Its primary conception had been that of a place of assembly for the Parliaments of old Egypt. At that time one court, to which were attached 250 chambers, half being above, and half below ground, appears to have been assigned to each of the twenty-seven departments of the kingdom. Each of these chambers was roofed with a single stone slab. No material but stone had been used throughout the structure. Its pillars were monoliths of red granite, and of a limestone so white as to have been mistaken for Parian marble, and of so compact a texture as to receive a good polish. The sculptures of the courts and chambers were singularly bold and good. Those of each court, and its connected chambers, had reference to the history, the peculiarities, and the religion of the department to which it had been assigned. Besides the chambers were numerous halls, porticoes, and passages. The area of the roof, composed of the enormous slabs just mentioned, may have formed the actual place of assembly for the collected deputies of the departments. On the north side stood the Pyramid in which was buried Amenemha III., who, if he had not originally designed the Labyrinth, had, at all events, been its chief constructor, for his scutcheon is frequently found in the existing remains. This Pyramid was cased with the white limestone used in the Labyrinth itself. The dimensions of the figures sculptured upon it were unusually large. This form having been incorporated into the general design, for it was placed in front of the north, which was the open side, must have gone some way towards breaking the monotony of the horizontal and perpendicular lines of the Labyrinth itself. Herodotus saw it after its partial restoration by the Dodecarchs. They had restored twelve of its courts, one for each of themselves. Those were days of decadence, when what would contribute to the greatness, not of the kingdom, but of the individual ruler, was the governing idea in royal minds. It had first fallen into decay, because into disuse, during the long period of Hyksos occupation; and on the rise of the new monarchy the place of assembly had been removed to Thebes, where Sethos had constructed his grand hypostyle hall for that very purpose. It had, therefore, at the time when the twelve kings took it in hand, been disused and dilapidated for a period of between fifteen and twenty centuries, probably for as long a time as has elapsed from the days of Augustus to our own day. In that long period we can imagine to what an extent it had been resorted to as a quarry for limestone, and building materials. This will account for the restorations of the twelve kings having been so considerable, that Herodotus speaks of them as having been the builders of the structure he saw.