Pharoah'S Gateway To Eternity

Father of history, father of lies: These descriptions show the conflicting viewpoints expressed by later scholars regarding the wonders Herodotus described in his travels. Among the buildings, the Egyptian Labyrinth was at the top of his list, and this has given rise to much speculation about its form, size, and purpose over the last two centuries. Pharoah's Gateway to Eternity searches for the answers to these problems, using anew approach in examining the basic textual and archaeological evidence available today. The result identifies the Labyrinth with the pyramidcomplex of the Twelfth Dynasty king Amenemhat III more firmly, and to reject the use of any architectural evidence other than that belonging to 1800 B.C. in the reconstruction of the temples and tombs of this great complex of buildings. The author uses unpublished material from Petrie's notebooks and letters forming an account of his excavations, as well as contemporary Middle Kingdom texts and architectural parallels.

Eric Uphill is a lecture in Egyptian Archaeology at Birkbeck College, Faculty for Continuing Education.