Egyptian labyrinth keeps secrets of ancient civilizations

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Everyone knows about the existence of mysterious pyramids on the territory of Egypt, but not everyone knows that a huge labyrinth is hidden under them. The secrets stored there are able to reveal the secrets of not only the Egyptian civilization, but of all mankind.

This ancient Egyptian labyrinth was located next to Lake Birket Karun, west of the Nile River, 80 kilometers south of the modern city of Cairo. It was built in 2300 BC and was a building surrounded by a high wall, where there were one and a half thousand above-ground and the same number of underground rooms.

The total area of the labyrinth was 70 thousand square meters. Visitors were not allowed to inspect the underground rooms of the labyrinth; there were tombs for pharaohs and crocodiles - animals sacred in Egypt. Above the entrance to the Egyptian labyrinth were inscribed the following words:

"Madness or death - this is what the weak or the vicious finds here, only the strong and the good find life and immortality here."

Many frivolous have entered this door and did not leave it. This is an abyss that brings back only the courageous in spirit. The intricate system of corridors, courtyards and rooms in the labyrinth was so intricate that without a guide, an outsider could never find a way or an exit in it. The labyrinth was plunged into absolute darkness, and when some doors were opened, they made a terrible sound, like thunder or the roar of a thousand lions.

Before big holidays, mysteries were held in the labyrinth and ritual sacrifices, including human ones, were made. So the ancient Egyptians showed their respect to the god Sebek - a huge crocodile. In ancient manuscripts, information has been preserved that crocodiles actually lived in the labyrinth, reaching 30 meters in length.

The Egyptian labyrinth is an unusually large structure - its base measures 305 x 244 meters. The Greeks admired this labyrinth more than any other Egyptian building, with the exception of the pyramids. In antiquity, it was called the "labyrinth" and served as a model for the labyrinth in Crete.

Except for a few columns, it is now completely destroyed. Everything we know about him is based on ancient evidence, as well as on the results of excavations carried out by Sir Flinders Petrie, who attempted to reconstruct this structure. The earliest mention belongs to the Greek historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus (about 484-430 BC), he mentions in his "History" that Egypt is divided into twelve administrative districts, which are ruled by twelve rulers, and then gives his own impressions of this structure:

“And so they decided to leave a common monument, and having decided this, they erected a labyrinth a little higher than Lake Merida, near the so-called City of Crocodiles. I saw this labyrinth inside: it is beyond description. After all, if you collect all the walls and great structures erected by the Hellenes, then in general it would turn out that they spent less labor and money than this one labyrinth.

And yet the temples at Ephesus and at Samos are very remarkable. Of course, the pyramids are huge structures and each of them is worth in size many creations of Hellenic building art put together, although they are also large. However, the labyrinth is larger than these pyramids. It has twenty courtyards with gates facing one another, six facing north and six facing south, adjacent to each other.

Outside, there is a single wall around them. Inside this wall there are chambers of two kinds: one underground, others above the ground, numbering 3000, exactly 1500 each. I myself had to go through the above-ground chambers and examine them, and I speak of them as an eyewitness. I know about the underground chambers only from stories: the Egyptian caretakers never wanted to show them to me, saying that there are tombs of the kings who erected this labyrinth, as well as the tombs of sacred crocodiles.

That is why I am only talking about the lower chambers by hearsay. The upper chambers, which I had to see, surpass all the creations of human hands. Passages through chambers and winding passages through courtyards, being very confusing, cause a feeling of endless amazement: from courtyards you go to chambers, from chambers to galleries with colonnades, then back to chambers and from there back to courtyards.

Everywhere there are stone roofs, as well as walls, and these walls are covered with many relief images. Each courtyard is surrounded by columns of carefully fitted pieces of white stone. And on the corner at the end of the labyrinth there is a pyramid with a height of 40 orgies, with huge figures carved on it. An underground passage leads to the pyramid."

Manetho, the Egyptian high priest from Heliopolis, who wrote in Greek, notes in his surviving work from the third century BC. e. and dedicated to the history and religion of the ancient Egyptians, that the creator of the labyrinth was the fourth pharaoh of the XII dynasty, Amenemhat III, whom he calls Lajares, Lampares or Labaris and about whom he writes as follows:

“He ruled for eight years. In the Arsinoi nome, he built himself a tomb - a labyrinth with many rooms."

Between 60 and 57 BC. e. Greek historian Diodorus Siculus lived temporarily in Egypt. In his Historical Library, he claims that the Egyptian labyrinth is in good condition.

“After the death of this ruler, the Egyptians again became independent and enthroned a compatriot ruler, Mendes, whom some call Marrus. He did not conduct any military actions, but built a tomb for himself, known as the Labyrinth.

This Labyrinth is remarkable not so much for its size as for the cunning and skillfulness of its internal structure, which cannot be reproduced. For when a person enters this Labyrinth, he cannot find his way back on his own, and he needs the help of an experienced guide. to whom the structure of the building is well known.

Some also say that Daedalus, who visited Egypt and was delighted with this wonderful creation, built a similar labyrinth for the Cretan king Minos, in which he was kept. as the myth says, a monster named Minotaur. However, the Cretan labyrinth no longer exists, perhaps it was razed to the ground by one of the rulers, or the time has done this work, while the Egyptian labyrinth has stood completely intact to our times."

Diodorus himself did not see this building, he only gathered together the data that were available to him. When describing the Egyptian labyrinth, he used two sources and failed to recognize that both of them tell about the same building. Soon after compiling his first description, he begins to consider this structure as a common monument to the twelve nomarchs of Egypt:

“For two years there was no ruler in Egypt, and riots and murders began among the people, then the twelve most important leaders united in a sacred union. They met for a council in Memphis and made an agreement of mutual loyalty and friendship and proclaimed themselves rulers.

They ruled in accordance with their vows and promises, maintained mutual agreement for fifteen years, after which they decided to build a common tomb for themselves. Their plan was such that, just as during life they cherished a heartfelt disposition to each other, they were given equal honors, so after death their bodies should rest in one place, and a monument erected by their order should symbolize the glory and power of the buried there.

This should have surpassed the creations of its predecessors. And so, having chosen a place for their monument near Lake Merida in Libya, they built a tomb of a magnificent stone in the shape of a square, but each side of it was equal in size to one stage. Descendants could never surpass the skill of carved decorations and any other work.

A hall was built behind the fence, surrounded by columns, forty on each side, and the roof of the courtyard was made of solid stone, hollowed out from the inside and decorated with skillful and multicolored painting. The courtyard was also decorated with magnificent picturesque images of the places where each of the rulers came from, as well as the temples and sanctuaries that were there.

In general, it is known about these rulers that the scope of their plans for the construction of their tomb - both in size and cost - was so great that if they had not been overthrown before the construction was completed, their creation would have remained unsurpassed. And after these rulers reigned in Egypt for fifteen years, it so happened that the rule passed to one person …"

Unlike Diodorus, the Greek geographer and historian Strabo of Amasa (c. 64 BC - 24 AD) gives a description based on personal impressions. In 25 BC. e. he, as part of the retinue of the prefect of Egypt, Gaius Cornelius Gall, made a trip to Egypt, about which he narrates in detail in his "Geography":

“In addition, this nome has a labyrinth - a structure that can be compared to pyramids - and next to it is the tomb of the king, the builder of the labyrinth. Near the first entrance to the canal, going forward 30 or 40 stadia, we reach a flat area in the form of a trapezoid, where the village is located, as well as a large palace, consisting of many palace premises, as many as there were nomes in former times, for there are so many halls, which are surrounded by adjacent colonnades, all these colonnades are located in one row and along one wall, which is like a long wall with halls in front of it, and the paths leading to them are directly opposite the wall.

In front of the entrances to the halls there are many long covered vaults with winding paths between them, so that without a guide, no stranger can find either an entrance or an exit. It is surprising that the roof of each chamber consists of one stone, and that the covered vaults, in the same width, are covered with slabs of solid stone of an extremely large size, without any admixture of wood anywhere or any other substance.

Climbing the roof of a small height, since the labyrinth is one-story, you can see a stone plain, consisting of stones of the same large size; from here, descending again into the halls, you can see that they are arranged in a row and rest on 27 columns, their walls are also made of stones of no less size.

At the end of this building, which occupies more space than a stage, there is a tomb - a quadrangular pyramid, each side of which is about a plephra in width at an equal height.

The name of the deceased there is Imandez. They say that such a number of halls were built due to the custom of all nomes gathering here according to the meaning of each, together with their priests and priestesses to perform sacrifices, bring gifts to the gods and for legal proceedings on important matters. Each nome was assigned a hall assigned to him."

A little further, in the 38th chapter, Strabo gives a description of his trip to the sacred crocodiles Arsinoe (Crocodilopolis). This place is located next to the labyrinth, so it can be assumed that he also saw the labyrinth. Pliny the Elder (23 / 24-79 AD) in his Natural History gives the most detailed description of the labyrinth.

“Let's also say about labyrinths, the most outlandish creation of human extravagance, but not fictional, as they might think. To this day, the one that was created first, as reported, 3600 years ago, by King Petesuchus or Titoes, still exists in Egypt in the Heracleopolis nome, although Herodotus says that all this structure was created by 12 kings, the last of whom was Psammetichus.

Its purpose is interpreted in different ways: according to Demotel, it was the royal palace of Moteris, according to Lycea - the tomb of Merida, according to the interpretation of many, it was built as a sanctuary of the Sun, which is most likely.

In any case, there is no doubt that Daedalus borrowed from here the model of the labyrinth that he created in Crete, but reproduced only its one-hundredth part, which contains the rotation of paths and intricate passages back and forth, not as we see on pavements or in Field games for boys, containing many thousands of walking steps on a small patch, and with many built-in doors for deceiving moves and returning to the same wanderings.

It was the second labyrinth after the Egyptian, the third was on Lemnos, the fourth in Italy, all covered with hewn stone vaults. In Egyptian, which personally surprises me, the entrance and the columns are made of stone from Paros, the rest of it is made of blocks of syenite - pink and red granite, which can hardly be destroyed even for centuries, even if only with the assistance of the Heracleopolis who belonged to this structure with extraordinary hatred.

It is impossible to describe in detail the location of this structure and each part separately, since it is divided into regions, as well as into prefectures, which are called nomes, and 21 of their names are given as many vast premises, in addition, it contains temples of all the gods of Egypt, and Moreover, in 40 edicules of closed chapels of funeral temples, Nemesis enclosed many pyramids of forty girths each, occupying six arur 0, 024 hectares at the base.

Tired of walking, they fall into that famous tangled trap of roads. Moreover, here are the second floors high on the slopes, and the porticoes descending by ninety steps. Inside - columns of porphyrite stone, images of gods, statues of kings, monstrous figures. Some rooms are arranged in such a way that when the doors are opened, a terrible thunder is heard inside.

Most of them pass in the dark. And beyond the wall of the labyrinth there are other huge structures - they are called the pteron of the colonnade. From there, passages dug under the ground lead to other underground rooms. Something was restored there only by Kherremon alone, the eunuch of the king Nekteb [Nektaneba I], 500 years before Alexander the Great.

It is also reported that during the construction of the vaults of cut stone, the supports were made from the back trunks [of the Egyptian acacia], boiled in oil."

Description of the Roman geographer Pomponius Mela, who in 43 AD e. outlined in his essay "On the State of the Earth", consisting of three books, the views of the known world adopted in Rome:

“The labyrinth built by Psammetichus encompasses three thousand halls and twelve palaces with one continuous wall. Its walls and roof are marble. The maze has only one entrance.

There are countless winding passages inside it. All of them are directed in different directions and communicate with each other. In the corridors of the labyrinth there are porticoes, which are similar to each other in pairs. Corridors go around each other. This creates a lot of confusion, but you can figure it out."

The authors of antiquity do not offer any single, consistent definition of this outstanding structure. However, since in Egypt during the time of the pharaohs only sanctuaries and structures dedicated to the cult of the dead (tombs and burial temples) were built from stone, then all their other buildings, including palaces, were built of wood and clay bricks, so the labyrinth could not be a palace, an administrative center or a monument (provided that Herodotus, speaking of “a monument, a monument”, does not mean “a tomb, which is quite possible).

On the other hand, since the pharaohs of the XII dynasty built pyramids as tombs, the only possible purpose of the "labyrinth" remains the temple. According to the very plausible explanation given by Alan B. Lloyd, it probably served as a burial temple for Amenemhat III, who was buried in a pyramid nearby, as well as a temple dedicated to some gods.

The answer to the question of how this "labyrinth" got its name also remains unconvincing. Attempts have been made to derive this term from the Egyptian words "al lopa-rohun, laperohunt" or "ro-per-ro-henet", meaning "the entrance to the temple by the lake."

But between these words and the word "labyrinth" there is no phonetic correspondence, and nothing similar was found in the Egyptian texts. It has also been suggested that the throne name of Amenemhat III, Lamares, the Hellenized version of which sounds like "Labaris", comes from the name of the temple of Labaris.

Such a possibility cannot be ruled out, but this does not explain the essence of the phenomenon. Moreover, a strong argument against such an interpretation is the fact that Herodotus, the author of the earliest written source, does not mention Amenemhat III and his throne names. He also does not mention how the Egyptians themselves called this structure ("Amenemkhet lives"). He simply tells about the "labyrinth", not considering it necessary to explain what it is.

He uses a Greek term to describe a huge, awe-inspiring, elaborate stone structure, as if the term expresses some general meaning, a concept. It is this kind of descriptions that are given in all other written sources, and only the authors of a later time mention the danger of getting lost.

Therefore, we can conclude that the term "labyrinth" in this case is used metaphorically, it serves as a name for a certain building, an outstanding structure made of stone. M. Budimir, resorting to historical and linguistic argumentation, came to a similar conclusion, interpreting the labyrinth as a term denoting "a building of great magnitude."

The German Jesuit and scientist Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), known to his contemporaries as the Doctor of a Hundred Arts (Doctor centum artium), tried to reconstruct the Egyptian "labyrinth" based on ancient descriptions.

In the center of the drawing is a labyrinth, which Kircher may have modeled from Roman mosaics. Around there are images symbolizing the twelve nomes - the administrative units of Ancient Egypt, described by Herodotus. This drawing, engraved on copper (50 X 41 cm), is placed in the book "The Tower of Babel, or Archontology" ("Turris Babel, Sive Archontologia", Amsterdam, 1679).

In 2008, a group of researchers from Belgium and Egypt began to study objects hidden underground, hoping to find and unravel the mystery of the mysterious underground complex of an ancient civilization.

The Belgian-Egyptian expedition, armed with scientific instruments, and technology allowing to look into the secret of the rooms hidden under the sand, was able to confirm the presence of an underground temple near the pyramid of Amenemkhet III. Without a doubt, the expedition led by Petrie lifted one of the most incredible discoveries in Egyptian history from the darkness of oblivion, shedding light on the greatest discovery. But if you think that the opening took place, and you do not know about it, then you are wrong with the conclusion.

This significant discovery was hidden from society, and no one could understand why this happened. The results of the expedition, publication in the scientific journal NRIAG, the conclusions of the study, a public lecture at the University of Ghent - all this was "frozen", since the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, banned all reports of the find, allegedly due to the imposed sanctions of the Egyptian service safety, protecting the monument of antiquity.

Louis de Cordier, and other researchers of the expedition patiently waited for a response about excavations in the labyrinth area for several years, with the hope of recognition of the find and the desire to make it public, but unfortunately this did not happen.

But even if researchers have confirmed the existence of an underground complex, excavations must still be carried out to investigate the incredible conclusion of scientists. After all, it is believed that the treasures of the underground labyrinth can provide answers to the countless historical secrets of the ancient Egyptian civilization, as well as provide new knowledge about the history of mankind and other civilizations.

The only question here is why this undeniably incredible historical discovery fell under the yoke of "silence"?

When I was looking for material for this article, I found an image of an Egyptian labyrinth in the most unexpected place for this - on a collector's coin, denominated in 10 New Zealand dollars. Collectible series "Stages of Development of Humanity". Egyptian labyrinth. Silver. Cook Islands 2016. One of the 999 varieties of the collection box. This coin is packed in a metal box. A part of the labyrinth is displayed on its lid. Having collected all 999 boxes (coin circulation), you can get a complete image of the complex scheme.

I find the fact that perhaps the most important mystery of human civilization to solve which all the forces and means of modern science should have been thrown, this very modern science is not interesting - outrageous. Is the ancient Egyptian labyrinth worthy only to be displayed on collectible coins that are in use only in a narrow circle of collectors?

However, it is worth recognizing the fact that hundreds, if not thousands of mysterious artifacts of the past of our civilization, which are consigned to oblivion, are scattered all over the world, and all attempts to find and research them are immediately severely suppressed.