Amenemhat III

By no means the least of the adventitious benefits enjoyed by the explorer has been the acquisition of a keener sense of appreciation of the labors of the archaeologists, the anthropologists, and other more special types of investigator, any one of whom would naturally be far better qualified to discuss the theme under consideration, at any rate from the standpoint of his particular branch of learning, than the present author can hope to be.

The special thanks of the writer are due to the Professor W.M. Flinders Petrie for permission to make use of his diagram of the conjectural restoration of the labyrinth of Egypt, Figure 4, and the view of the shrine from Amenemhat III, Figure 2.

Also for the facilities to sketch the Egyptian plaque in his collection, which is shown in Figure 19, and for drawing the writer's attention thereto to Sir Arthur Evans for the use of his illustrations of double axes and of the tomb of the double axe, which appear as Figures 9, 10, 11, and 12 respectively.

Figure 8 is also based on one of his drawings.

He found that the brick chambers which Lepsius took to be part of the labyrinth were only remains of the Roman town built by its destroyers.

The labyrinth itself being so thoroughly demolished that only a great bed of fragments remained.

Even from the dreary waste of stone chips, however, a few items of interest were discovered, including scattered bits of foundation, a great well, two door jambs, one to the north and one to the south, two granite shrines and a part of another, several fragments of statues, and a large granite seated figure of the king, who is now generally recognized to have been the builder of the labyrinth, namely Amenemhat III of the 12th dynasty, also known as Lampres, who reigned about 23 centuries BC.

The labyrinth must have covered an area of about 1,000 feet from east to west by 800 feet from north to south and was situated to the east of Lake Moeris, opposite the ancient town of Arsinoe, Crocodilopolis, and just to the south of the pyramid of Hawara in the district known nowadays as Fayum.

from dynasty to dynasty, sometimes because a particular pharaoh would become a patron of a specific god, other times because of the rising or falling economic or political fortunes of a particular city where specific gods were worshipped.

For example, as we've talked about before on this channel, the crocodile god Sobek was very popular during the Middle Kingdom, especially because of the patronage of the pharaoh Amenemhat III.

By 1390 BCE, when Akhenaten's father Amenhotep III rose to the throne, Egyptian religion primarily focused on Amun-Re.

a hybrid god of fertility and the sun.

Lake Moeris was associated with the same region.

And at Hawara stands the pyramid of Amenemhat III.

Diodorus Siculus and Pliny the Elder also wrote about the labyrinth, adding their own descriptions of courts, passageways, statues, shrines, and enormous numbers of rooms.

Not every detail matches perfectly.

It does not need to.

Across different centuries, ancient writers kept describing a huge complex in the same real landscape.

And once you place those accounts beside the Faiyum, Crocodilopolis, Lake Moeris, and Amenemhat III's pyramid, they keep pointing toward the same place: Hawara.

What exactly did they think was there? The word labyrinth makes it sound like the important part was the maze, but the ancient description suggests something much bigger.