the accuracy of
the history ascribed to the monument by the various ancient authors, depending on
who gave them their information, it’s difficult to doubt that they either saw it
themselves, or had direct information.
Modern experts suggest that “Lake Moeris” is really Lake Qarun, the third
largest lake in Egypt, which is located in Faiyyum. If so, we wonder why there are
no remains of this labyrinth which Pliny tells us was constructed of, “Parian
marble, while the rest is of Aswan granite, such masses being put together as time
itself cannot dissolve even with the help of the Heracleopolitans; for they have
regarded the building with extraordinary hatred”.