us,[12] "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
whole building. It contains two different sorts of chambers, half of
them underground, and half above-ground, the latter built upon the
former; the whole number is three thousand, of each kind fifteen
hundred. The upper chambers I myself passed through and saw, and what I
say of 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
induced to show them, since they contained (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 them; but
the upper chambers 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 upon
it, which is entered by a subterranean passage."

The pyramid intended is probably that examined by Perring and Lepsius,
which had a base of three hundred feet, and an elevation, probably, of
about one hundred and eighty-five feet. It was built of crude brick
mixed with a good deal of straw, and cased with a white silicious
limestone. The same material was employed for the greater part of the
so-called "Labyrinth," but many of the columns were of red granite, and
some perhaps of porphyry. Most likely the edifice was in