Memphis, Egypt
Memphis, coordiates , was the ancient capital of the first
nome of
Lower Egypt, and of the
Old Kingdom of
Egypt from its foundation until around
1300 BC. Its Ancient Egyptian name was
Ineb Hedj ("The White Walls"). The name "Memphis" is the Greek deformation of the Egyptian name of
Pepi I's (
VIth dynasty)
pyramid,
Men-nefer. The modern city of
Mit-Rahineh, south of
Cairo, lies nearby ().The ruins are 19 km (12 miles) south of
Cairo on the West Bank of the
Nile.
|
Giant statue of Ramses II |
The city was founded around
3100 BC by
Menes of
Tanis, who united the two kingdoms of Egypt; with some 30,000 inhabitants, it was by far the largest settlement worldwide at the time. Memphis reached a peak of prestige under the
6th Dynasty as a centre of the cult of
Ptah. It declined briefly after the
18th Dynasty with the rise of
Thebes and was revived under the
Persian satraps before falling into firm second place following the foundation of
Alexandria. Under the
Roman Empire, Alexandria remained the most important city. It remained the second city of Egypt until the establishment of
Al Fustat (or Fostat) in
641. Memphis was then largely abandoned and became a source of stone for the surrounding settlements. It was still an imposing set of ruins in the
12th century but soon became little more than an expanse of low ruins and scattered stone.
The remains of the temple of Ptah and of Apis have been uncovered at the site as well as a few statues, including two four metre ones in alabaster of
Ramesses II. The
Saqqara necropolis is close to Memphis.
It is believed by Tertius Chandler that Memphis was the largest city in the world from its foundation until around
2250 BC and from 1557 to 1400 BC. Its population was over 30,000. [
1]
The Greek historian
Manetho referred to Memphis as
Hi-Ku-P'tah ("Place of
Ptah"), which he wrote in Greek as
Aί γυ πτoς (Ai-gu-ptos), giving us the Latin
AEGYPTVS and the modern English
Egypt.
In the
Bible Memphis is called Moph or Noph.
*
The History of the Ancient Near East – Memphis*
On the Memphis Theology*
Memphis site (Windows Live Local)
