EL-LAHUN— AESINOE. 397 



centre for those hatching ovens, or artificial hatchers, which have for ages 

 constituted one of the special industries of Egypt. Beni-Suef has succeeded the 

 ancient Hcraclcopolis, which was a royal residence during the ninth and tenth 

 dynasties, and the ruins of which lie farther west, scattered round the modern 

 village of Ahnas-el-Medineh. Travellers intending to visit the Fayuni depression 

 generally leave the main route at Beni-Suef or some of the neighbouring stations 

 nearer to Cairo, and take the routes leading westwards. From El-Wasta they 

 reach the province directly by a branch line ; but from the two southern stations 

 the Fayum is approached through the opening followed by the Bahr-Yusef 

 Canal, which was formerly lined by monuments dating from the epoch .of the 

 Pharaohs. 



El-Lahun — Arsinoe. 



At the very entrance of the gorge, near the village of El-Lahun {Illahim), 

 which has preserved its ancient Egyptian name of Lo-Hun, or " Mouth of the 

 Canal," are seen the remains of the dam and sluices by which the waters of Lake 

 Mœris were regulated. Farther on stands a pyramid, now a shapeless mound, 

 which is supposed to have been erected by Amenemha III., under whose reign the 

 vast lacustrine reservoir was excavated. Another pyramid, called by the name of 

 Howara, about 100 feet high, occupies a site beyond the gorge within the circular 

 basin of the Fayum, the ancient " country of the sea." Formed of a rocky 

 nucleus, round which have been built layers of bricks made of the Nile mud, this 

 structure presents somewhat the appearance of a natural hillock ; but it is in a 

 good state of repair, compared at least with the building which Lepsius supposed 

 must have been the famous " Labyrinth, which comprised two stories of fifteen 

 hundred chambers each, where the visitor became entangled in endless passages." 



Of the sumptuous group of buildings forming the Loparohun, or " Temple of 

 the Canal Mouth," if it really stood on this spot, nothing now remains except heaps 

 of rubbish, crumbling brick walls, vestiges of gateways, and some choice fragments 

 of sculpture in granite and limestone. Here has also been discovered the head of 

 a royal sphinx, resembling those of San, a proof that the Hyksos must have pene- 

 trated into this part of Egypt. A papyrus preserved in the museum at Bulaq 

 contains a minute description of the ancient edifice, and serves as a " guide-book " 

 to the archaeologists, who are endeavouring to restore the original plan. 



The flooded basin of Lake Mceris, over four miles broad, and enclosed by 

 embankments which can here and there still be traced, formerly separated the 

 Labyrinth from Pa-sebak, one of the great cities of Egypt. This " City of the 

 Crocodile," as its name indicates, was the Arsinoe of the epoch of the Ptolemies, 

 when it still covered a vast extent of ground. The remains of walls, a broken 

 obelisk, and other débris, show that it stretched for at least five miles in the direc- 

 tion from north to south. In some of the neighbouring tombs have been discovered 

 several papyrus manuscripts of the highest interest, written in various languages 

 — Egyptian, Hebrew, and even Pehlvi, or old Persian. The Greek documents have 

 furnished variant readings of the text of Thucydides, Aristotle, and the Gospels. 



