In Walpole's ,collection of Travels in various Countries of the East, there is an account by Mr. Coekerell of an excur sion from the town of Candia to a curious excavation in a mountain about three miles from Agio Deka, a village near the site of Gortys, and 20 miles inland from Candia, which the inhabitants call by the name of the labyrinth. It is a very intricate maze, cut through a freestone rock ; many of the passages are very low and narrow, but the principal way is about S feet wide, and as many in height. There are several square chambers at the ends of some of the passages, and piers have been left in the middle to support the supe•incum bent rock. Mr. Cockerel] has explored all the excavation that was accessible, of which he gives a plan ; it is in its whole length, including the windings, about three-quarters of a mile, but this is evidently only part of the whole, as many of the passages are stopped up in consequence of the ffilling in of the rock. Some have supposed this to have been the labyrinth of Minos.
The labyrinth of Egypt, according to Pliny, was the oldest of all ; and was subsisting in his time, after having stood, according to tradition, as he says, 4,000 years. lie says it was built by king Petesucus, or Tithoes; but fie•odotus makes it the work of several kings : it stood on the southern bank of the lake Mceris, near the town of Crocodiles, or Arsinoe, and consisted of twelve large contiguous palaces, in which the twelve kings of Egypt assembled to transact affiffrs of state and religion, containing 3,000 apartments, 1,500 of which were under ground.
This structure seems to have been designed as a pantheon, or universal temple of all the Egyptian deities, which were separately worshipped in the provinces. It was also the place of the general assembly of the magistracy of the whole nation ; fine those of all the provinces or nomcs met here to feast and sacrifice, and to judge causes of great consequence. For this reason, every nome had a hall or palace appropriated to it ; the whole edifice containing, according to Ilerodlotus, 12 ; Egypt being then divided into so many kingdoms. Pliny makes the number of these palaces 10, and Strabo makes them 27. All the halls were vaulted, and had an equal number of doors opposite to one another, six opening to the north, and six to the south, all encompassed by the same wall. The exits, by various passages and innumerable returns, afforded to Herodotus a thousand occasions of won der. The roofs and walls within were encrusted with marble, and adorned with sculptured figures. The halls were sur rounded with pillars of white stone finely polished ; and at the angle, where the labyrinth ended, stood the pyramid, which Strabo asserts to be the sepulchre of the prince who built the labyrinth. According to the description of Pliny
and Strabo, this edifice stood in the midst of an immense square, surrounded with buildings at a great distance. The porch was of Parian marble, and all the other pillars of marble of Syene ; within were the temples of their several deities, and galleries, to which was an ascent of 90 steps, adorned with many columns of porphyry, images of their gods, and statues of their kings. of a colossal size : the whole edifice was constructed of stone. the floors being laid with vast flags, and the roof appearing like a canopy of stone : the passages met, and crossed each other with such intricacy, that it was impossible for a stranger to find his way. either in or out, without a guide; and several of the apartments were so contrived, that on opening of the doors, there was heard within a terrible noise of thunder. Although the Arabs, since the days of Pliny, helped to ruin this structure, yet a considerable part of it is still standing. The people of the country call it the palace of Clianm.
Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Pliny. and Mela, speak of this monument with the same admiration as Il erplotus ; but not one of them says it was constructed to hewilder those who attempted to pass through it ; though it is manifest, that, without a guide, they would have been in danger of losing their way. The Abbe Barthelemi sugests, that this danger introduced a new term into the Greek language. The word labyrinth, taken in the literal sense. signifies a circumscribed space, intersected by a number of passages. some of which cross each other in every direction, like those in quarries and mines, and others make larger or smaller circuits round the place from which they depart. like the spiral lines that are visible on certain shells. Hence it has been applied, in a figurative sense. to obscure and captious questions, to indi rect and ambiguous answers, and to those discussions, which, after long digressions, bring us back to the point from which we set out.
The labyrinth of Lemnos is mentioned by Pliny as having existed on the island, like those of Egypt and Crete. It was said to have been supported by 150 columns of wonder ful he aity, and to bare gates so well poised, that a child could throw them open. Pliny adds, that it was constructed by three native architects, and that some remains of it were still in existence.
The labyrinth of Italy was built, it is aid, by Porsenna, king of Etruria, for his tomb, but the accounts of it partake so much of the fabulous, that it has been doubted by many authors whether it ever existed at all.