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

DURING 19 CENTURY: EGYPT 669
account the fact that the supposed constructor " Moeris "
a pure fiction. The name Moeris is Egyptian, and means
nothing more or less than "great sea." By this designation
the lake situated in the Fayum was known to the people.
As has often happened, the Greeks transferred this name
which the lake bore to some supposed originator, whence
arose a King Moeris.
We have therefore good ground for assuming that Lake
Moeris was a natural lake corresponding to the Birket-
Qarun. Only the sluices were artificial which regulated
the influx of water from the Nile at the entrance to the
Fayum near El-Lahun, and the dikes and dams which enclosed
the lake, and which were to protect the country thus
reclaimed from being submerged by the inundation.
Next to Lake Moeris the traveller was told of a sight
which baffled all description, also situated in the Fayum,
namely, the Labvrinth. Herodotus, who saw it, speaks of
it with the highest admiration, and places it not only above
all Greek buildings in magnificence, but also above the
pyramids, at which he was so much astounded. According
to his description it was a great construction like a temple,
with twelve courts and three thousand rooms, of which one
half were above and the other half under ground. At one
end was a pyramid. As builders of the Labyrinth Herodotus
mentions the Dodekarchy, that is, those native minor
princes, who before the reign of Psemtek, 663 b. c, had
divided the country among them under the suzerainty of
the Assyrian or Ethiopian kings. Manetho, however, who
was well versed in
Egypt's past history, ascribes the erection
of this building to Lachares, a king of the Twelfth Dynasty,
who would correspond to Amenemhat III.
The site of the Labyrinth has been debated no less than
that of Lake Moeris. Lepsius assumed that it could only
have existed near the pyramids of Hawara, in the southeast
corner of the Favum, and accordingly took the ruins of
is