Due to the location where the Nile Delta converged with the valley, the place had a quite strategic geographical location to give importance to the economy and thus the commercial activity due to its port.
According to traces, in the port of this city, there were workshops, shipyards, and even warehouses that were in charge of distributing goods to the Old Kingdom. It is said that Memphis was full of palaces, gardens, and temples, which made this one of the main cities of antiquity.
In the 5th century BC, much later in its heyday, the Greek historian and traveler Herodotus described Memphis as a prosperous and cosmopolitan city. The historian of the 3rd century BC. The original builder of the city was probably Narmer, the king who unified Egypt, known as Menes. It is a testament to the power and fame of early Memphis that the Greeks named the country after the city.
Founded around BC by the first pharaoh of Egypt, Menes, the ruins of the city lie 19 km south of Cairo , on the west bank of the Nile. The local god was Ptah.
For much of Egyptian history, Memphis was the most important city in the country and the economic center of the kingdom, undisputed capital from Dynasty I to VIII resurfacing during the reign of Ramses II and Merenptah. It is estimated that Memphis was the most populated city in the world until BC, at the height of its peak it could have more than five hundred thousand inhabitants. Thebes succeeded Memphis, c. Esarhaddon of Assyria, in BC, and Ashurbanipal, sack the city, causing its decline.
The founding of Alexandria , in BC, marked the end of the Memphite hegemony. The Ptolemies and later the Roman emperors regarded Alexandria as the great capital of Egypt, and the rest of the country, including the three-thousand-year-old Memphis, fell into oblivion and poverty. It was abandoned in , and its ruins became a quarry of materials for the nearby settlements. Much of its remains were used to build the new Egyptian capital, Cairo.
One of them is a statue of Ramses II. Once measuring 40 feet in length, it has been damaged and the lower legs and feet are now missing from it. At one time, it adorned the temple of Ptah. However, now, it has sustained a lot of damage from centuries of lying in the sand. The other important ruin at Memphis is the alabaster Sphinx. Smaller and less prominent than the Great Sphinx at Giza, the alabaster Sphinx stands about 13 feet high and 24 feet long.
It is estimated to weigh about 80 tons. Saqqara served as the necropolis burial grounds for Memphis. It is important because it is home to many pyramids including the Step Pyramid of Djoser which was built during the 3rd Dynasty. Egyptian cities are generally very safe, especially in area where tourists frequent. Q-Best time for Nile River Cruise? A -The best time to for Nile Cruise is October through April when the temperatures are mild and good weather. At the height of its Golden Age it may well have been the most populated city in the world.
In BCE, Thebes - the modern day city of Luxor - superseded Memphis as capital city, and as the centuries passed it lost its significance in Egypt. Sped up by the founding of Alexandria in BCE, it ended up being completely abandoned by the 7th century CE and become a quarry, with the remains of temples and other grand buildings being used to build the new capital city of Cairo.
In the area where the ancient great city of Memphis once stood, now stands the small town of Mit Rahina, home to an open-air museum where visitors can see what remains of the ruined former capital. Despite the dismantling of the ancient capital to build new cities, the open-air museum of Memphis still boasts a good number of ancient ruins, including several important statues.
0コメント