twelve halls, and discovered
no outlet to such as went to see them. There was the like number of
buildings under ground. These subterraneous structures were designed for
the burying-place of the kings, and also (who can speak this without
confusion, and without deploring the blindness of man!) for keeping the
sacred crocodiles, which a nation, so wise in other respects, worshipped
as gods.

In order to visit the rooms and halls of the labyrinth, it was necessary,
as the reader will naturally suppose, for people to take the same
precaution as Ariadne made Theseus use, when he was obliged to go and
fight the Minotaur in the labyrinth of Crete. Virgil describes it in this
manner:--

Ut quondam Creta fertur labyrinthus in alta
Parietibus textum caecis iter ancipitemque
Mille viis habuisse dolum, qua signa sequendi
Falleret indeprensus et irremeabilis error.(278)
Hic labor ille domus, et inextricabilis error.
Daedalus, ipse dolos tecti ambagesque resolvit,
Caeca regens filo vestigia.(279)

And as the Cretan labyrinth of old,
With wand'ring ways, and many a winding fold,
Involv'd the weary feet without redress,
In a round error, which deny'd recess:
Not far from thence he grav'd the wond'rous maze;
A thousand doors, a thousand winding ways

SECT. IV. THE LAKE OF MOERIS.--The noblest and most wonderful of all the
structures or works of the kings of Egypt, was the lake of Moeris:
accordingly, Herodotus considers it as vastly superior to the pyramids and
labyrinth.(280) As Egypt was more or less fruitful in proportion to the
inundations of the Nile; and as in these floods, the too great or too
little rise of the waters was equally fatal to the lands, king Moeris, to
prevent these two inconveniences, and to correct, as far as lay in his
power, the irregularities of the Nile, thought proper to call art to the
assistance of nature; and so caused the lake to be dug, which afterwards
went by his name. This lake was in circumference about three thousand six
hundred stadia, that is, about one hundred and eighty French leagues, and
three hundred feet deep.(281) Two pyramids, on each of which was placed a
colossal statue, seated on a throne, raised their heads to the height of
three hundred feet, in the midst of the lake, whilst their foundations
took up the same space under the water; a proof that they were erected
before the cavity was filled, and a demonstration that a la