Where was Herodotus when he saw the Colossi? The water level of Lake Moeris has varied considerably (up to 60 meters) over the last 10,000 years . 14 Using a digital elevation model (DEM), we can estimate the water level when Amenemhet III is thought to have built the Colossi and when Herodotus saw them .
Based on the DEM, Biahmu was above water at the time of Amenemhet III and below water when Herodotus was there. But more importantly, if the Colossi were partially below water, so too was the surrounding area over a radius of more than six miles. From this distance, the pyramids in Giza are barely visible let alone a structure the size reconstructed by Petrie. If the stonework that Petrie believed was a courtyard around the figures was the base of a pyramid 120 feet tall, even that would not be large enough to be visible from that distance.
New Evidence of Advanced Prehistoric Civilizations
The Labyrinth
The legendary Labyrinth of Hawara was brought to the attention of the Western world by Herodotus in the fifth century BC. He describes an above-ground structure that he saw, and one below-ground that he was denied access to by the Egyptians.
Moreover, they decided to preserve the memory of their names by a common memorial, and so they made a labyrinth a liJle way beyond lake Moeris and near the place called the City of Crocodiles. I have seen it myself, and indeed words cannot describe it; if one were to collect the walls and evidence of other efforts of the Greeks, the sum would not amount to the labor and cost of this labyrinth. And yet the temple at Ephesus and the one on Samos are noteworthy. Though the pyramids beggar descripPon and each one of them is a match for many great monuments built by Greeks, this maze surpasses even the pyramids. It has twelve roofed courts with doors facing each other: six face north and six south, in two conPnuous lines, all within one outer wall. There are also double sets of chambers, three thousand altogether, fiTeen hundred above and the same number under ground. We ourselves viewed those that are above ground, and speak of what we have seen, but we learned through conversaPon about the underground chambers; the EgypPan caretakers would by no means show them, as they were, they said, the burial vaults of the kings who first built this labyrinth, and of the sacred crocodiles. Thus we can only speak from hearsay of the lower chambers.
