Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

was 600 feet,
DURING lDTii CENTURY: EGYPT 6G7
300 feet over the ground and 300 feet below
the ground. On top of each pyramid was a colossal stone
statue seated upon a throne. The water of the lake did
not come from a spring, but from the Nile by means of a
canal : six months it flowed into the lake and six months it
flowed back into the Nile.
While in olden times it was generally assumed that
Birket-Qarun, situated in
the northwest of the Fayum, was
identical with Lake Moeris, Linant Bey, a French engineer
in the Egyptian service, ventured in 1 840 to express himself
as being opposed to this view because of certain difficulties
arising from the differences in the level. He therefore
placed it in the southeast of the province ; but even this
had its difficulties, because then the Lake Mceris of Linant
would not have the same dimensions as that of Herodotus.
In spite of this, however, the hypothesis put forward by the
French engineer was the only one accepted for a long time,
and Lepsius seems to have agreed with it.
Recently other
localities have been proposed : for instance, one by the
Englishman Cope Whitehouse, — Wadi Rayan, situated in
the southwest of the Fayum.
In the year 1888 Petrie carefully examined the pyramids
of Biahmu, situated a little over three miles north of
Arsinoe, and thereby gave quite another aspect to the
question concerning the site of Lake Moeris. It appeared
that the "pyramids " were not pyramids at all, but supporting
walls for two colossal sitting figures. But of these
figures made of sandstone only a few fragments were discovered:
the nose of one, parts of a throne, and fragments
of inscriptions which bore the name of King Amenemhat
I. Yet these small pieces were sufficient to enable
Petrie to calculate the original size of these two monuments.
According to him the statues were about thirty-five feet high,
which would make the
total height, including the masonry
of the base, sixty feet. If we now remember Herodotus'
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