The Labyrinth of Egypt was the name given to a complex labyrinthine structure that once stood near the foot of the Pyramid of
Amenemhat III
:''See Amenemhat, for other individuals with this name.''
Amenemhat III (Ancient Egyptian: ''Ỉmn-m-hꜣt'' meaning 'Amun is at the forefront'), also known as Amenemhet III, was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the sixth king of the Twelfth Dyn ...
at
Hawara
Hawara is an archaeological site of Ancient Egypt, south of the site of Crocodilopolis ('Arsinoë', also known as 'Medinet al-Faiyum') at the entrance to the depression of the Fayyum oasis. It is the site of a pyramid built by Pharaoh Amenemhat ...
.
Description

The Labyrinth of Egypt was built at
Hawara
Hawara is an archaeological site of Ancient Egypt, south of the site of Crocodilopolis ('Arsinoë', also known as 'Medinet al-Faiyum') at the entrance to the depression of the Fayyum oasis. It is the site of a pyramid built by Pharaoh Amenemhat ...
by
Amenemhat III
:''See Amenemhat, for other individuals with this name.''
Amenemhat III (Ancient Egyptian: ''Ỉmn-m-hꜣt'' meaning 'Amun is at the forefront'), also known as Amenemhet III, was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the sixth king of the Twelfth Dyn ...
, who ruled 1800 BC as the sixth
pharaoh
Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...
of the
Twelfth Dynasty
The Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty XII) is a series of rulers reigning from 1991–1802 BC (190 years), at what is often considered to be the apex of the Middle Kingdom (Dynasties XI–XIV). The dynasty periodically expanded its terr ...
.
Karl Richard Lepsius
Karl Richard Lepsius (; 23 December 181010 July 1884) was a German people, Prussian Egyptology, Egyptologist, Linguistics, linguist and modern archaeology, modern archaeologist.
He is widely known for his opus magnum ''Denkmäler aus Ägypten ...
also discovered
cartouches
file:Birth and Throne cartouches of pharaoh Seti I, from KV17 at the Valley of the Kings, Egypt. Neues Museum.jpg, upalt=A stone face carved with coloured hieroglyphics. Two cartouches - ovoid shapes with hieroglyphics inside - are visible at the ...
bearing the name of Amenemhat's daughter,
Sobekneferu
Sobekneferu or Neferusobek () was the first confirmed queen regnant
A queen regnant (: queens regnant) is a female monarch, equivalent in rank, title and position to a king. She reigns ''suo jure'' (in her own right) over a realm known ...
, suggesting that she made additions to the complex's decorations during her reign as king of Egypt.
The structure may have been a collection of funerary temples such as the ones that are commonly found near Egyptian pyramids.
Since the temple was destroyed in antiquity, it can only be partially reconstructed. A north-south oriented perimeter wall enclosed the entire complex which thus measured by , and the floorplan of the Labyrinth itself is estimated to have covered around . After excavating the site in 1888,
Flinders Petrie
Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Sir Flinders Petrie, was an English people, English Egyptology, Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. ...
argued that the northernmost portion of the Labyrinth had been composed of nine shrines that collectively stood behind twenty-seven columns that ran east-to-west; in front of these stood twelve columned courts that were divided into two groups by a long hall.
Historical record
Classical accounts

The first major historian to discuss the labyrinth was the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
author
Herodotus
Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...
( 484 BC c. 425 BC), who, in Book II of his ''
Histories
Histories or, in Latin, Historiae may refer to:
* the plural of history
* ''Histories'' (Herodotus), by Herodotus
* ''The Histories'', by Timaeus
* ''The Histories'' (Polybius), by Polybius
* ''Histories'' by Gaius Sallustius Crispus (Sallust) ...
'', wrote that the structure surpassed the greatness of even the
Egyptian pyramids
The Egyptian pyramids are ancient masonry structures located in Egypt. Most were built as tombs for the pharaohs and their consorts during the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old and Middle Kingdom of Egypt, Middle Kingdom periods. At least 138 identi ...
:
Several centuries after Herodotus, the Greek
geographer
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...
Strabo
Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...
(c. 64 BC – c. 24 AD) described the labyrinth in his work ''
Geographica
The ''Geographica'' (, ''Geōgraphiká''; or , "Strabo's 17 Books on Geographical Topics") or ''Geography'', is an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge, consisting of 17 'books', written in Greek in the late 1st century BC, or early 1st cen ...
'', noting a connection between the number of the structure's courts and the
nomes of ancient Egypt:
Around the general time of Strabo, the Greek historian
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental Universal history (genre), universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty ...
( 1st century BC) also wrote about the structure, contending in his ''
Bibliotheca historica
''Bibliotheca historica'' (, ) is a work of Universal history (genre), universal history by Diodorus Siculus. It consisted of forty books, which were divided into three sections. The first six books are geographical in theme, and describe the h ...
'' that it was constructed by "King Mendes" and was "not so remarkable for its size as it was impossible to imitate in respect to its ingenious design; for a man who enters it cannot easily find his way out, unless he gets a guide who is thoroughly acquainted with the structure."
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental Universal history (genre), universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty ...
, ''Bibliotheca historica
''Bibliotheca historica'' (, ) is a work of Universal history (genre), universal history by Diodorus Siculus. It consisted of forty books, which were divided into three sections. The first six books are geographical in theme, and describe the h ...
'', 1.61. Diodorus Siculus also furthered the claim that the Egyptian Labyrinth inspired
Daedalus
In Greek mythology, Daedalus (, ; Greek language, Greek: Δαίδαλος; Latin language, Latin: ''Daedalus''; Etruscan language, Etruscan: ''Taitale'') was a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. H ...
to build the Cretan labyrinth for King
Minos
Main injector neutrino oscillation search (MINOS) was a particle physics experiment designed to study the phenomena of neutrino oscillations, first discovered by a Super-Kamiokande (Super-K) experiment in 1998. Neutrinos produced by the NuMI ...
.
In the first part of the first century AD, the
Roman geographer
;Pre-Hellenistic Classical Greece
*Homer
*Anaximander (died )
*Hecataeus of Miletus (died )
*Massaliote Periplus (6th century BC)
*Scylax of Caryanda (6th century BC)
*Herodotus (died )
;Hellenistic period
*Pytheas (died )
*''Periplus of Pseudo- ...
Pomponius Mela
Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest known Roman geographer. He was born at the end of the 1st century BC in Tingentera (now Algeciras) and died AD 45.
His short work (''De situ orbis libri III.'') remained in use nea ...
discussed the Labyrinth in his work ''Chorographia'', and later that century,
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...
described the structure in his
''Naturalis Historia'', writing:
One of the last mentions of the Labyrinth in Classical literature occurs in the ''
Historia Augusta
The ''Historia Augusta'' (English: ''Augustan History'') is a late Roman collection of biographies, written in Latin, of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, Caesar (title), designated heirs and Roman usurper, usurpers from 117 to 284. S ...
'', which states that the
Roman emperor Septimius Severus
Lucius Septimius Severus (; ; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through cursus honorum, the ...
(AD 145211) visited the structure AD 200.
['']Historia Augusta
The ''Historia Augusta'' (English: ''Augustan History'') is a late Roman collection of biographies, written in Latin, of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, Caesar (title), designated heirs and Roman usurper, usurpers from 117 to 284. S ...
'', "Septimius Severus", 17.4.
The Classical accounts of various authors are not entirely consistent, perhaps due to degradation of the structure during Classical times. Other errors are likely due to certain authors not having seen the structure in person: Diodorus Siculus, for instance, describes the Labyrinth as possessing "architectural features which are virtually impossible in an Egyptian temple", which suggests that he was relying on a source who erroneously assumed that the Labyrinth looked like Grecian temples of the time. Likewise, Pliny's description includes a number of odd flourishes that Alan B. Lloyd argues is evidence of "a desperate attempt
y Plinyto reconcile several accounts of the building".
Destruction
At some point in antiquity the Labyrinth was dismantled. Inge Uytterhoeven and Ingrid Blom-Böer argue that since Greco-Roman buildings were erected only on top of the western portion of the Labyrinth's ruins, it is likely that this portion of the structure had already been demolished by the
Late Period or early
Ptolemaic era. In contrast, Uytterhoeven and Blom-Böer contend that the eastern portion of the Labyrinth likely remained in use into the Ptolemaic and possibly Roman eras, explaining both the absence of Greco-Roman ruins in this area and why the most "imposing architectural and sculptural elements" of the Labyrinth have been found here.
Following the
collapse of the Western Roman Empire
The fall of the Western Roman Empire, also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome, was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vast ...
, the ruins of the Labyrinth were quarried for stone, and after most of the stones had been carted away, the location of the structure was gradually forgotten. What little remained of the Labyrinth was further marred when, in around the mid-13th century AD, a canal called the "Bahr Sharqiyyah" (also known as the "Bahr Seilah") was dug through the middle of Hawara; in 1900–1907, a newer canal (the "Bahr Abdul Wahbi") was built over the Bahr Sharqiyyah, which caused additional damage to the site.
Rediscovery

In the 17th century,
Claude Sicard
Father Claude Sicard (1677–1726) was a French Jesuit priest, and an early modern visitor to Egypt, between 1708 and 1712.
Sicard was a scholar and at the age of 22 was a professor in the seminary at Lyon.Thompson, Jason. (2015). ''Wonderful Thi ...
suggested that the Labyrinth may have been located at Hawara. Two centuries later, in a volume of ''
Description de l'Égypte
The ''Description de l'Égypte'' (, ''"Description of Egypt"'') was a series of publications, appearing first in 1809 and continuing until the final volume appeared in 1829, which aimed to comprehensively catalog all known aspects of ancient an ...
'' (1821), and
Edme-François Jomard
Edme-François Jomard (; 1777 – September 22, 1862) was a French cartographer, engineer, and archaeologist. He edited the ''Description de L'Égypte'' and was a member of the Institut d'Egypte established by Napoleon. He supervised the educati ...
discussed the location of the Labyrinth in an extended consideration of the Hawara site; Eric P. Uphill has thus argued that Jomard and Caristie's chapter was consequently "the first published description of ... the Labyrinth site
hat
A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...
distinguish
dthe salient features
f the structurecorrectly". Subsequent works postulated that the ruins south of the Pyramid of Amenemhat III were in fact the remains of the Labyrinth, including brief reports by
Howard Vyse
Major General Richard William Howard Howard Vyse (25 July 1784 – 8 June 1853) was a British soldier and Egyptologist. He was also Member of Parliament (MP) for Beverley (from 1807 to 1812) and Honiton (from 1812 to 1818).
Family life
Richar ...
and
John Shae Perring
John Shae Perring (24 January 1813, Boston, Lincolnshire – 16 January 1869, Manchester) was a British engineer, anthropologist and Egyptologist, most notable for his work excavating and documenting Egyptian pyramids.
Career
In 1837 Perring an ...
(1842) and
John Gardner Wilkinson
Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (5 October 1797 – 29 October 1875) was an English traveller, writer and pioneer egyptologist of the 19th century. He is often referred to as "the Father of British egyptology".
Childhood and education
Wilkinso ...
(1843).
In 1843, the
Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
n
Egyptologist
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end ...
Karl Richard Lepsius
Karl Richard Lepsius (; 23 December 181010 July 1884) was a German people, Prussian Egyptology, Egyptologist, Linguistics, linguist and modern archaeology, modern archaeologist.
He is widely known for his opus magnum ''Denkmäler aus Ägypten ...
excavated the area around the Pyramid of Amenemhat III at Hawara and, after uncovering the remnants of a series of brick chambers, argued that he had positively identified the location of the famed labyrinth. (Around this time, Lepsius's student, G. M. Ebers, contended that if one were to climb the pyramid, they would be able to see the horseshoe-like imprint of the structure.) However, as W. H. Matthews notes:
The data furnished by epsius and his associateswere not altogether of a convincing character, and it was felt that further evidence was required before their conclusions could be accepted.
In 1888, the British Egyptologist
Flinders Petrie
Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Sir Flinders Petrie, was an English people, English Egyptology, Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. ...
examined the brick chambers that Lepsius had uncovered and determined that they were the remnants of a Greco-Roman town that had been constructed on top of the labyrinth's ruins. As for the labyrinth itself, Petrie managed to uncover what little remained of its foundations amidst a "great bed of chips". Petrie was also able to locate a limestone statue of Sobek and another of Hathor, as well as two granite shrines that each contained a statue of Amenemhat III. The results of Petrie's investigation were eventually published in the
monograph
A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...
''The Labyrinth Gerzeh and Mazghuneh'' (1912).
Legacy
Herodotus' description of the Egyptian Labyrinth inspired some central scenes in
Bolesław Prus
Aleksander Głowacki (20 August 1847 – 19 May 1912), better known by his pen name Bolesław Prus (), was a Polish journalist, novelist, a leading figure in the history of Polish literature and philosophy, and a distinctive voice in world ...
' 1895
historical novel
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the setting of particular real historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to oth ...
''
Pharaoh
Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...
''.
Notes
References
Bibliography
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{{coord, 29.273, 30.899, type:landmark_region:EG, display=title
18th-century BC establishments in Egypt
Buildings and structures completed in the 18th century BC
Buildings and structures demolished in the 13th century
13th-century disestablishments in Africa
1888 archaeological discoveries
Faiyum
Land art
Labyrinths
Amenemhat III
Former religious buildings and structures in Egypt
Ruins in Egypt