Marvels of Memphis City: Discovering the Ancient Capital of Egypt

The remarkable history of the name of the city of Memphis

The city of “Memphis” or “Enbo Hajj” and “Hatt Ka Ptah” in ancient Egyptian, and “Memphis” in Greek, and these different names of the Egyptian city have always aroused the imagination of historians, the curiosity of researchers and the insatiability of explorers, Memphis is not just an immortal city in the pages of history, but a city from which history began.

“Memphis”, the first capital of unified Egypt and the city that played a significant role throughout the history of ancient Egypt, was the capital of the first region of Lower Egypt, which occupies its current location in the village of “Mit Rahina” located at a distance of 24 km south of Cairo, and perhaps the greatness of the historical “Memphis” is clearly reflected in that one of its names or the name of its great temple “Hatt Ka Ptah” (Temple of the Spirit of Ptah) has derived from it the Greek name of Egypt “Aegyptus”, from which the name of “Egypt” was derived in many other different languages of the world.

Memphis as the first capital ever of Egypt!

The historical roots of the city of “Memphis” date back to the early dynastic era, and Egyptologists explain that Memphis was founded around 3100 BC to be a watershed historical milestone following the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt and became the first capital of unified Egypt and a tangible symbol of the first central government in the history of Egypt and the ancient world. This was done by the first king of the First Dynasty, the legendary King Narmer or Mina, according to the vast majority of historians.

Historians stated that King “Mina” surrounded Memphis with white mud-brick walls, which gave the city its ancient Egyptian name “Enbo Hajj”, meaning the white wall or the white castle; as for the name Memphis “Memphis in Greek”, historians have seen that it has been derived from the ancient Egyptian word “from Nefer”, which is the name of the pyramid of King “Bibi I” of the Sixth Dynasty, which is located close to the city in the south of Saqqara in Giza Governorate.

Military Capital

“Memphis” was the military capital of Egypt, whose empire expanded in Syria, Palestine and Nubia, “Kush”, and it was the main center of Egyptian war campaigns in that era, as its location allowed it to monitor the Nile Valley and the corridors heading to the country of “Kush”, as well as the eastern borders, which allowed the Egyptian military garrisons to move quickly when necessary when the need calls for them, and the most crucial war campaigns on Asia were launched in the era of the two kings, “Thutmose III” and “Amenhotep II” from Memphis. Memphis was a center for manufacturing weapons and training military vehicles, and a substantial naval base, the Pro-Nefer, was established in the Eighteenth Dynasty on the Pelozian branch of the Nile River.

Administrative Capital

Despite the rise of the status of “Thebes” as a royal residence and as the political and religious capital of the country during the majority of the 18th dynasty, many historians and researchers have seen that “Memphis” was the administrative capital of Egypt, as archaeological and textual evidence indicates that Memphis has become the royal residence and administrative capital of Egypt during the second half of the Ramesside era. The monuments found from that era show the superiority of its status, breadth and greatness of its facilities surprisingly and admirably.

With the dawn of the late era (1069-332 BC), in which the sun of the ancient Egyptian civilization tended to set, “Memphis” returned to be the royal seat and capital of the country. Still, it was subjected to many invasions that the majestic city suffered, as the Kushists, Assyrians, and Persians conquered it throughout that era.

The ancient distinguished geographical location helped it maintain its position as the first capital of Egypt

Memphis occupied a distinct geographical position that made it control the two parts of the country, as its location allowed it to control the different regions of the Delta and provided it with accessible communication with trade routes extending across the desert, from the Levant and the Red Sea to beyond the desert. The city reached the height of its political and cultural glory during the early dynastic era “3100-2686 BC” and the age of the Old Kingdom “2686-2181 BC”, where it remained Egypt’s political and administrative capital throughout that period.

Memphis throughout the ages

• In the era of the first transition, “2181 – 2055 BC”, Memphis lost its position as the political capital of Egypt. The political circumstances caused the transfer of the royal headquarters to Ehnasia “Heracleopolis” during the era of the ninth and tenth dynasties “Ehnasian era”, and many civilizational, cultural and religious centres competing with Memphis appeared, such as “Ashmonin”, “Hermopolis”, in Middle Egypt, and “Thebes”, which is currently Luxor, in Upper Egypt.
• It seems that Memphis has regained much of its importance and status with the beginning of the Middle Kingdom era “2055 – 1650 BC” after the transfer of the royal headquarters to “Lisht” near the cemetery of Memphis by King “Amenemhat I”, founder of the Twelfth Dynasty, and during the era of the New Kingdom “1550 – 1069 BC”.

Cemetery of Memphis

The vast cemetery of “Memphis” extended to include important areas such as “Abu Rawash”, Giza, Zawiya Al-Arian, Abu Sir, Saqqara and Dahshur, which archaeologists and Egyptologists called “the exiled cemetery”, where the kings of Egypt, rulers, princes and senior officials were buried in the pyramids and tombs of this cemetery, which brought us the treasures of the ancient Egyptian civilization and its creations in architecture and arts throughout that era and was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979.

Immortal monuments in the city of Memphis

Many historical monuments disappeared below agricultural land and under the deep sediments of the Nile silt to the west of the river, and the archaeological site of Memphis was currently limited to some areas around the village of Mit Rahina near the west bank of the Nile River, which included the most critical remaining monuments, the most prominent of which is a small museum and another open museum in which some of the statues discovered at the site are displayed, and most of the pieces on display date back to the New Kingdom

Ramses II

One of the most wonderful monuments of Memphis is the giant statue of King Ramses II lying on his back in his museum building in Mit Rahina. The statue is made of limestone, which is the twin of the famous giant statue of King “Ramses II”, which came out of Memphis and was in the middle of Ramses Square in the heart of Cairo and is currently located in the Grand Egyptian Museum.

The sphinx

One of the most important monuments discovered in Memphis is the colossal statue of King Ramses II in the form of the Sphinx of red granite, which is currently located in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Pennsylvania, USA. It is noted through the inscriptions recorded on it that it included five names of King Ramses II recorded on the chest and base. This statue is the third largest Sphinx statue in the world after the famous Giza statue and the one in Mit Rahina museum which is made of alabaster.

Mit Rahina Museum

One of the most important monuments in the museum in Mit Rahina is the colossal statue of Ramses II and another giant statue of him lying on the ground. There is also a statue in the image of the sphinx of alabaster and some other monuments.