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To bind themselves yet more closely together, it seemed good to them
to leave a common monument. In pursuance of this resolution they made
the Labyrinth which lies a little above Lake Moeris, in the
neighbourhood of the place called the city of Crocodiles. I visited
this place, and found it to surpass description; for if all the walls
and other great works of the Greeks could be put together in one, they
would not equal, either for labour or expense, this Labyrinth; and
yet the temple of Ephesus is a building worthy of note, and so is the
temple of Samos. The pyramids likewise surpass description, and are
severally equal to a number of the greatest works of the Greeks, but
the Labyrinth surpasses the pyramids. It has twelve courts, all of
them roofed, with gates exactly opposite one another, six looking to
the north, and six to the south. A single wall surrounds the entire
building. There are two different sorts of chambers throughout - half
under ground, half above ground, the latter built upon the former;
the whole number of these chambers is three thousand, fifteen hundred
of each kind. The upper chambers I myself passed through and saw,
and what I say concerning them is from my own observation; of the
underground chambers I can only speak from report: for the keepers of
the building could not be got to show them, since they contained (as
they said) the sepulchres of the kings who built the Labyrinth, and
also those of the sacred crocodiles. Thus it is from hearsay only that
I can speak of the lower chambers. The upper chambers, however, I
saw with my own eyes, and found them to excel all other human
productions; for the passages through the houses, and the varied
windings of the paths across the courts excited in me infinite
admiration as I passed from the courts into chambers, and from the
chambers into colonnades, and from the colonnades into fresh houses,
and again from these into courts unseen before. The roof was
throughout of stone, like the walls; and the walls were carved all
over with figures; every court was surrounded with a colonnade which
was built of white stones exquisitely fitted together. At the corner
of the Labyrinth stands a pyramid, forty fathoms high, with large
figures engraved on it, which is entered by a subterranean passage.
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