memphis

memphis - ancient capital
Please maximise your browser window for best results.

Founded by Menes, the 1st Dynasty ruler, Memphis was the capital city of Egypt for most of the Pharaonic period. Situated some 24km south of modern Cairo, it was the capital of the first Lower Egyptian Nome and the administrative capital during the Early Dynastic Period and the Old Kingdom.
Tradition tells us that Menes founded the city by creating dikes to protect the area from Nile floods. Afterwards, this great city of the Old Kingdom became the administrative and religious centre of Egypt. In fact, so dominating is the city during this era that it is referred to as the Memphite period. It became a cosmopolitan community and was probably one of the largest and most important cities in the ancient world. When Herodotus visited the city in the 5th century BC, a period when Persians ruled Egypt, he found many Greeks, Jews, Phoenicians and Libyans amongst the population.

But there is little left of Memphis today, at least that can be seen. Originally, the city had many fine temples, palaces and gardens. But today, other than the scattered ruins, most of the city is gone, or lies beneath cultivated fields, thick deposits of Nile alluvium and much is below the water table. and local villages. The Temple of Ptah is often flooded due to the high water table. What we do know of Memphis comes to us from its necropoli, texts and papyri from other parts of Egypt and of course Herodotus, who visited the city.

Carved in honour of an unknown pharaoh, the Alabaster Sphinx may have stood outside of the Temple of Ptah along with the Colossus of Ramesses II.	The unfinished colossus of Ramesses II is 10 metres long (it has no feet) and was discovered near the south gate of the temple of Ptah. A small museum has been built to house this magnificent piece.

The most obvious monuments at the site belong to the New Kingdom and include the Temple of Ptah who was the local deity, the fallen colossus of Ramesses II and the "Alabaster" sphinx. The remains of the god's temple bordering the village of Mit Rahina was at one time probably one of the grandest temples in Egypt. Today, only a fraction of the temple remains, which was originally excavated by Flinders Petrie between 1908 and 1913. Ramesses II is well represented here, with a colossus of himself near the Alabaster Sphinx along the southern enclosure wall. Very few tombs are actually located at Memphis, the nearby necropolises of Saqqara, Dashur, Giza, Abusir, Abu Roash and Zawiyet el-Aryan serving the purposes for burials.

The Kom Qala area of the site contains the remains of a palace of Merenptah, the successor to Ramesses II, and a smaller Temple of Ptah. Flinders Petrie also discovered the remains of an industrial site nearby dating from the Roman Period, where faience was produced.

Sheshonq I of the 22nd Dynasty built an embalming house for the Apis Bull, and traces of this and the enormous embalming tables are still visible.

What happened to the city to cause its complete demise is somewhat unclear. In later dynasties Thebes became the capital of Egypt, but Memphis continued to retain much of its religious significance, and still prospered during this period. During the Ptolemaic Period, the city lost its importance to Alexandria, although its remains were still clearly visible in the 12th century AD. The founding of the city of Fustat by the Arab conquerors, which developed and expanded to ultimately become Cairo, dealt the final blow to Memphis, and as such there is actually very little for the modern day visitor to see of this once great capital city.