The former capital of Egypt, Memphis was established by Pharaoh Menes during the first dynasty. On a dawn of the new kingdom, Memphis and Thebes were both capitals. According to the Rosetta stone, it was an important religious center of the time of the Ptolemys. It was forgotten during the time of the Mamluks, and plunderers destroyed it. It’s statues were scattered, the Nile flooded it several times and covered it with its drifts.
Memphis, which was called the flourishing capital by Herodotus, has since become invisible. Whatever remained, for example the Sphinx depicting Amenhotep II, can’t be seen in the palm garden in an open-air museum in the village of Mit Rahina.
Despite all of the 4000 years have done to it, there are many wonderful things to be found here which are incomprehensible to the visitor and cannot be described by the most eloquent speakers. The more you watch it the more you wonder the more you look at it the more delight you find in it, wrote Abd-el-latif.
The originally 14 meter and 80 ton statue of Ramses II is the worlds largest calcite statue. It used to stand on Midan Ramses in Cairo for a long time, however, due to the increased traffic, the original one was taken back to Memphis and was replaced by a copy on the famous Square. Now it’s in an exhibition hall in Memphis and reminds one of the great beauty of that city.
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