Memphis , city and capital of ancient Egypt and an important center throughout much of Egyptian history. Memphis is south of the Nil Deltas on the west bank of the river and about 15 miles south of modern Cairo . Closely associated with the site of the ancient city are the cemeteries or Necropolis , from Memphis, where the famous Pyramids of Egypt are located. From north to south, the main pyramid fields are: Abū Ruwaysh , Giza , Zāwiyat al-ʿAryān, Abū Ṣīr , Ṣaqqārah and Dahshūr . The Memphis Archaeological Zone became the UNESCO declared World Heritage Site in 1979.
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According to a generally accepted tradition, Memphis became around 2925 v. Founded by Menes , said to be the two prehistoric kingdoms Top and Lower Egypt united . The city's original name was White Walls, and the term may originally have referred to the Royal Palace, which would have been built of whitewashed brick. The modern name of Memphis is a Greek version of the Egyptian Men-Nefer, the name of the nearby pyramid of 6. Dynasty ( c. 2325- c. 2150 vdZ ) king Pepi I . Another geographic term for Memphis, Hut-ka-Ptah ("Mansion of the Ka from Ptah") rendered in Greek Aegyptos was later applied to the whole country.
Ptah , the local god of Memphis, was a patron of artisans and craftsmen and in some related also a creator god. The The great temple of Ptah was one of the most famous structures in the city. From an Egyptian document known as " Memphite Theology ”, Ptah created humans through the power of his heart and his language. The concept formed in the heart of the Creator was brought into being by the divine utterance itself. In its freedom from the traditional physical Analogies of the creative act and in its level of abstraction, this text is practically unique in Egypt and testifies to the philosophical sophistication of the priests of Memphis .
The prominence of Memphis during the earliest times is indicated by the extensive cemeteries of the Early Dynastic period ( c. 2925- c. 2575 vdZ ) and Old Kingdom ( c. 2575- c. 2130 BCE ) , that clusters along the desert bluffs to the west. Large ornate niche Tombs of 1. and 2. Dynasty ( approx. 2925– approx. 2650 v. Chr . ) Found at Ṣaqqārah , once considered royal monuments, were later accepted as the private tombs of powerful courtiers.
The Old Kingdom
Memphis reached through the 3. Dynasty precedence . The 3rd century BCE Historian Manetho names the 3rd and 4. Dynasty ( c. 2650- c. 2465 vdZ ) Memphis, and the huge royal pyramidal tombs of this period, in the Memphis necropolis, attest to this. Djoser , the second king of the 3rd Dynasty , was the builder of the step pyramid of Ṣaqqārah , the earliest royal endowment in Memphis and the first important stone building in Egypt. Imhotep , the king's architect and adviser, is credited with this architectural achievement; His reputation as a wise man and physician later led to his deification and identification with the Greek god Asklepius .
The remains of several unfinished or badly damaged pyramids near Memphis have been attributed to other 3rd Dynasty kings. The first king of the 4th dynasty, Snefru , built in Dahshūr two pyramid tombs . The big three Giza Pyramids include Khufu , Khafre and Menkaure , later monarchs of the 4th dynasty. The Great Sphinx at Giza dates from the time of Khafre. The last known king of this dynasty, Shepseskaf built his tomb in South Ṣaqqārah. It was not a pyramid but a prominent oblong structure with sloping sides now called Maṣṭabat Firʿawn.
The royal pyramids are surrounded by large cemeteries where the courtiers and officials who had served the king during his lifetime were buried. The beautiful reliefs in certain of these tombs include scenes of daily life and thus give some idea of the crafts, costumes, and occupations of the royal court of Memphis. Since little has survived of domestic architecture and household furnishings, these reliefs are a valuable source of information on such subjects. A notable exception to the general rule of loss and destruction is the hidden tomb of Queen Hetepheres, the mother of Khufu, which was discovered near the Great Pyramid of Giza. Though the queen's body was unaccountably missing from her sarcophagus, her funerary equipment and furniture survived. The exquisite craftsmanship of these objects testify, as do the splendid low reliefs of the tombs, to the high development of the arts and crafts of the period. Indeed, it is believed by some scholars that the Old Kingdom, influenced by the craftsmen of the Memphite court and the philosopher-theologians of Ptah, reached a peak of "classic" culture that was never surpassed in Egypt.
The kings of the 5th dynasty (c. 2465-c. 2325 bce) moved south of Giza to build their funerary monuments; their pyramids, at Abū Ṣīr, are much smaller than those of the 4th dynasty, but the pyramid temples and causeways were decorated with fine reliefs. This dynasty was probably marked by a decline of Memphite influence paralleling the rise of a sun cult centered at Heliopolis. The major monuments of the period are not the pyramids but the sun temples, which were, however, also part of the so-called Memphite pyramid area, not far from Abū Ṣīr.
During the 6th dynasty, which Manetho also designates as Memphite, the funerary monuments in the pyramid field of Ṣaqqārah continued to decline in size and workmanship. At that time the influence of the centralized government at Memphis began to wane, as is indicated by the increased prominence of provincial cities and the number of fine tombs located away from the Memphis area. This process of decentralization ended in the First Intermediate Period, a time of internal breakdown. Manetho's 7th and 8th dynasties (c. 2150-c. 2130 bce) are both called Memphite, but it is believed that both dynasties together comprised a very short time and that that old Memphite house lost control of the provincial princes soon after the end of the 6th dynasty.