DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
157 
polis, Heraclea, and Ptolemais, are destroyed, and 
Feium itself, in the time of Abulfeda, a consider- 
able city, has dwindled almost into insignificance. 
The bed of the lake Moeris, now denominated Ca- 
irun, is much inferior to its ancient size, though 
it is still about thirty leagues in circumference. 
The length is between thirty and forty miles, and 
the greatest breadth about six miles. * The shore 
towards Feium is flat and sandy, and various islands 
are comprehended within the circumference of the 
lake. Towards Libya, at a small distance from 
the western extremity of the lake, are the ruins of 
the town and palace of Caroun, from which the 
lake derives its Arabian name. These are sup- *• 
posed to mark the site of the Labyrinth, that ex- 
traordinary and magnificent edifice, which Pliny 
regarded as the most amazing monument of human 
genius ; which was the prototype of similar struc- 
tures in Crete, in Lemnos, and in Italy, and, for 
the erection of which, it is almost impossible to 
assign any satisfactory reason. According to He- 
rodotus, the subterraneous apartments of the Laby- 
rinth contained the bodies of the ancient Egyptian 
kings, and of the sacred crocodiles; but Pliny 
mentions it as an opinion generally received, that 
the edifice was erected in honour of the sun. The 
canal which descends from the Thebaid to the lake 
* Browne's Travels, p, J6Q. 
