The sacred name of Memphis was ha-ptah, pa- PTAH, or HA-PTAH-KA, or HA-KA-PTAH, " the abode of Ptah." or " of the being of Ptah" (Brugsch, i, 235, 236, Nos. 1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, tab. xlii).
II. Geog7-aphical Position. — Memphis was well chosen as the capital city of all Egypt. It stood just above the ancient point of the Delta, where the Pelusiac, Se- benny tic, and Canopic branches separated. It was with- in the valley of Upper Egypt, yet it was close to the plain of Lower Egypt. If farther north it could not have been in a position naturally strong ; if anywhere but at the division of the two regions of Egypt, it could not have been the seat of a sovereign who wished to unite and command the two. Where the valley of Up- per Egypt is about to open into the plain it is about five miles broad. On the east, this valley is bounded almost to the ri,ver's brink by the light j'ellow limestone moun- tains which slope abruptly to the narrow slip of fertile land. On the west, a broad surface of cultivation ex- tends to the low edge of the Great Desert, upon which rise, like landmarks, the long series of Memphite pyra- mids. The valley is perfectly flat, except where a vil- lage stands on the mound of some ancient town, and un- varied but by the long groves of date-palms wliich ex- tend along the river, and the smaller groups of the vil- lages. The Nile occupies the midst with its great vol- ume of water, and to the west, not far beneath the Lib- yan range, is the great canal called the Bahr Yiisuf, or " Sea of Joseph." The scene is beautiful from the contrast of its colors, the delicate tints of the bare des- ert-mountains or hills bright with the light of an Egyp- tian sun, and the tender green of the fields, for a great part of the year, except when the Nile spreads its inun- dating waters from desert f o desert, or when the harvest is yellow with such plenteous ears as Pharaoh saw m his dream. The beauty is enhanced by the recollec- tion that here stood that capital of Egypt which was in times very remote a guardian of ancient civilization; that here, as those pyramids — ^ivhich frifiers in all ages have mocked at — were raised to attest, the doctrine of a future state was firmly believed and handed down till revelation gave it its true significance; and that here many of the great events of sacred history may have taken place, certainly many of its chief personages may have wondered at remains which in the days of Abra- ham were the work of an older and stronger generation.
But for the pyramids it would now be difficult to as- certain the precise site of Memphis, and the pyramids, extending for twenty miles, do not minutely assist us. No lofty mounds, as at Bubasfis and Sais, mark the place of the great city; no splendid temples, as at Thebes, enable us to recall its magnificence. The val- ley between the Libyan Desert and the Nile is flat and unmarked by standing columns, or even, as at neigh- boring Heliopolis, by a solitary obelisk. Happily a fallen colossal statue and some trifling remains near by, half buried in the mud, and aimually drowned by the inundation, show us where stood the chief temple of Memphis, and doubtless the most ancient part of the city, near the modern village of Mit-Eahhieh (fully Minyet Rahineh ; comp. Eobinson, Resea7-ches, i, 40, 41). This central position is in the valley verj- near the pres- ent west bank of the river, and three miles from the
MEMPHIS
MEMPHIS
PiCSGiit \ .e
Tlie climate of Mem- |)liis may be inferred iromthatofthemod- erii ( airo — about ten imlestotlie north —winch is the most t \ui\ le that I-jrypt an r Is. The city 13 •-ti 1 to have had a c irt nmfercnce of al) ut nineteen miles (L)iod.Sic.i,50),and the houses or inhab- it < Uiuarters, as was 11 iial in the great II ic? of antiquity, vcre interspersed with numerous gar- de ns and public area"!
The building of iVFemphis is associated by tradition with a stupendous work of art, which has permanently changed the course of the Kile and the face of the Delta. Uefore the time of Menes the river, emerging from the ii])- per valley into the neck of the Delta, bent its course westward towards the hills of the Libyan Desert, or at least discharged a portion of its waters through an arm
edge of the Great Desert. The distance above Cairo is about nine miles, and that above the ancient head of the Delta about sixteen. The ancient city was no doubt of great extent, but it is impossible, now that its remains have been destroyed and their traces swallowed up i)y the alluvial dejiosit of the Nile, to determine its limits, or to decide whether the different quarters men- tioned in the hieroglyphic inscriptions were portions of j in that direction. Here the generous Hood, whose yearly one connected city; or, again, whether the IMemphis known to classical writers was smaller than the- old cap- ital, a central part of it, from which the later additions had, in a time of decay, been gradually separated. In the inscriptions we find three quarters distinguished: The " White Wall," mentioned by the classical writers (XfVKvv Tilxof;}, has the same name in hieroglyphics, SEBT-HET (IJrugsch, ut sup. i, 120, 234, 235; 1 tab. xv, Nos. 1091-1094; tab. xlii). That Memphis is meant in the name of the nome appears not only from the cir- cumstance that Memphis was the caj)ital of the Mem- phitic Nome, but also from the occurrence of ha-ptaii- KA or HA-KA-PTAii, as the equivalent of sebt-iikt in the name of the nome (Brugsch, ibul. i, tab. xv ; i, 1 ; ii, 1, etc., and Nomcn aus dem neuen Reiche, p. 1). The White Wall is put in the nome-name for Memphis it- self, i)robably as the oldest part of the city. Herodotus mentions the White Wall as the cita<l(l of ^Memphis, for he relates that it held a garrison of IJO.tidu IVrsians (iii, 91), and he also speaks of it by the name of the Citadel simply (to Tti\oQ, p. 13, 14). Thucydides speaks of the White Wall as the third, and, as we may infer, the strong- est part of Memphis, but he does not give the names of the other two parts (i, 104). The Scholiast remarks that Memphis had three walls, and that whereas the others were of brick, the third, or White Wall, was of stone (ad loc.). No doubt the commentator had in his mind (ireek towns surrounded by more than a single wall, and did not know that Egyptian towns were rarely if ever walled. But his idea of the origin of the name white, as applied to the citadel of Memphis, is very prob- ably correct. The Egyptian forts known to ns are of crude brick ; therefore a stone fort, verj^ possible in a city like Memphis, famous for its great works in ma- sonrj', would receive a name denoting its peculiarity. It is noticeable that the monuments mention two other quarters, "The two regions of life" (Brugsch, ibid, i, 236, 237, Nos. 1107 sq., tab. xlii, xliii), and amui or PEK-AMiii (j7/«/. p. 237, No. 1114 a, tab. xliii).