Histories

Such is this labyrinth; and still more marvellous is Birkat Qarun [30.666,29.466] (salt lake), Egypt, Africalake Moeris, on which it stands. This lake has a circumference of four hundred and fifty miles, or sixty schoeni: as much as the whole seaboard of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt. Its length is from north to south; the deepest part has a depth of fifty fathoms.

That it has been dug out and made by men's hands the lake shows for itself; for almost in the middle of it stand two pyramids, so built that fifty fathoms of each are below and fifty above the water; atop each is a colossal stone figure seated on a throne.

Thus these pyramids are a hundred fathoms high; and a hundred fathoms equal a furlong of six hundred feet, the fathom measuring six feet or four cubits, the foot four spans and the cubit six spans.