Hawara

And we're going to the Fyom Oasis, which is about 50 miles south of Cairo.

And it's an archaeological site called Hawara.

Back in the 12th dynasty, around 1850 BCE, Pharaoh Amenemhat III chose this spot for his mortuary complex.

And this pharaoh was no ordinary ruler.

Okay.

So now we're talking about the Victorian archaeologists in 1888, so nearly modern day compared to the times we talked about earlier.

The legendary British archaeologist Sir William Flanders Petrie arrived at Hawara, just south of the pyramid.

Petrie uncovered an artificial stone bed made by compacted chips, quartz gravel, and mortar.

The temple is ostensibly dedicated to Renunnutet, a goddess of the harvest, sometimes considered the wife of Sobek, but it's her husband who gets most of the royal attention in the temple inscriptions.

Amenemhat also built a pyramid near the city of Shedyet at a place now called Hawara.

The mortuary cult of the king was tightly connected to the temple at Shedyet and veneration of Sobek.

This explosion of religious architecture shows how prominent Sobek was in the Fayyum at this time.

And the...

The labyrinth that is supposedly up underneath the, is it Hawara? I think it's the pyramid that the labyrinth is next to and underneath.

I think it's Hawara.

There was supposed to be an entire floor like down below dedicated to all the crocodiles.

They had a thing for crocodiles.

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 Lamperes, 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 Morris, opposite the ancient town of Arsinoe, Crocodopolis, and just to the south of the pyramid of Hawara, in the district known nowadays as Fayum.

The mummified remains of the builder of the labyrinth, King Amenemhat III, and his daughter Sobekneferu, have been discovered in this pyramid, which is symmetrical about the same north-south meridian as the labyrinth.

Professor Petrie reviewed all that the classic writers had reported concerning the labyrinth, and concluded that in spite of their differences, each had contributed some item of value.

End footnote.

Though there was also a suggestion that it might be of Egyptian origin, viz.

that it was derived from the name of Labaris, Senusret III, erroneously conceived by the scribe Maneto to be the founder of the Hawara pile.

Then Mr. Max Mayer put forward the suggestion that it might have some connection with Labris, a word which, in some of the early languages of Asia Minor, e.g. Lydia and Caria, denoted an axe, the axe being the symbol associated with the god known as Zeus Labrandeus or Zeus Stratios, the worship of whom was known to have taken place at Labranda in Caria.

Herodotus was probably exaggerating anyway.

But then in 1888, a British archeologist digging near the pyramid at Hawara hit something strange.

It was a massive stone platform deliberately laid there.

He looked at it and figured it was a foundation of something, the base of a building that used to be there and wasn't anymore.

namely Amenemhat III of the twelfth dynasty, also known as Lamperes, who reigned about twenty-three centuries B.C.

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

The mummified remains of the builder of the labyrinth, King Amenemhat III, and his daughter Sobekneferu, have been discovered in this pyramid, which is symmetrical about the same north-south meridian as the labyrinth.

Professor Petrie reviewed all that the classic writers had reported concerning the labyrinth, and concluded that in spite of their differences each had contributed some item of value.

Flores clavisiera.

End footnote.

Though there was also a suggestion that it might be of Egyptian origin, viz., that it was derived from the name of Laberis, Senusret III, erroneously conceived by the scribe Maneto to be the founder of the Hawara pile.

Then Mr. Max Mayer put forward the suggestion that it might have some connection with labrys, a word which in some of the early languages of Asia Minor, e.g., Lydia and Caria, denoted an axe, the axe being the symbol associated with the god known as Zeus Labraundeus or Zeus Stratios, the worship of whom was known to have taken place at Labraunda in Caria.

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 jams, 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 Lamperes, 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 Morris, opposite the ancient town of Arsinoe, Crocodopolis, and just to the south of the pyramid of Hawara, in the district known nowadays as Fayum.

The mummified remains of the builder of the labyrinth, King Amenemhat III, and his daughter Sobekneferu, have been discovered in this pyramid, which is symmetrical about the same north-south meridian as the labyrinth.

Professor Petrie reviewed all that the classic writers had reported concerning the labyrinth and concluded that in spite of their differences, each had contributed some item of value.

It is the equivalent of the ending enda in certain place names in Asia Minor, e.g. Labranda.

The conjectures that the word was connected with labros, meaning great, or that it was derived from the old Egyptian laperohant, quote, the temple at the mouth of the reservoir, end quote, are hardly worth repeating.

The present position, then, is that the labyrinth is the house of the double axe, the implication being that the Accretan language was not, as formerly believed, a miniature reproduction of the temple of Hawara, but that the latter was actually given the title by analogy with the building at Knossos.

As regards the use of the word in our own language, it was probably well known to most of the churchmen of the early and middle ages through the medium of the classic authors accessible to them, but it never passed into common speech.

The Fayyum became one of the most productive farming regions in Egypt, and it has remained one ever since.

Amenemhat III built a pyramid at a place called Hawara, on the edge of the Fayum.

And beside it, he built something else.

A vast temple complex, full of courts, chambers, and passages.

Yeah.

Are you aware of the labyrinth at, at Hawara in Egypt?

No.

What is that?