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Usurtasen III., in after times, was revered as the subduer of the Nubian land. By monarchs of this epoch, vast structures, like the temple of Ammon at Thebes and the temple of the Sun at Heliopolis, were erected. Amenemhat III. built the immense artificial reservoir, Lake Moeris, to receive and dispense the waters of the Nile. Under the twelfth dynasty is the blossoming period of literature.
Thus were constructed the Pyramids, Lake Moeris, and the Colosseum in Rome. Entire provinces came in from the desert, bringing their tubers to feed on. Old men, youths, and boys labored in transporting stones, hewing them, and carrying them on their shoulders under the direction of the official lash, and afterwards, the survivors returned to their homes or perished in the sands of the desert.
I was accused of being a rebel, was made a prisoner, and having effected my escape was killed in the chase on Lake Moeris. From out of eternity I saw the imposture triumph. I saw the priest of Abydos night and day persecuting the maiden, who had taken refuge in a temple of Isis on the island of Philae.
A labyrinth, with the ancients, was a building containing a great number of chambers and galleries, running into one another in such a manner as to make it very difficult to find the way through the edifice. The most famous was the Egyptian labyrinth, situated in Central Egypt, above Lake Moeris, not far from Crocodilopolis, in the country now called Fejoom.
Lake Moeris, whether wholly an artificial excavation, or a natural basin converted by embankments into a reservoir, was designed chiefly for the same purpose as the barrage built by Mougel Bey across the two great arms which enclose the Delta, namely, as a magazine to furnish a perennial supply of water to the thirsty soil. But these artificial arrangements alone did not suffice.
Herodotus says, "About the middle of Lake Moeris, there are two pyramids, each rising about 300 feet above the water. The part that is under the water is just the same height." It is probable that these pyramids were built on an island in the lake, and that Herodotus was misinformed as to the depth of the water. There are numerous pyramids in Nubia eighty or more but they are generally small.
A thing more wonderful than the pyramids is the labyrinth near Lake Moeris, and still more wonderful is Lake Moeris itself, all which were made by the twelve kings who ruled at once after Sethon. And after them, Psammetichus made himself the monarch; and after him his great grandson Apries prospered greatly, till he was overthrown by Amasis.
To guard against excessive waste of water, they built mighty dams and dug reservoirs, among which the artificial lake Moeris occupied three hundred square kilometers of surface and was fifty-four meters deep.
The smoked meats of Mendes and the neighborhood of Lake Moeris hung on metal pegs, and in a covered but well-aired room, sheltered from the sun lay freshly-imported fish from the Mediterranean and Red Sea. Every guest at the 'Olympian table' was allowed here to select the meat, fruit, asparagus, fish, or pasty which he desired to have cooked for him.
The existence of Lake Moeris was connected with another wonder among works of Egyptian engineers, Joseph's canal. This canal, two hundred yards wide, extended about three hundred and fifty kilometers along the western side of the Nile. It was situated fifteen kilometers from the river, served to irrigate lands near the Libyan mountains, and conveyed water to Lake Moeris.
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