Editing Labyrinth (section)

==Ancient labyrinths==
===Cretan labyrinth===
[[File:Gaziantep Zeugma Museum Daedalus mosaic 1871.jpg|thumb|A [[Roman mosaic]] from [[Zeugma, Commagene]] (now in the [[Zeugma Mosaic Museum]]) depicting [[Daedalus]], his son [[Icarus]], Queen [[Pasiphaë]], and two of her female attendants]]
[[File:Edward Burne-Jones - Tile Design - Theseus and the Minotaur in the Labyrinth - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|Theseus in the Minotaur's labyrinth, by [[Edward Burne-Jones]], 1861]]
When the [[Bronze Age]] site at [[Knossos]] was excavated by archaeologist [[Arthur Evans]], the complexity of the architecture prompted him to suggest that the palace had been the Labyrinth of Daedalus. Evans found various bull motifs, including an image of [[Bull-leaping|a man leaping over the horns of a bull]], as well as depictions of a [[labrys]] carved into the walls. On the strength of a passage in the ''Iliad'',<ref name="dancingground">{{cite web 
 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0133%3Abook%3D18%3Acard%3D591
 |author=Homer
 |title=Iliad
 |at=xviii.590–3
 |publisher=Tufts University
 |series=Perseus Digital Library
}}</ref> it has been suggested that the palace was the site of a dancing-ground made for [[Ariadne]] by the craftsman [[Daedalus]],<ref>{{cite journal
 |last=Miller
 |first=Paul Allen
 |date=July 1995
 |title=The Minotaur Within: Fire, the Labyrinth, and Strategies of Containment in Aeneid 5 and 6
 |journal=Classical Philology
 |volume=90
 |issue=3
 |pages=225–240
|doi=10.1086/367466
 |s2cid=161753794
 }}</ref><ref>"Furthermore he wrought a green, like that which Daedalus once made in Cnossus for lovely Ariadne. Hereon there danced youths and maidens whom all would woo, with their hands on one another's wrists. The maidens wore robes of light linen, and the youths well woven shirts that were slightly oiled. There was a bard also to sing to them and play his lyre, while two tumblers went about performing in the midst of them when the man struck up with his tune."

: The Iliad: Transl, by Samuel Butler:[http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.18.xviii.html]</ref>
where young men and women, of the age of those sent to Crete as prey for the Minotaur, would dance together. By extension, in popular legend the palace is associated with the myth of the Minotaur.

In the 2000s, archaeologists explored other potential sites of the labyrinth.<ref name="skotinogortyn">{{cite web 
| url = https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/architecture/has-the-original-labyrinth-been-found-1803638.html 
| work = The Independent
| title= Has the original Labyrinth been found?
| author = Steve Connor
| date = 16 October 2009}}</ref> [[Oxford University]] geographer Nicholas Howarth believes that "Evans's hypothesis that the palace of Knossos is also the Labyrinth must be treated sceptically."<ref name=skotinogortyn /> Howarth and his team conducted a search of an underground complex known as the [[Skotino cave]] but concluded that it was formed naturally. Another contender is a series of tunnels at [[Gortyn]], accessed by a narrow crack but expanding into interlinking caverns. Unlike the Skotino cave, these caverns have smooth walls and columns, and appear to have been at least partially man-made. This site corresponds to a labyrinth symbol on a 16th-century map of Crete in a book of maps in the library of [[Christ Church, Oxford]]. A map of the caves themselves was produced by the French in 1821. The site was also used by German soldiers to store ammunition during the [[Second World War]]. Howarth's investigation was shown on a documentary<ref name="natgeodocumentary">[http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/the-holy-grail-5048/Overview National Geographic Channel: The Holy Grail (and the Minotaur)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110101072958/http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/the-holy-grail-5048/Overview |date=1 January 2011 }}</ref> produced for the [[National Geographic Channel]].

===The Egyptian labyrinth===
{{see also|Labyrinth of Egypt}}
In Book II of his ''[[Histories (Herodotus)#Book II (Euterpe)|Histories]]'', [[Herodotus]] applies the term "labyrinth" to a building complex in Egypt "near the place called the [[Crocodilopolis|City of Crocodiles]]", that he considered to surpass the [[Egyptian pyramids|pyramids]].<ref>[[Herodotus]], ''[[The Histories of Herodotus|The Histories]]'', translated by [[Aubrey de Sélincourt]], Book II, pp. 160–161.</ref> The structure, which may have been a collection of funerary temples such as are commonly found near Egyptian pyramids,<ref name="Kern 2000, p. 59">Kern 2000, p. 59.</ref> was destroyed in antiquity and can only be partially reconstructed.<ref>{{cite book |author=Verner, Miroslav |title=The Pyramids: The Mystery, Culture and Science of Egypt's Great Monuments |publisher=Grove Press |year=2001 |isbn=9780802117038 |location=New York |page=430}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Lehner |first1=Mark |title=The Complete Pyramids |publisher=Thames & Hudson |year=2008 |isbn=9780500285473 |location=New York |page=181}}</ref> During the nineteenth century, the remains of this ancient Egyptian structure were discovered at [[Hawara]] in the [[Faiyum Oasis]] by [[Flinders Petrie]] at the foot of the pyramid of the twelfth-dynasty pharaoh [[Amenemhat III]] (reigned c. 1860 BC to c. 1814 BC).<ref>Matthews, p. 13.</ref>

===Pliny's Lemnian labyrinth===
[[Pliny the Elder]]'s ''Natural History'' (36.90) lists the legendary [[Smilis]], reputed to be a contemporary of Daedalus, together with the historical mid-sixth-century BC architects and sculptors Rhoikos and Theodoros as two of the makers of the Lemnian labyrinth, which Andrew Stewart<ref>Andrew Stewart, ''One Hundred Greek Sculptors: Their Careers and Extant Works'', "Smilis."</ref> regards as "evidently a misunderstanding of the Samian temple's location ''en limnais'' ['in the marsh']."

===Pliny's Italian labyrinth===
According to Pliny, the [[Tomb of Lars Porsena]] contained an underground maze. Pliny's description of the exposed portion of the tomb is intractable; Pliny, it seems clear, had not observed this structure himself, but is quoting the historian and Roman antiquarian [[Marcus Terentius Varro|Varro]].<ref>[[Pliny the Elder]], ''Natural History'', [http://attalus.org/translate/pliny_hn36a.html#91 xxxvi.91–92].</ref>

===Ancient labyrinths outside Europe===
[[File:Halebid2.JPG|thumb|right|Carving showing the warrior [[Abhimanyu]] entering the ''chakravyuha'' – [[Hoysaleswara temple]], [[Halebidu]], India]]
A design essentially identical to the 7-course "classical" pattern appeared in Native American culture, the [[Tohono O'odham people]] labyrinth which features [[I'itoi]], the "Man in the Maze." The Tonoho O'odham pattern has two distinct differences from the classical: it is radial in design, and the entrance is at the top, where traditional labyrinths have the entrance at the bottom (see below). The earliest appearances cannot be dated securely; the oldest is commonly dated to the 17th century.<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Saward |first=Jeff |date=2003 |title=Labyrinths and Mazes |publisher=Gaia |page=70 |isbn=1579905390 
}}</ref>

Unsubstantiated claims have been made for the early appearance of labyrinth figures in India,<ref name="Saward, p. 60">Saward, ''Labyrinths and Mazes'', p. 60.</ref> such as a prehistoric petroglyph on a riverbank in [[Goa]] purportedly dating to circa 2500 BC.<ref>{{cite web 
| url = https://sites.google.com/site/isiscrete/rationale 
| work = 9th ISIS Congress
| title= Festival on Labyrinth and Symmetry
| date = 9 September 2013}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=January 2019}} Other examples have been found among cave art in northern India and on a dolmen shrine in the [[Nilgiri Mountains]], but are difficult to date accurately. Securely datable examples begin to appear only around 250 BC.<ref name="Saward, p. 60"/> Early labyrinths in India typically follow the Classical pattern or a local variant of it; some have been described as plans of forts or cities.<ref>Saward, ''Labyrinths and Mazes'', pp. 60–61.</ref>

Labyrinths appear in Indian manuscripts and [[Vajrayana|Tantric]] texts from the 17th century onward. They are often called "[[Chakravyuha]]" in reference to an impregnable battle formation described in the ancient [[Mahabharata]] epic. Lanka, the capital city of mythic Rāvana, is described as a labyrinth in the 1910 translation of [[Abu Rayhan Biruni|Al-Beruni]]'s ''India'' (c. 1030 AD) p.&nbsp;306 (with a diagram on the following page).<ref>[http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_5949073_001/pages/ldpd_5949073_001_00000362.html <!--Abu Rayhan Biruni--> Al-Beruni, ''India'', (c. 1030&nbsp;AD), Edward C. Sachau (translator), Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co, London, 1910] Online version from Columbia University Libraries (Retrieved 5 December 2009)</ref>

By the [[White Sea]], notably on the [[Solovetsky Islands]], there have been preserved more than 30 stone labyrinths. The most remarkable monument is the [[Stone labyrinths of Bolshoi Zayatsky Island]] – a group of some 13 stone labyrinths on 0.4&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> area of one small island. Local archaeologists have speculated that these labyrinths may be 2,000–3,000 years old, though most researchers remain dubious.<ref>Saward, ''Labyrinths and Mazes'', pp. 148–149.</ref>