Ancient writers were awestruck by Egypt’s Labyrinth at Hawara. Herodotus wrote that it surpassed the pyramids in grandeur. Diodorus Siculus described 12 courts, 3,000 chambers and numerous passages. Strabo described 12 pillared courts, compared the complex to a city and said it exceeded the pyramids in size; he also mentioned a nearby pyramid. Pliny stressed the labyrinth’s winding passages, but his 3,600-year date referred to the Great Pyramid of Cheops—not the labyrinth.
Ancient writers described Egypt’s labyrinth as exceeding the pyramids
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Key facts
- Herodotus (5th century BCE) wrote that the labyrinth surpassed the pyramids in grandeur.
- Diodorus Siculus (1st century BCE), who traveled in Egypt, described 12 courts, 3,000 chambers and numerous passages; Pliny supplied the observation that its exit was nearly impossible to find.
- Strabo described 12 pillared courts, compared the complex to a city and said it exceeded the pyramids in size. He mentioned a pyramid nearby, not 12 palaces.
- Pliny the Elder described the labyrinth’s winding passages but said that the Great Pyramid of Cheops was 3,600 years old. That date was not a construction date for the labyrinth or a date of 3600 BCE.
Sources
The Egyptian 'Labyrinth' at Hawara - egyptexperienceegyptexperience.wordpress.com
Herodotus (fifth century BC) and other Greek and Roman writers described a magnificent labyrinth in Egypt, containing three thousand rooms on two levels.
The lost Egyptian labyrinth - The Pastthe-past.com
Sean Rigby investigates the mysterious monument that impressed Classical writers more than the Great Pyramid.
Labyrinth of Egypt - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
... Herodotus ( c. 484 BC – c. 425 BC), who, in Book II of his Histories, wrote that the structure surpassed the greatness of even the Egyptian pyramids: [The ...
The Labyrinth of Hawara - by Louis De Cordierlabyrinthofegypt.substack.com
Ancient Greek and Roman authors, including Herodotus, Strabo, and Pliny, described a vast temple complex adjacent to a pyramid and a great ...
Herodotus and the Lost Labyrinth of Egypt: Found at Last?historicmysteries.com
Herodotus, who lived during the 5th century BC, writes that he visited the labyrinth himself during his travels in Egypt.
A virtual exploration of the lost labyrinth: developing a recondiscovery.ucl.ac.uk
This paper reports on a case study that explores the possibility of reproducing a destroyed historic site from its remaining artefacts. the Hawara Labyrinth ...
The Lost Egyptian Labyrinth of Hawaratheancientconnection.com
The Pyramid of Hawara is attributed to the Pharaoh Amenemhet III of the 12th Dynasty in ancient Egypt and is located about 9 kilometers east of the oasis of ...
The lost Egyptian labyrinth - The Pastthe-past.com
What is more, Hawara is the location of the eroded mud-brick core of the pyramid of the Twelfth Dynasty pharaoh Amenemhat III (c.1855-1808 BC), ...
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