Many attempts have been made to visualise the Labyrinth as it existed in the time of Herodotus. Fig. 3 shows, in plan, one such reconstruction, according to the Italian archaeologist Canina. The actual plan of the Labyrinth would appear to have differed from this in many respects, judging by the indications found by Professor Petrie. The latter drew up a tentative restoration based upon the descriptions of Herodotus and Strabo so far as these tallied with the remains discovered by him. He suggests that the shrines which he found formed part of a series of nine, ranged along the foot of the pyramid, each attached to a columned court, the whole series of courts opening opposite a series of twenty-seven columns arranged down the length of a great hall running east and west; on the other side of this hall would be another series of columned courts, six in number and larger than the others, separated by another long hall from a further series of six (Fig. 4). [Illustration: Fig. 2. Egyptian Labyrinth. Shrine of Amenemhat III. (_Flinders Petrie_)] In spite of the scantiness of the present remains and the discrepancies between the various reports that have reached us from ancient times, we can at least be reasonably certain that this, the earliest structure to which the term "labyrinth" λαβύρινθος [Greek: labyrinthos] is known to have been applied, did actually exist; that it was of the nature of a stupendous architectural monument, that it is of great antiquity--having been built over 4000 years ago at any rate--and that its site is definitely known. [Illustration: FIG. 3.--Egyptian Labyrinth. Restored Plan. (_Canina._)] Its original object is still a matter of conjecture. It is quite possible that it was used as a meeting-place for the nomes, which would have been about twenty-two in number at the time of the XIIth Dynasty, but it is perhaps more probable that it was intended as a sepulchral monument. In any case it is plain, from the fragments of various gods and goddesses found on the site, that it was a centre of worship of a great variety of deities. From an almost illegible inscription on a great weather-beaten block of granite, deciphered, with great difficulty, as a dedication by a King Ptolemy to a Queen Cleopatra, Professor Petrie concluded that as late as the beginning of the second century B.C. the building was still in royal care, but not very long afterwards it was considerably despoiled. Whatever may have been its original object, it afforded several generations the advantages of a most convenient stone-quarry. [Illustration: FIG. 4.--Egyptian Labyrinth. Restored Plan of Western Half. (_Flinders Petrie._)] CHAPTER IV THE CRETAN LABYRINTH (i) _The Story of Theseus and the Minotaur_