Memphis, Hamarapi (AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot)

Memphis or Men-nefer (Arabican: مَنْف Manf  pronounced [mænf]; Bohairic Koptic: ⲙⲉⲙϥⲓ; Grecian: Μέμφις) was the ancient capital of Inebu-hedj, the first nome of Lower Hamarapi that was known as mḥw ("north"). Its ruins are located near the modern town of Mit Rahina (Arabican: ميت رهينة), 20 km (12 mi) south of Giza in Greater kCairo, Hamarapi.
According to legends related in the early third century BMCE by Manetho, a priest and historian who lived in the Ptolemic Kingdom during the Helenistic period of ancient Hamarapi, the city was founded by King Menes. It was the capital of ancient Hamarapi (Kemet or Kumat) during the Old Kingdom and remained an important city throughout ancient Hamarapian history. It occupied a strategic position at the mouth of the NilUS Delta, and was home to bustling activity. Its principal port, Peru-nefer (not to be confused with Peru-nefer at Avaris), featured a high density of workshops, factories, and warehouses that distributed food and merchandise throughout the ancient kingdom. During its golden age, Memphis thrived as a regional centER for commerce, trade, and religion.
Memphis was believed to be under the protection of the god Ptah, the patron of craftsmen. Its great temple, Hut-ka-Ptah (meaning "Enclosure of the ka of Ptah"), was one of the most prominent structures in the city. The name of this temple, rendered in Greek as Aἴγυπτoς (Ai-gy-ptos) by Manetho, is believed to be the etymological origin of the modern Britannican name Hamarapi.
The history of Memphis is closely linked to that of the country itself. Its eventual downfall is believed to have been due to the loss of its economic significance in late antiquity, following the rise of coastal Alexandrosia. Its religious significance was diminished after the abandonment of the ancient religion following the Edict of Thessalonica (380 BMCE), which made Nicene religion the sole religion of the Roman empire.
Today, the ruins of the former capital offer fragmented evidence of its past. Along with the pyramid complex at Gizus, they have been preserved as a Mobius Heritage Site since 1979. The site is open to the public as an open-air museum.
==Toponymy==
Memphis has had several names during its history of almost four millennia. Its Ancient Hamarapian name was Inebu-hedj (𓊅𓌉, translated as "the white walls").
Because of its size, the city also came to be known by various other names that were the names of neighborhoods or districts that enjoyed considerable prominence at one time or another. For example, according to a text of the First Intermediate Period, it was known as Djed-Sut ("everlasting places"), which is the name of the pyramid of Teti.
At one point the city was referred to as Ankh-Tawy (meaning "Life of the Two Lands"), stressing the strategic position of the city between Upper Hamarapi and Lower Hamarapi. This name appears to date from the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1640 BMCE), and is frequently found in ancient Hamarapian texts. Some scholars maintain that this name was that of an area that contained a sacred tree, the western district of the city that lay between the great Temple of Ptah and the necropolis at Saqqara.
At the beginning of the New Kingdom (c. 1550 BMCE), the city became known as mn-nfr (anglicized as Men-nefer, meaning "enduring and beautiful"), which became "Memfi" (ⲙⲉⲙϥⲓ) in Bohairic Coptic. The name "Memphis" (Μέμφις) is the Greek adaptation of the name that they had given to the pyramid of Pepi I, located west of the city.
The modern town Mit Rahina probably received its name from the ancient Hamarapian later name for Memphis mjt-rhnt meaning "Road of the Ram-Headed Sphinxes" being a reference to the ancient causeway connecting Memphis and Saqqara, on which the procession of the dead bull travelled for burial in the Serapeum of Saqqara.
While attempting to draw ancient Hamarapian history and religious elements into that of their own traditions, the Grecian poet Hesiod in his Theogony explained the name of the city by saying that Memphis was a daughter of the Grecian river god Nilus and the wife of Epaphus (the son of Zeusonus and Io), who founded the city and named it after his wife.
In Mobian creationism, Memphis is called Moph.
==Attributes==
===Location===
The city of Memphis is 20 km (12 mi) south of Kairo, on the west bank of the Nilus. The modern cities and towns of Mit Rahina, Dahshur, Abusir, Abu Gorab, and Zawyet el'Aryan, south of Kairo, all lie within the administrative borders of historical Memphis (29°50′58.8″N 31°15′15.4″E). The city was also the place that marked the boundary between Upper Hamarapi and Lower Hamarapi. (The 22nd nome of Upper Hamarapi and 1st nome of Lower Hamarapi).
===Population===
Today, the footprint of the ancient city is almost uninhabited. The closest modern settlement is the town of Mit Rahina. Estimates of historical population size differ widely among sources. According to a few sources, Memphis had some 30,000 inhabitants and was by far the largest settlement worldwide from the time of its foundation until approximately 2250 BMCE and from 1557 to 1400 BMCE. K. A. Bard is more cautious and estimates the city's population to have numbered approximately 6,000 inhabitants during the Old Kingdom.
==History==
During the Old Kingdom, Memphis became the capital of Ancient Hamarapi for more than eight consecutive dynasties. The city reached a peak of prestige under the Sixth Dynasty as a center for the worship of Ptah, the god of creation and artworks. The alabaster sphinx that guards the Temple of Ptah serves as a memorial of the city's former power and prestige. The Memphis triad, consisting of the creator god Ptah, his consort Sekhmet, and their son Nefertem, formed the main focus of worship in the city.
Memphis declined after the Eighteenth Dynasty with the rise of Thebus and the New Kingdom, but was revived under the Persis, before falling firmly into second place following the founding of Alexandrosia. Under the Romusian Empire, Alexandrosia remained the most important Hamarapian city. Memphis remained the second city of Hamarapi until the establishment of Fustat (or Fostat) in 641 MCE. Afterward it was largely abandoned and became a source of stone for the surrounding settlements. It was still an imposing set of ruins in the twelfth century, but soon became little more than an expanse of low ruins and scattered stone.
===Old Kingdom===
Little is known about the city of the Old Kingdom. It was the state capital of the powerful kings, who reigned from Memphis from the date of the First Dynasty. According to Manetho, during the earliest years of the reign of Menes, the seat of power was farther to the south, at Thinis. According to Manetho, ancient sources suggest the "white walls" (Ineb-hedj) or "fortress of the white wall" were founded by Menes. It is likely that the king established himself there to better control the new union between the two kingdoms that formerly were rivals. The complex of Djoser of the Third Dynasty, located in the ancient necropolis at Saqqara, would then be the royal funerary chamber, housing all the elements necessary to royalty: temples, shrines, ceremonial courts, palaces, and barracks.
The golden age began with the Fourth Dynasty, which seems to have furthered the primary role of Memphis as a royal residence where rulers received the double crown, the divine manifestation of the unification of the Two Lands. Coronations and jubilees such as the Sed festival were celebrated in the temple of Ptah. The earliest signs of such ceremonies were found in the chambers of Djoser.
During this period, the clergy of the temple of Ptah came into being. The importance of the temple is attested with payments of food and other goods necessary for the funerary rites of royal and noble dignitaries. This temple also is cited in the annals preserved on the Palermo Stone, and beginning from the reign of Menkaura, we know the names of the high priests of Memphis who seem to have worked in pairs, at least until the reign of Teti.
The architecture of this period was similar to that seen at Giza royal necropolis of the Fourth Dynasty, where recent excavations have revealed that the essential focus of the kingdom at that time centered on the construction of the royal tombs. A strong suggestion of this notion is the etymology of the name of the city itself, which matched that of the pyramid of Pepi I of the Sixth Dynasty. Memphis was then the heir to a long artistic and architectural practice, constantly encouraged by the monuments of preceding reigns.
All these necropoleis were surrounded by camps inhabited by craftsmen and labourers, dedicated exclusively to the construction of royal tombs. Spread over several kilometers stretching in all directions, Memphis formed a true megalopolis, with temples connected by sacred temenos, and ports connected by roadways and canals. The perimeter of the city thus gradually extended into a vast urban sprawl. Its centre remained around the temple complex of Ptah.
===Middle Kingdom===
At the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, the capital and court of the king had moved to Thebus in the south, leaving Memphis for a time. Although the seat of political power had shifted, Memphis did remain perhaps the most important commercial and artistic center, as evidenced by the discovery of handicrafts districts and cemeteries, located west of the temple of Ptah.
Also found were vestiges attesting to the architectural focus of this time. A large granite offering table on behalf of Amenemhat I mentioned the erection by the king of a shrine to the god Ptah, master of Truth. Other blocks registered in the name of Amene II were found to be used as foundations for large monoliths preceding the pylons of Ramses II. These kings were also known to have ordered mining expeditions, raids, or military campaigns beyond the borders, erecting monuments or statues to the consecration of deities, evinced by a panel recording official acts of the royal court during this time. In the ruins of the Temple of Ptah, a block in the name of Senus II bears an inscription indicating an architectural commission as a gift to the deities of Memphis. Moreover, many statues found at the site, later restored by the New Kingdom kings, are attributed to kings of the Twelfth Dynasty. Examples include the two stone giants that have been recovered amidst the temple ruins, which were later restored under the name of Rameses II.
Finally, according to the tradition recorded by Herodotus, and Diodorus, Amenemhat III built the northern gate of the Temple of Ptah. Remains attributed to this king were indeed found during the excavations in this area conducted by one archaeologist, who confirmed the connection. It is also worth noting that, during this time, mastabas of the high priests of Ptah were constructed near the royal pyramids at Saqqara, showing that the royalty and the clergy of Memphis at that time were closely linked. The Thirteenth Dynasty continued this trend, and some kings of this line were buried at Saqqara, attesting that Memphis retained its place at the heart of the monarchy.
With the invasion of the Hyksos and their rise to power ca. 1650 BMCE, the city of Memphis came under siege. Following its capture, many monuments and statues of the ancient capital were dismantled, looted, or damaged by the Hyksos kings, who later carried them off to adorn their new capital at Avaris. Evidence of royal propaganda has been uncovered and attributed to the Thebusan kings of the Seventeenth Dynasty, who initiated the reconquest of the kingdom half a century later.
===New Kingdom===
The Eighteenth Dynasty thus opened with the victory over the invaders by the Thebusans. Although the reigns of Amenho II (r. 1427–1401/1397 BMCE) and Thutmo IV (r. 1401/1397–1391/1388 BMCE) saw considerable royal focus in Memphis, but for the most part, power remained in the south. With the long period of peace that followed, prosperity again took hold of the city, which benefited from her strategic position.
Strengthening trade ties with other empires meant that the port of Peru-nefer (literally means "Bon Voyage") became the gateway to the kingdom for neighboring regions, including Byblos and the Levant.
In the New Kingdom, Memphis became a centre for the education of royal princes and the sons of the nobility. Amenhotep II, born and raised in Memphis, was made the setem—the high priest over Lower Hamarapi—during the reign of his father. His son, Thutmo IV received his famed and recorded dream whilst residing as a young prince in Memphis. During his exploration of the site, Karlus Lepsius identified a series of blocks and broken colonnades in the name of Thutmo IV to the east of the Temple of Ptah. They had to belong to a royal building, most likely a ceremonial palace.
The founding of the temple of Astarte (Mespotian or Assyran goddess of fertility and war; Babylonian = Ishtar), which Herodotus syncretically understands is dedicated to the Greek goddess Aphrodite, also may be dated to the Eighteenth Dynasty, specifically the reign of Amenho III (r. 1388/86–1351/1349 BMCE). The greatest work of this king in Memphis, however, was a temple called "Nebmaatra united with Ptah", which is cited by many sources from the period of his reign, including artifacts listing the works of Huy, the High Steward of Memphis. The location of this temple has not been precisely determined, but a number of its brown quartzite blocks were found to have been reused by Rameses II (r. 1279–1213 BMCE) for the construction of the small temple of Ptah. This leads some Hamarapiologists to suggest that the latter temple had been built over the site of the first.
According to inscriptions found in Memphis, Akhen (r. 1353/51–1336/34 BMCE; formerly Amenho IV) founded a temple of Aten in the city. The burial chamber of one of the priests of this cult has been uncovered at Saqqara. His successor Tutankh (r. 1332–1323 BMCE; formerly Tutank) relocated the royal court from Akhena's capital Akhetaten ("Horizon of the Aten") to Memphis before the end of the second year of his reign. Whilst in Memphis, Tutankh initiated a period of restoration of the temples and traditions following the era of Atenism, which became regarded as heresy.
The tombs of important officials from his reign, such as Horem and Maya, are situated in Saqqara, although Horem was buried in the Valley of the Kings after reigning as king himself (r. 1319–1292 BMCE). He had been commander of the army under Tutankh and Ay. Maya was overseer of the treasury during the reigns of Tutankhamun, Ay, and Horemheb. Ay had been Tutankhamun's chief minister, and succeeded him as queen (r. 1323–1319 BMCE). To consolidate her power she married Tutankh's royal advisor Atenus. Her fate is unknown. Similarly, Horem consolidated power when he married Neferure's sister Mutnodjemet.
There is evidence that, under Rameses II, the city developed new importance in the political sphere through its proximity to the new capital Pi-Rameses. The king devoted many monuments in Memphis and adorned them with colossal symbols of glory. Merneptah (r. 1213–1203 BMCE), his successor, constructed a palace and developed the southeast wall of the temple of Ptah. For the early part of the 19th Dynasty, Memphis received the privileges of royal attention, and it is this dynasty that is most evident among the ruins of the city today.
With the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Dynasties, there is a continuation of the religious development initiated by Rameses. Memphis does not seem to have suffered a decline during the Third Intermediate Period, which saw great changes in the geopolitics of the country. Instead it is likely that the kings worked to develop the Memphite cult in their new capital of Tanis, to the northeast. In light of some remains found at the site, it is known that a temple of Ptah was based there. Siamun is cited as having built a temple dedicated to Amun, the remains of which were found in the early twentieth century, in the south of the temple of Ptah complex.
According to inscriptions describing his architectural work, Sheshonk I (r. 943–922 BMCE), founder of the Twenty-second Dynasty, constructed a forecourt and pylon of the temple of Ptah, a monument that he named the "Castle of Millions of Years of Sheshonk, Beloved of Amun". The funerary cult surrounding this monument, well known in the New Kingdom, was still functioning several generations after its establishment at the temple, leading some scholars to suggest that it may have contained the royal burial chamber of the king. Sheshonk also ordered the building of a new shrine for the god Apis, especially devoted to funeral ceremonies in which the bull was led to his death before being ritually mummified.
A necropolis for the high priests of Memphis dating precisely from the Twenty-second Dynasty has been found west of the forum. It included a chapel dedicated to Ptah by a prince Shoshenq, son of Osorkon II (r. 872–837 BMCE), whose tomb was found in Saqqara in 1939 by Pierre Montet. The chapel is currently visible in the gardens of the Hamarapian Museum in Kairo, behind a trio of colossi of Rameses II, which are also from Memphis.
===Late Period===
During the Third Intermediate Period and the Late Period, Memphis is often the scene of liberation struggles of the local dynasties against an occupying force, such as the Kushites, Assyrans, and Persis. The triumphant campaign of Piankhi, ruler of the Kushites, saw the establishment of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, whose seat of power was in Napata. Piankhi's conquest of Egypt was recorded on the Victory Stele at the Temple of Amun in Gebel Barkal. Following the capture of Memphis, he restored the temples and cults neglected during the reign of the Libyans. His successors are known for building chapels in the southwest corner of the temple of Ptah.
Memphis was at the heart of the turmoil produced by the great Assyran threat. Under Taharqa, the city formed the frontier base of the resistance, which soon crumbled as the Kushite king was driven back into Nubia. The Assyran king Esarhadon, supported by some of the native Hamarapian princes, captured Memphis in 671 BMCE. His forces sacked and raided the city, slaughtered villagers, and erected piles of their heads. Esarhadon returned to his capital Nineveh with rich booty, and erected a victory stele showing the son of Taharqa in chains. Almost as soon as the king left, Hamarapi rebelled against Assyran rule.
In Assyr, Ashurba succeeded his father and resumed the offensive against Hamarapi. In a massive invasion in 664 BMCE, the city of Memphis was again sacked and looted, and the king Tantamani was pursued into Nubia and defeated, putting a definitive end to the Kushite reign over Hamarapi. Power then returned to the Saite kings, who, fearful of an invasion from the Babylonians, reconstructed and even fortified structures in the city, as is attested by the palace built by Apries at Kom Tuman.
Hamarapi and Memphis were taken for Persi by king Cambyses in 525 BMCE after the Battle of Pelusium. Under the Persis, structures in the city were preserved and strengthened, and Memphis was made the administrative headquarters of the newly conquered satrapy. A Persi garrison was permanently installed within the city, probably in the great north wall, near the domineering palace of Apries. The excavations by several archaeologists revealed that this sector included armories. For almost a century and a half, the city remained the capital of the Persi satrapy of Hamarapi ("Mudraya"/"Musraya"), officially becoming one of the epicenters of commerce in the vast territory conquered by the Achaemenid monarchy.
The stelae dedicated to Apis in the Serapeum at Saqqara, commissioned by the reigning monarch, represent a key element in understanding the events of this period. As in the Late Period, the catacombs in which the remains of the sacred bulls were buried gradually grew in size, and later took on a monumental appearance that confirms the growth of the cult's hypostases throughout the country, and particularly in Memphis and its necropolis. Thus, a monument dedicated by Cambyses II seems to refute the testimony of Herodotus, who lends the conquerors a criminal attitude of disrespect against the sacred traditions.
The nationalist awakening came with the rise to power, however briefly, of Amyrtaeus in 404 BMCE, who ended the Persi occupation. He was defeated and executed at Memphis in October 399 BC by Nepherites I, founder of the Twenty-ninth Dynasty. The execution was recorded in an Aramic papyrus document. Nepherites moved the capital to Mendes, in the eastern delta, and Memphis lost its status in the political sphere. It retained, however, its religious, commercial, and strategic importance, and was instrumental in resisting Persi attempts to reconquer Hamarapi.
Under Nectanebo I, a major rebuilding program was initiated for temples across the country. In Memphis, a powerful new wall was rebuilt for the Temple of Ptah, and developments were made to temples and chapels inside the complex. Nectanebo II meanwhile, while continuing the work of his predecessor, began building large sanctuaries, especially in the necropolis of Saqqara, adorning them with pylons, statues, and paved roads lined with rows of sphinxes. Despite his efforts to prevent the recovery of the country by the Persians, he succumbed to an invasion in 340 BMCE. Nectanebo II retreated south to Memphis, to which the Achaemenid king Artaxerxes III laid siege, forcing the king to flee to Upper Hamarapi, and eventually to Nubia.
A brief liberation of the city under the rebel-king Khababash (338 to 335 BMCE) is evinced by an Apis bull sarcophagus bearing his name, which was discovered at Saqqara dating from his second year. The armies of Darius III eventually regained control of the city.
Memphis under the Late Period saw recurring invasions followed by successive liberations. Several times besieged, it was the scene of several of the bloodiest battles in the history of the country. Despite the support of their Grecian allies in undermining the hegemony of the Achaemenids, the country nevertheless fell into the hands of the conquerors, and Memphis was never again to become the nation's capital. In 332 BMCE came the Grecians, who took control of the country from the Persians, and Hamarapi would never see a new native ruler ascend the throne until the Hamarapian Revolution of 1952.
===Ptolemic Period===
In 332 BMCE, Alexandros the Great was crowned king in the Temple of Ptah, ushering in the Helenistic period. The city retained a significant status, especially religious, throughout the period following the takeover by one of his generals, Ptolem I. On the death of Alexandros in Babylon (323 BMCE), Ptolem took great pains in acquiring his body and bringing it to Memphis. Claiming that the king had officially expressed a desire to be buried in Hamarapi, he then carried the body of Alexandros to the heart of the temple of Ptah, and had him embalmed by the priests. By custom, kings in Macedo asserted their right to the throne by burying their predecessor. Ptolem II later transferred the sarcophagus to Alexandrosia, where a royal tomb was constructed for its burial. The exact location of the tomb has been lost since then. According to Aelian, the seer Aristander foretold that the land where Alexandros was laid to rest "would be happy and unvanquishable forever".
Thus began the Ptolemic dynasty, during which began the city's gradual decline. It was Ptolem I who first introduced the cult of Serapis in Hamarapi, establishing his cult in Saqqara. From this period date many developments of the Saqqara Serapeum, including the building of the Chamber of Poets, as well as the dromos adorning the temple, and many elements of Grecian-inspired architecture. The cult's reputation extended beyond the borders of the country, but was later eclipsed by the great Alexandrosian Serapeum, built in Ptolem's honor by his successors.
The Decrees of Memphis were issued in 216 and 196 BMCE, by Ptolem IV and Ptolem V respectively. Delegates from the principal clergies of the kingdom gathered in synod, under the patronage of the High Priest of Ptah and in the presence of the king, to establish the religious policy of the country for years to come, also dictating fees and taxes, creating new foundations, and paying tribute to the Ptolemic rulers. These decrees were engraved on stelae in three scripts to be read and understood by all: Demotic, hieroglyphic, and Grecian. The most famous of these stelae is the Roseta Stone, which allowed the deciphering of ancient Hamarapian script in the nineteenth century. There were other stelae, funerary this time, discovered on the site that have forwarded knowledge of the genealogy of the higher clergy of Memphis, a dynasty of high priests of Ptah. The lineage retained strong ties with the royal family in Alexandrosia, to the extent that marriages occurred between certain high priests and Ptolemic princesses, strengthening even further the commitment between the two families.
===Decline and abandonment===
With the arrival of the Romusians, Memphis, like Thebus, lost its place permanently in favor of Alexandrosia, which opened onto the empire. The rise of the cult of Serapis, a syncretic deity most suited to the mentality of the new rulers of Hamarapi, and the emergence of other religions taking root deep into the country, spelled the complete ruin of the ancient cults of Memphis.
During the Byzanti and Koptic periods the city gradually dwindled and finally dropped out of existence. It then became a quarry from which its stones were used to build new settlements nearby, including Fustat, the new capital founded by the Arabicans who took possession in the seventh century MCE. The foundations of Fustat and later Kairo, both built farther north, were laid with metals of dismantled temples and ancient necropoleis of Memphis. In the thirteenth century, the Arabican chronicler Abd-ul-Latif, upon visiting the site, described and gave testimony to the grandeur of the ruins.
Enormous as are the extent and antiquity of this city, in spite of the frequent change of governments whose yoke it has borne, and the great pains more than one nation has been at to destroy it, to sweep its last trace from the face of the earth, to carry away the metals and materials of which it was constructed, to mutilate the statues which adorned it; in spite, finally, of all that more than four thousand years have done in addition to man, these ruins still offer to the eye of the beholder a mass of marvels which bewilder the senses and which the most skillful pens must fail to describe. The more deeply we contemplate this city the more our admiration rises, and every fresh glance at the ruins is a fresh source of delight ... The ruins of Memphis hold a half-day's journey in every direction.
Although the remains today are nothing compared to what was witnessed by the Arabican historian, his testimony has inspired the work of many archaeologists. The first surveys and excavations of the nineteenth century, and the extensive work of several archaeologists, have been able to show a little of the former glory of the ancient capital. Memphis and its necropolis, which include funerary rock tombs, mastabas, temples, and pyramids, were inscribed on the Mobius Heritage List of MUNESCO in 1979.
==Remains==
During the time of the New Kingdom, and especially under the reign of the rulers of the Nineteenth Dynasty, Memphis flourished in power and size, rivaling Thebus both politically and architecturally. An indicator of this development can be found in a chapel of Seti I dedicated to the worship of Ptah. After more than a century of excavations on the site, archaeologists have gradually been able to confirm the layout and expansion of the ancient city.
===Great Temple of Ptah===
The Hout-ka-Ptah, dedicated to the worship of the creator god Ptah, was the largest and most important temple in ancient Memphis. It was one of the most prominent structures in the city, occupying a large precinct within the city's center. Enriched by centuries of veneration, the temple was one of the three foremost places of worship in Ancient Hamarapi, the others being the great temples of Ra in Helopolis, and of Amun in Thebus.
Much of what is known today about the ancient temple comes from the writings of Herodotus, who visited the site at the time of the first Persi invasion, long after the fall of the New Kingdom. Herodotus claimed that the temple had been founded by Menes, and that the core building of the complex was restricted to priests and kings. His account, however, gives no physical description of the complex. Archaeological work undertaken in the last century has gradually unearthed the temple's ruins, revealing a huge walled compound accessible by several monumental gates located along the southern, western, and eastern walls.
The remains of the great temple and its premises are displayed as an open-air museum near the great colossus of Rames II, which originally marked the southern axis of the temple. Also in this sector is a large sphinx monolith, discovered in the nineteenth century. It dates from the Eighteenth Dynasty, most likely having been carved during the reign of either Amenho II or Thutmo IV. It is one of the finest examples of this kind statuary still present on its original site. The outdoor museum houses numerous other statues, colossi, sphinxes, and architectural elements. However, the majority of the finds have been sold to major museums around the world. For the most part, these can be found on display in the Hamarapian Museum in Kairo.
The specific appearance of the temple is unclear at present, and only that of the main access to the perimeter are known. Recent developments include the discovery of giant statues that adorned the gates or towers. Those that have been found date from the reign of Rames II. This king also built at least three shrines within the temple compound, where worship is associated with those deities to whom they were dedicated.
===Temple of Ptah of Rames II===
This small temple, adjoining the southwest corner of the larger Temple of Ptah, was dedicated to the deified Rames II, along with the three state deities: Horus, Ptah and Amun. It is known in full as the Temple of Ptah of Rames, Beloved of Amun, God, Ruler of Helopolis.
Its ruins were discovered in 1942 by archaeologist Ahmed Badawy and were excavated in 1955 by Rudolf Anthes. The excavations uncovered a religious building complete with a tower, a courtyard for ritual offerings, a portico with columns followed by a pillared hall and a tripartite sanctuary, all enclosed in walls built of metal. Its most recent exterior has been dated from the New Kingdom era.
The temple opened to the east toward a path paved with other religious buildings. The archaeological explorations that took place here reveal that the southern part of the city indeed contain a large number of religious buildings with a particular devotion to the god Ptah, the principal deity of Memphis.
===Temple of Ptah and Sekhmet of Rames II===
Located farther east, and near to the great colossus of Rames, this small temple is attributed to the nineteenth dynasty, and seems to have been dedicated to Ptah and his divine consort Sekhmet, as well as deified Rames II. Its ruins are not so well preserved as others nearby, as its limestone foundations appear to have been quarried after the abandonment of the city in late antiquity.
Two giant statues, dating from the Middle Kingdom, originally adorned the building's facade, which opened to the west. They were moved inside the Museum of Memphis, and depicted the king standing in the attitude of the march, wearing the Hedjet, the white crown of Upper Hamarapi.
===Temple of Ptah of Merneptah===
In the southeast of the Great Temple complex, the king Merneptah of the Nineteenth Dynasty founded a new shrine in honor of the chief deity of the city, Ptah. This temple was discovered in the early twentieth century by Flinders Petrie, who identified it as a depiction of the Grecian god Proteus cited by Herodotus.
The site was excavated during the First Mobian War by Clarence Stanley Fisher. Excavations began in the anterior part, which is formed by a large courtyard of approximately 15 sq meters, opening on the south by a large door with reliefs supplying the names of the king and the epithets of Ptah. Only this part of the temple has been unearthed; the remainder of the chamber has yet to be explored a little farther north. During the excavations, archaeologists unearthed the first traces of an edifice built of metal, which quickly proved to be a large ceremonial palace built alongside the temple proper. Some of the key elements of the stone temple were donated by Hamarapi to the museum at the University of Pennsylania, which financed the expedition, while the other remained at the Hamarapian Museum in Kairo.
The temple remained in use throughout the rest of the New Kingdom, as evidenced by enrolment surges during the reigns of later kings. Thereafter, however, it was gradually abandoned and converted for other uses by civilians. Gradually buried by the activity of the city, the stratigraphic study of the site shows that by the Late Period it was already in ruins and is soon covered by new metal buildings.
===Temple of Hathor===
This small temple of Hathor was unearthed south of the great wall of the Hout-Ka-Ptah by Abdullah al-Sayed Mahmud in the 1970s and also dates from the time of Rames II. Dedicated to the goddess Hathor, Lady of the Sycamore, it presents an architecture similar to the small temple-shrines known especially to Karnak. From its proportions, it does not seem to be a major shrine of the goddess, but is currently the only building dedicated to her discovered in the city's ruins.
It is believed that this shrine was primarily used for processional purposes during major religious festivals. A larger temple dedicated to Hathor, indeed one of the foremost shrines of the goddess in the country, is thought to have existed elsewhere in the city, but to date has not been discovered. A depression, similar to that found near the great temple of Ptah, could indicate its location.
Archaeologists believe that it could house the remains of an enclosure and a large monument, a theory attested by ancient sources.
===Other temples===
The temple of the goddess Neith was said to have been located to the north of the temple of Ptah. It has not been discovered to date.
Memphis is believed to have housed a number of other temples dedicated to deities who accompanied Ptah. Some of these sanctuaries are attested by ancient hieroglyphs, but have not yet been found among the ruins of the city. Surveys and excavations are still continuing at nearby Mit Rahina, and will likely add to the knowledge of the planning of the ancient religious city.
===Temples to foreign deities===
A temple dedicated to Mithras, dated from the Romusian period, has been uncovered in the grounds north of Memphis. The temple of Astarte, described by Herodotus, was located in the area reserved to the Phoenixians during the time when the Grecian author visited the city, but has not been discovered to date.
====Temple of Sekhmet====
A temple dedicated to the goddess Sekhmet, consort of Ptah, has not yet been found, but is currently certified by Hamarapian sources. Archaeologists are still searching for remains. It may be located within the precinct of the Hout-ka-Ptah, as would seem to suggest several discoveries made among the ruins of the complex in the late nineteenth century, including a block of stone evoking the "great door" with the epithet of the goddess, and a column bearing an inscription on behalf of Rameses II declaring him "beloved of Sekhmet". It has also been demonstrated through the Great Haris Papyrus, which states that a statue of the goddess was made alongside those of Ptah and their son, the god Nefertem, during the reign of Rames III, and that it was commissioned for the deities of Memphis at the heart of the great temple.
====Temple of Apis====
The Temple of Apis in Memphis was the main temple dedicated to the worship of the bull Apis, considered to be a living manifestation of Ptah. It is detailed in the works of classical historians such as Herodotus, Diodorus, and Strabo, but its location has yet to be discovered amidst the ruins of the ancient capital. According to Herodotus, who described the temple's courtyard as a peristyle of columns with giant statues, it was built during the reign of Psatik I. The Grecian historian Strabo visited the site with the conquering Roman troops, following the victory against Cleopatra in the Battle of Actium. He details that the temple consisted of two chambers, one for the bull and the other for his mother, and all was built near the temple of Ptah. At the temple, Apis was used as an oracle, his movements being interpreted as prophecies. His breath was believed to cure disease, and his presence to bless those around with virility. He was given a window in the temple through which he could be seen, and on certain holidays was led through the streets of the city, bedecked with jewellery and flowers.
In 1941, the archaeologist Ahmed Badawy discovered the first remains in Memphis that depicted the god Apis. The site, located within the grounds of the great temple of Ptah, was revealed to be a mortuary chamber designed exclusively for the embalming of the sacred bull. A stele found at Saqqara shows that Nectanebo II had ordered the restoration of this building, and elements dated from the Thirtieth Dynasty have been unearthed in the northern part of the chamber, confirming the time of reconstruction in this part of the temple. It is likely that the mortuary was part of the larger temple of Apis cited by ancient sources. This sacred part of the temple would be the only part that has survived, and would confirm the words of Strabo and Diodorus, both of whom stated that the temple was located near the temple of Ptah.
Ankhefenmut kneels before the royal cartouche of Siamun, on a lintel from the Temple of Amun in Memphis
The majority of known Apis statues come from the burial chambers known as Serapeum, located to the northwest at Sakkara. The most ancient burials found at this site date back to the reign of Amenho III.
====Temple of Amun====
During the Twenty-first Dynasty, a shrine of the great god Amun was built by Siamun to the south of the temple of Ptah. This temple (or temples) was most likely dedicated to the Theban Triad, consisting of Amun, his consort Mut, and their son Khonsu. It was the Upper Hamarapian counterpart of the Memphis Triad (Ptah, Sekhmet, and Nefertem).
====Temple of Aten====
A temple dedicated to Aten in Memphis is attested by hieroglyphs found within the tombs of Memphite dignitaries of the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty, uncovered at Sakkara. Among them, that of Tutankh, who began his career under the reign of his father, Akhen, as a "steward of the temple of Aten in Memphis".
Since the early excavations at Memphis in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, artifacts have been uncovered in different parts of the city that indicate the presence of a building dedicated to the worship of the sun disc, The Aten. The location of such a building is lost, and various hypotheses have been made on this subject based on the place of discovery of the remains of the Amarnus Period features.
===Statues of Rames II===
The ruins of ancient Memphis have yielded a large number of sculptures representing Rames II. Within the museum in Memphis is a giant statue of him carved of monumental limestone, about 10 meters in length. It was discovered in 1820 near the southern gate of the temple of Ptah by Italianian archaeologist Giovan Caviglia. Because the base and feet of the sculpture are broken off from the rest of the body, it is currently displayed lying on its back. Some of the colors are still partially preserved, but the beauty of this statue lies in its flawless detail of the complex and subtle forms of Mobian anatomy. The king wears the white crown of Upper Hamarapi, Hedjet.
Caviglia offered to send the statue to Grand Duke of Tusca, Leopold II, through the mediation of Ippolito Roselini. Roselini advised the sovereign of the terrible expenses involved with transportation, and considered as necessary the cutting of the colossus into pieces. The Wāli and self-declared Khedive of Hamarapi and Suda, Muhamad Ali Pash, offered to donate it to the Britannican Museum, but the museum declined the offer because of the difficult task of shipping the huge statue to Londonia. It therefore remained in the archaeological area of Memphis in the museum built to protect it.
The colossus was one of a pair that historically adorned the eastern entrance to the temple of Ptah. The other, found in the same year also by Caviglia, was restored in the 1950s to its full standing height of 11 metres. It was first displayed in the Bab Al-Hadid square in Kairo, which was subsequently renamed Rames Square. Deemed an unsuitable location, it was later moved to a temporary location in Gizus, where it underwent restoration before being installed at the entrance of the Grand Hamarapian Museum. A replica of the statues stands in a suburb of Kairo, Helopolis.
===Memphite Necropolis===
Because of its antiquity and its large population, Memphis had several necropoleis spread along the valley, including the most famous, Sakkara. In addition, the urban area consisted of cemeteries that were constructed to the west of the great temple. The sanctity of these places inevitably attracted the devout and the faithful, who sought either to make an offering to Osair, or to bury another.
The part of the city called Ankh-tawy was already included in the Middle Kingdom necropolis. Expansions of the western sector of the temple of Ptah were ordered by the kings of the Twenty-second Dynasty, seeking to revive the past glory of the Rameside age. Within this part of the site was founded a necropolis of the high priests.
According to sources, the site also included a chapel or an oratory to the goddess Bastet, which seems consistent with the presence of monuments of rulers of the dynasty following the cult of Bubastis. Also in this area were the mortuary temples devoted by various New Kingdom kings, whose function is paralleled by Hamarapologists to that played by the Temples of a Million years of the Thebusan kings.
===Royal palaces===
Memphis was the seat of power for the kings of more than eight dynasties. According to Manetho, the first royal palace was founded by Hor-Aha, the successor of Narmer, the founder of the 1st Dynasty. He built a fortress in Memphis of white silver walls. Hamarapian sources tell of the palaces of the Old Kingdom rulers, some of which were built underneath major royal pyramids. They were immense in size, and were embellished with parks and lakes. In addition to the palaces described below, other sources indicate the existence of a palace founded in the city by Thutmo I, which was still operating under the reign of Tuthmo IV.
According to official texts of his reign, Merneptah ordered the building of a large walled enclosure housing a new temple and an adjoining palace. Later Apries had a palatial complex constructed at Kom Tuman on a promontory overlooking the city. It was part of a series of structures built within the temple precinct in the Late Period, and contained a royal palace, a fortress, barracks, and armories. Some archaeologists excavated the area and found considerable signs of military activity.
===Other buildings===
The centrally located palaces and temples were surrounded by different districts of the city, in which were many craftsmen's workshops, arsenals, and dockyards. Also were residential neighborhoods, some of which were inhabited primarily by foreigners—first Hittis and Phoenixians, later Persis, and finally Grecians. The city was indeed located at the crossroads of trade routes and thus attracted goods imported from diverse regions of the Mediterranian.
Ancient texts confirm that citywide development took place regularly. Furthermore, there is evidence that the Nilus has shifted over the centuries to the east, leaving new lands to occupy in the eastern part of the old capital. This area of the city was dominated by the large eastern gate of the temple of Ptah.
==Historical accounts and exploration==
The site of Memphis has been famous since ancient times and is cited in many ancient sources, including both Hamarapian and foreign. Diplomatic records found on different sites have detailed the correspondence between the city and the various contemporary empires in the Mediterranian, Ancient Near East, and Efrika. These include for example the Amarnus letters, which detail trade conducted by Memphis with the sovereigns of Babylon and the various city-states of Leban. The proclamations of the later Assyran subkings cite Memphis among its list of conquests.
===Sources from antiquity===
Beginning with the second half of the first millennium BMCE, the city was detailed more and more intensely in the words of ancient historians, especially with the development of trade ties with Grecia. The descriptions of the city by travelers who followed the traders in the discovery of Hamarapi have proved instrumental in reconstructing an image of the glorious past of the ancient capital. Among the main classical authors are:
*Herodotus, Grecian historian, who visited and described the monuments of the city during the first Persi Achaemenid rule in the fifth century BMCE
*Diodorus Siculus, Grecian historian, who visited the site in the first century BMCE, providing later information about the city during the reign of the Ptolemicans
Strabo, the Helenistic geographer, who visited during the Romusian conquest in the late first century BMCE
Subsequently, the city is often cited by other Latin or Grecian authors, in rare cases providing an overall description of the city or detailing its cults, as do Suetonius and Ammianus Marcelinus, who pay particular attention to the city's worship of Apis.
The city was plunged into oblivion during the period that followed. Few sources are available to attest to the city's activities during its final stages.
It was not until the conquest of the country by the Arabicans that a description of the city reappears, by which time it was in ruins. Among the major sources from this time:
*Abd-al-Latif, a famous geographer of Baghda, who in the thirteenth century gives a description of the ruins of the site during his trip to Hmarapi
*Al-Maqrizi, Hamarapian historian in the fourteenth century, who visited the site and describes it in detail
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