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150-653: The Egyptian name for Thebes was wꜣs.t , "City of the wꜣs ", the sceptre of the pharaohs , a long staff with an animal's head and a forked base. From the end of the New Kingdom , Thebes was known in Egyptian as njw.t-jmn , the "City of Amun ", the chief of the Theban Triad of deities whose other members were Mut and Khonsu . This name of Thebes appears in the Tanakh as the "Nōʼ ʼĀmôn" ( נא אמון ) in

300-710: A World Heritage Site . The site is open to the public as an open-air museum . According to legends related in the early third century BC by Manetho , a priest and historian who lived in the Ptolemaic Kingdom during the Hellenistic period of ancient Egypt , the city was founded by King Menes . It was the capital of ancient Egypt ( Kemet or Kumat ) during both the Early Dynastic Period and Old Kingdom and remained an important city throughout ancient Egyptian history . It occupied

450-773: A literary language , and was also the language of the New Kingdom administration. Texts written wholly in Late Egyptian date to the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt and later. Late Egyptian is represented by a large body of religious and secular literature , comprising such examples as the Story of Wenamun , the love poems of the Chester–Beatty I papyrus, and the Instruction of Any . Instructions became

600-520: A synthetic language , Egyptian by the Late Egyptian phase had become an analytic language . The relationship between Middle Egyptian and Late Egyptian has been described as being similar to that between Latin and Italian. The Late Egyptian stage is taken to have ended around the 8th century BC, giving rise to Demotic. Demotic is a later development of the Egyptian language written in the Demotic script , following Late Egyptian and preceding Coptic ,

750-517: A 2005 study on mummified remains found that "some Theban nobles had a histology which indicated notably dark skin ". The archaeological remains of Thebes offer a striking testimony to Egyptian civilization at its height. The Greek poet Homer extolled the wealth of Thebes in the Iliad , Book 9 ( c.  8th Century BC ): "... in Egyptian Thebes the heaps of precious ingots gleam,

900-637: A celebration of the Opet Festival . In spite of his welcoming visit, Thebes became a center for dissent. Towards the end of the third century BC, Hugronaphor (Horwennefer), possibly of Nubian origin, led a revolt against the Ptolemies in Upper Egypt. His successor, Ankhmakis , held large parts of Upper Egypt until 185 BC. This revolt was supported by the Theban priesthood. After the suppression of

1050-578: A decline during the Third Intermediate Period , which saw great changes in the geopolitics of the country. Instead it is likely that the kings worked to develop the Memphite cult in their new capital of Tanis , to the northeast. In light of some remains found at the site, it is known that a temple of Ptah was based there. Siamun is cited as having built a temple dedicated to Amun , the remains of which were found by Flinders Petrie in

1200-558: A few have survived that were written in hieratic and (later) demotic. There was also a form of cursive hieroglyphs , used for religious documents on papyrus, such as the Book of the Dead of the Twentieth Dynasty ; it was simpler to write than the hieroglyphs in stone inscriptions, but it was not as cursive as hieratic and lacked the wide use of ligatures . Additionally, there was a variety of stone-cut hieratic, known as "lapidary hieratic". In

1350-495: A few specialists in the language. For all other purposes, the Egyptological pronunciation is used, but it often bears little resemblance to what is known of how Egyptian was pronounced. The following consonants are reconstructed for Archaic (before 2600 BC) and Old Egyptian (2686–2181 BC), with IPA equivalents in square brackets if they differ from the usual transcription scheme: / l / has no independent representation in

1500-650: A later date, the etymology is doubtful. As early as Homer 's Iliad , the Greeks distinguished the Egyptian Thebes as "Thebes of the Hundred Gates" ( Θῆβαι ἑκατόμπυλοι , Thēbai hekatómpyloi ) or "Hundred-Gated Thebes", as opposed to the " Thebes of the Seven Gates " ( Θῆβαι ἑπτάπυλοι , Thēbai heptápyloi ) in Boeotia , Greece. In the interpretatio graeca , Amun was rendered as Zeus Ammon . The name

1650-464: A mythical king, similar to Romulus of Rome. Some scholars suggest that Egypt most likely became unified through mutual need, developing cultural ties and trading partnerships, although it is undisputed that the first capital of united Egypt was the city of Memphis. Some Egyptologists had identified the legendary Menes with the historical Narmer , who is represented on the Palette of Narmer conquering

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1800-490: A number of its brown quartzite blocks were found to have been reused by Ramesses II (r. 1279–1213 BC) for the construction of the small temple of Ptah. This leads some Egyptologists to suggest that the latter temple had been built over the site of the first. According to inscriptions found in Memphis, Akhenaten (r. 1353/51–1336/34 BC; formerly Amenhotep IV) founded a temple of Aten in the city. The burial chamber of one of

1950-469: A palace and developed the southeast wall of the temple of Ptah. For the early part of the 19th Dynasty , Memphis received the privileges of royal attention, and it is this dynasty that is most evident among the ruins of the city today. With the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Dynasties , there is a continuation of the religious development initiated by Ramesses. Memphis does not seem to have suffered

2100-559: A panel recording official acts of the royal court during this time. In the ruins of the Temple of Ptah, a block in the name of Senusret II bears an inscription indicating an architectural commission as a gift to the deities of Memphis. Moreover, many statues found at the site, later restored by the New Kingdom kings, are attributed to kings of the Twelfth Dynasty . Examples include the two stone giants that have been recovered amidst

2250-442: A popular literary genre of the New Kingdom, which took the form of advice on proper behavior. Late Egyptian was also the language of New Kingdom administration. Late Egyptian is not completely distinct from Middle Egyptian, as many "classicisms" appear in historical and literary documents of this phase. However, the difference between Middle and Late Egyptian is greater than the difference between Middle and Old Egyptian. Originally

2400-444: A scribe jokes that his colleague's writing is incoherent like "the speech of a Delta man with a man of Elephantine ." Recently, some evidence of internal dialects has been found in pairs of similar words in Egyptian that, based on similarities with later dialects of Coptic, may be derived from northern and southern dialects of Egyptian. Written Coptic has five major dialects, which differ mainly in graphic conventions, most notably

2550-469: A strategic position at the mouth of the Nile Delta , and was home to bustling activity. Its principal port, Peru-nefer (not to be confused with Peru-nefer at Avaris ), featured a high density of workshops, factories, and warehouses that distributed food and merchandise throughout the ancient kingdom. During its golden age, Memphis thrived as a regional centre for commerce, trade, and religion. Memphis

2700-503: A stressed vowel (⟨ bjn ⟩ = */ˈbaːjin/ 'bad') and as ⟨ jj ⟩ word-medially immediately before a stressed vowel ( ⟨ḫꜥjjk⟩ = */χaʕˈjak/ 'you will appear') and are unmarked word-finally (⟨ jt ⟩ = /ˈjaːtVj/ 'father'). In Middle Egyptian (2055–1650 BC), a number of consonantal shifts take place. By the beginning of the Middle Kingdom period, / z / and / s / had merged, and

2850-510: A stressed vowel in syllables that had been closed in earlier Egyptian (compare ⲛⲟⲩⲃ < */ˈnaːbaw/ 'gold' and ⲧⲁⲡ < * /dib/ 'horn'). The phonemes /d g z/ occur only in Greek loanwords, with rare exceptions triggered by a nearby /n/ : ⲁⲛⲍⲏⲃⲉ/ⲁⲛⲥⲏⲃⲉ < ꜥ.t n.t sbꜣ.w 'school'. Earlier *d ḏ g q are preserved as ejective t' c' k' k ' before vowels in Coptic. Although

3000-644: A transliteration of the corresponding Demotic "alphabetical" sign(s) in angle brackets ⟨ ⟩ . More changes occur in the 1st millennium BC and the first centuries AD, leading to Coptic (1st or 3rd – c. 19th centuries AD). In Sahidic ẖ ḫ ḥ had merged into ϣ š (most often from ḫ ) and ϩ / h / (most often ẖ ḥ ). Bohairic and Akhmimic are more conservative and have a velar fricative / x / ( ϧ in Bohairic, ⳉ in Akhmimic). Pharyngeal *ꜥ had merged into glottal / ʔ / after it had affected

3150-465: A uniliteral hieroglyph. Egyptian scholar Gamal Mokhtar noted that the inventory of hieroglyphic symbols derived from "fauna and flora used in the signs [which] are essentially African", reflecting the local wildlife of North Africa, the Levant and southern Mediterranean. In "regards to writing, we have seen that a purely Nilotic, hence [North] African origin not only is not excluded, but probably reflects

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3300-433: A young prince in Memphis. During his exploration of the site, Karl Richard Lepsius identified a series of blocks and broken colonnades in the name of Thutmose IV to the east of the Temple of Ptah. They had to belong to a royal building, most likely a ceremonial palace. The founding of the temple of Astarte (Mespotamian or Assyrian goddess of fertility and war; Babylonian = Ishtar), which Herodotus syncretically understands

3450-574: Is also located near Thebes; this valley connected Thebes to an oasis on the Western Desert. It is notable for the first Proto-Sinatic alphabet inscription, which appeared shortly after Thebes became the capital of Egypt. Nearby towns in the fourth Upper Egyptian nome were Per-Hathor , Madu , Djerty , Iuny , Sumenu and Imiotru . According to George Modelski , Thebes had about 40,000 inhabitants in 2000 BC (compared to 60,000 in Memphis ,

3600-445: Is called Moph . The Muslim tradition adopted the Coptic etymology which operates with an etymon Māfah , derived from Coptic : ⲙⲁⲁⲃ , lit.   'thirty'. It made the number significant in the following traditions relating to Memphis: it was thirty miles long, Manqāwus built it for his thirty daughters and Baysar lived here with his thirty children. The city of Memphis is 20 km (12 mi) south of Cairo , on

3750-450: Is closely linked to that of the country itself. Its eventual downfall is believed to have been due to the loss of its economic significance in late antiquity, following the rise of coastal Alexandria . Its religious significance was diminished after the abandonment of the ancient religion following the Edict of Thessalonica (380 AD), which made Nicene Christianity the sole religion of

3900-474: Is dated from the oldest known complete sentence, including a finite verb , which has been found. Discovered in the tomb of Seth-Peribsen (dated c.  2690 BC ), the seal impression reads: Extensive texts appear from about 2600 BC. An early example is the Diary of Merer . The Pyramid Texts are the largest body of literature written in this phase of the language. One of its distinguishing characteristics

4050-650: Is dedicated to the Greek goddess Aphrodite , also may be dated to the Eighteenth Dynasty, specifically the reign of Amenhotep III (r. 1388/86–1351/1349 BC). The greatest work of this king in Memphis, however, was a temple called "Nebmaatra united with Ptah", which is cited by many sources from the period of his reign, including artefacts listing the works of Huy , the High Steward of Memphis. The location of this temple has not been precisely determined, but

4200-490: Is known today from a large corpus of surviving texts, which were made accessible to the modern world following the decipherment of the ancient Egyptian scripts in the early 19th century. Egyptian is one of the earliest known written languages , first recorded in the hieroglyphic script in the late 4th millennium BC . It is also the longest-attested human language, with a written record spanning over 4,000 years. Its classical form, known as " Middle Egyptian ," served as

4350-452: Is not a contrastive feature; all obstruents are voiceless and all sonorants are voiced. Stops may be either aspirated or tenuis (unaspirated), although there is evidence that aspirates merged with their tenuis counterparts in certain environments. The following table presents the consonants of Demotic Egyptian. The reconstructed value of a phoneme is given in IPA transcription, followed by

4500-544: Is satisfied"), took the Herakleopolitans by force and reunited Egypt once again under one ruler, thereby starting the period now known as the Middle Kingdom . Mentuhotep II ruled for 51 years and built the first mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri , which most likely served as the inspiration for the later and larger temple built next to it by Hatshepsut in the 18th Dynasty. After these events, the 11th Dynasty

4650-399: Is sometimes reserved for the earliest use of hieroglyphs, from the late fourth through the early third millennia BC. At the earliest stage, around 3300 BC, hieroglyphs were not a fully developed writing system , being at a transitional stage of proto-writing ; over the time leading up to the 27th century BC, grammatical features such as nisba formation can be seen to occur. Old Egyptian

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4800-424: Is the best-documented variety of the language, and has attracted the most attention by far from Egyptology . While most Middle Egyptian is seen written on monuments by hieroglyphs, it was also written using a cursive variant , and the related hieratic . Middle Egyptian first became available to modern scholarship with the decipherment of hieroglyphs in the early 19th century. The first grammar of Middle Egyptian

4950-406: Is the tripling of ideograms , phonograms, and determinatives to indicate the plural. Overall, it does not differ significantly from Middle Egyptian, the classical stage of the language, though it is based on a different dialect. In the period of the 3rd dynasty ( c.  2650  – c.  2575 BC ), many of the principles of hieroglyphic writing were regularized. From that time on, until

5100-856: The 12th Dynasty king Senusret may have been usurped and re-used, since the statue bears a cartouche of Nyuserre on its belt. Since seven rulers of the 4th to 6th Dynasties appear on the Karnak king list, perhaps at the least there was a temple in the Theban area that dated to the Old Kingdom. By 2160 BC, a new line of pharaohs (the Ninth and Tenth Dynasties) consolidated control over Lower Egypt and northern parts of Upper Egypt from their capital in Herakleopolis Magna . A rival line (the Eleventh Dynasty ), based at Thebes, ruled

5250-789: The 16th Dynasty ) stood firmly over their immediate region as the Hyksos advanced from the Delta southwards to Middle Egypt . The Thebans resisted the Hyksos' further advance by making an agreement for a peaceful concurrent rule between them. The Hyksos were able to sail upstream past Thebes to trade with the Nubians and the Thebans brought their herds to the Delta without adversaries. The status quo continued until Hyksos ruler Apophis ( 15th Dynasty ) insulted Seqenenre Tao ( 17th Dynasty ) of Thebes. Soon

5400-551: The 18th Dynasty ( New Kingdom ). It also became the center for a newly established professional civil service , where there was a greater demand for scribes and the literate as the royal archives began to fill with accounts and reports. At the city the favored few of Nubia were reeducated with Egyptian culture, to serve as administrators of the colony. With Egypt stabilized again, religion and religious centers flourished and none more so than Thebes. For instance, Amenhotep III poured much of his vast wealth from foreign tribute into

5550-591: The Babylonians , reconstructed and even fortified structures in the city, as is attested by the palace built by Apries at Kom Tuman. Egypt and Memphis were taken for Persia by king Cambyses in 525 BC after the Battle of Pelusium . Under the Persians , structures in the city were preserved and strengthened, and Memphis was made the administrative headquarters of the newly conquered satrapy . A Persian garrison

5700-569: The Book of Nahum and also as "No" ( נא ) mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel and Jeremiah . "Thebes" is sometimes claimed to be the Latinised form of Ancient Greek : Θῆβαι , the hellenized form of Demotic Egyptian tꜣ jpt ("the temple"), referring to jpt-swt . Today, the temple is known as Karnak , and is located on the northeast bank of the city. Since Homer refers to the metropolis by this name, and since Demotic script did not appear until

5850-565: The Coptic Catholic Church . Most hieroglyphic Egyptian texts are written in a literary prestige register rather than the vernacular speech variety of their author. As a result, dialectical differences are not apparent in written Egyptian until the adoption of the Coptic alphabet . Nevertheless, it is clear that these differences existed before the Coptic period. In one Late Egyptian letter (dated c.  1200 BC ),

6000-608: The Delta . Thebes maintained its revenues and prestige through the reigns of Seti I (1290–1279 BC) and Ramesses II (1279–1213 BC), who still resided for part of every year in Thebes. Ramesses II carried out extensive building projects in the city, such as statues and obelisks, the third enclosure wall of Karnak temple, additions to the Luxor temple , and the Ramesseum , his grand mortuary temple . The constructions were bankrolled by

6150-586: The Late Period . By around 750 BC, the Kushites (Nubians) were growing their influence over Thebes and Upper Egypt. In 721 BC, King Shabaka of the Kushites defeated the combined forces of Osorkon IV ( 22nd Dynasty ), Peftjauawybast ( 23rd Dynasty ) Bakenranef ( 24th Dynasty ) and reunified Egypt yet again. His reign saw a significant amount of building work undertaken throughout Egypt, especially at

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6300-543: The Palermo Stone , and beginning from the reign of Menkaura , we know the names of the high priests of Memphis who seem to have worked in pairs, at least until the reign of Teti . The architecture of this period was similar to that seen at Giza royal necropolis of the Fourth Dynasty, where recent excavations have revealed that the essential focus of the kingdom at that time centred on the construction of

6450-637: The Roman occupation (30 BC–641 AD), the remaining communities clustered around the pylon of the Luxor temple. Thebes became part of the Roman province of Thebais , which later split into Thebais Superior , centered at the city, and Thebais Inferior , centered at Ptolemais Hermiou . A Roman legion was headquartered in Luxor temple at the time of Roman campaigns in Nubia . Building did not come to an abrupt stop, but

6600-455: The Sed festival were celebrated in the temple of Ptah. The earliest signs of such ceremonies were found in the chambers of Djoser . During this period, the clergy of the temple of Ptah came into being. The importance of the temple is attested with payments of food and other goods necessary for the funerary rites of royal and noble dignitaries. This temple also is cited in the annals preserved on

6750-492: The Twenty-ninth Dynasty . The execution was recorded in an Aramaic papyrus document (Papyrus Brooklyn 13). Nepherites moved the capital to Mendes , in the eastern delta, and Memphis lost its status in the political sphere. It retained, however, its religious, commercial, and strategic importance, and was instrumental in resisting Persian attempts to reconquer Egypt. Under Nectanebo I , a major rebuilding program

6900-588: The hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts. Demotic is the name of the script derived from the hieratic beginning in the 7th century BC. The Coptic alphabet was derived from the Greek alphabet , with adaptations for Egyptian phonology. It was first developed in the Ptolemaic period , and gradually replaced the Demotic script in about the 4th to 5th centuries of the Christian era. The term "Archaic Egyptian"

7050-587: The liturgical language of the Coptic Church . The Egyptian language branch belongs to the Afroasiatic language family . Among the typological features of Egyptian that are typically Afroasiatic are its fusional morphology, nonconcatenative morphology , a series of emphatic consonants , a three-vowel system /a i u/ , a nominal feminine suffix * -at , a nominal prefix m- , an adjectival suffix -ī and characteristic personal verbal affixes. Of

7200-454: The vernacular of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and remained the literary language of Egypt until the Roman period . By the time of classical antiquity , the spoken language had evolved into Demotic , and by the Roman era , diversified into various Coptic dialects . These were eventually supplanted by Arabic after the Muslim conquest of Egypt , although Bohairic Coptic remains in use as

7350-584: The Achaemenid monarchy. The stelae dedicated to Apis in the Serapeum at Saqqara, commissioned by the reigning monarch, represent a key element in understanding the events of this period. As in the Late Period, the catacombs in which the remains of the sacred bulls were buried gradually grew in size, and later took on a monumental appearance that confirms the growth of the cult's hypostases throughout

7500-545: The Canaanite center of power at Avaris, starting the 15th Dynasty there. The Hyksos kings gained the upper hand over Lower Egypt early into the Second Intermediate Period (1657–1549 BC). When the Hyksos took Memphis during or shortly after Merneferre Ay 's reign ( c.  1700 BC ), the rulers of the 13th Dynasty fled south to Thebes, which was restored as capital. Theban princes (now known as

7650-455: The Kushite king was driven back into Nubia . The Assyrian king Esarhaddon , supported by some of the native Egyptian princes, captured Memphis in 671 BC. His forces sacked and raided the city, slaughtered villagers, and erected piles of their heads. Esarhaddon returned to his capital Nineveh with rich booty, and erected a victory stele showing the son of Taharqa in chains. Almost as soon as

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7800-403: The New Kingdom, was still functioning several generations after its establishment at the temple, leading some scholars to suggest that it may have contained the royal burial chamber of the king. Sheshonk also ordered the building of a new shrine for the god Apis , especially devoted to funeral ceremonies in which the bull was led to his death before being ritually mummified . A necropolis for

7950-529: The Ptolemaic rulers. These decrees were engraved on stelae in three scripts to be read and understood by all: Demotic , hieroglyphic , and Greek . The most famous of these stelae is the Rosetta Stone , which allowed the deciphering of ancient Egyptian script in the nineteenth century. There were other stelae, funerary this time, discovered on the site that have forwarded knowledge of the genealogy of

8100-502: The Roman empire. By the Middle Ages , nearby Cairo had emerged as a major political and economic center. Today, the ruins of the former capital offer fragmented evidence of its past. Many of its remains have become significant tourist destinations. Memphis has had several names during its history of almost four millennia. Its Ancient Egyptian name was Inebu-hedj (𓊅𓌉, translated as "the white walls" ). Because of its size,

8250-597: The Semitic preference for triradical roots. Egyptian is probably more conservative, and Semitic likely underwent later regularizations converting roots into the triradical pattern. Although Egyptian is the oldest Afroasiatic language documented in written form, its morphological repertoire is very different from that of the rest of the Afroasiatic languages in general, and Semitic languages in particular. There are multiple possibilities: perhaps Egyptian had already undergone radical changes from Proto-Afroasiatic before it

8400-535: The Temple of Amun in Gebel Barkal . Following the capture of Memphis, he restored the temples and cults neglected during the reign of the Libyans . His successors are known for building chapels in the southwest corner of the temple of Ptah. Memphis was at the heart of the turmoil produced by the great Assyrian threat. Under Taharqa , the city formed the frontier base of the resistance, which soon crumbled as

8550-419: The Temple of Ptah serves as a memorial of the city's former power and prestige. The Memphis triad , consisting of the creator god Ptah, his consort Sekhmet , and their son Nefertem , formed the main focus of worship in the city. Memphis declined after the Eighteenth Dynasty with the rise of Thebes and the New Kingdom, but was revived under the Persians , before falling firmly into second place following

8700-432: The Theban Hills in the west that culminates at the sacred 420-meter (1,380-foot) al-Qurn . In the east lies the mountainous Eastern Desert with its wadis draining into the valley. Significant among these wadis is Wadi Hammamat near Thebes. It was used as an overland trade route going to the Red Sea coast. Wadi Hammamat was the primary trade route linking Egypt to the Red Sea since Pre-Dynastic times. Uruk civilization

8850-407: The Theban economy flourish by renewing trade networks, primarily the Red Sea trade between Thebes' Red Sea port of Al-Qusayr , Elat and the land of Punt . Her successor Thutmose III brought to Thebes a great deal of his war booty that originated from as far away as Mittani . The 18th Dynasty reached its peak during his great-grandson Amenhotep III 's reign (1388–1350 BC). Aside from embellishing

9000-421: The Third Intermediate Period and the Late Period , Memphis is often the scene of liberation struggles of the local dynasties against an occupying force, such as the Kushites , Assyrians, and Persians. The triumphant campaign of Piankhi , ruler of the Kushites, saw the establishment of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty , whose seat of power was in Napata . Piankhi's conquest of Egypt was recorded on the Victory Stele at

9150-428: The Two Lands"), stressing the strategic position of the city between Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt . This name appears to date from the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1640 BCE), and is frequently found in ancient Egyptian texts. Some scholars maintain that this name was that of an area that contained a sacred tree, the western district of the city that lay between the great Temple of Ptah and the necropolis at Saqqara . At

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9300-434: The adoption of his own daughter, Nitocris I , as heiress to God's Wife of Amun there. In 525 BC, Persian Cambyses II invaded Egypt and became pharaoh, subordinating the kingdom as a satrapy to the greater Achaemenid Empire . The good relationship of the Thebans with the central power in the North ended when the native Egyptian pharaohs were finally replaced by Greeks, led by Alexander the Great . He visited Thebes during

9450-430: The ancient Egyptian later name for Memphis mjt-rhnt meaning "Road of the Ram-Headed Sphinxes" being a reference to the ancient causeway connecting Memphis and Saqqara, on which the procession of the dead bull travelled for burial in the Serapeum of Saqqara , but its been rejected by numerous Egyptologists on the basis of the town's earlier name Minyat Rahina ( Arabic : منية رهينة ), which could possibly be derived from

9600-452: The armies of Thebes marched on the Hyksos-ruled lands. Tao died in battle and his son Kamose took charge of the campaign. After Kamose's death, his brother Ahmose I continued until he captured Avaris , the Hyksos capital. Ahmose I drove the Hyksos out of Egypt and the Levant and reclaimed the lands formerly ruled by them. Ahmose I founded a new age for a unified Egypt with Thebes as its capital. The city remained as capital during most of

9750-417: The beginning of the New Kingdom (c. 1550 BC), the city became known as mn-nfr (anglicized as Men-nefer , meaning "enduring and beautiful"), which became " Memfi " ( ⲙⲉⲙϥⲓ ) in Bohairic Coptic . The name " Memphis " ( Μέμφις ) is the Greek adaptation of the name that they had given to the pyramid of Pepi I , located west of the city. Some claim that modern town Mit Rahina received its name from

9900-404: The city also came to be known by various other names that were the names of neighbourhoods or districts that enjoyed considerable prominence at one time or another. For example, according to a text of the First Intermediate Period , it was known as Djed-Sut ("everlasting places"), which is the name of the pyramid of Teti . At one point the city was referred to as Ankh-Tawy (meaning "Life of

10050-413: The city continued to decline. In the first century AD, Strabo described Thebes as having been relegated to a mere village. Eastern Thebes: Western Thebes: The two great temples — Luxor Temple and Karnak —and the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens are among the greatest achievements of ancient Egypt. From 25 October 2018 to 27 January 2019, the Museum of Grenoble organized with

10200-458: The city of Memphis came under siege. Following its capture, many monuments and statues of the ancient capital were dismantled, looted, or damaged by the Hyksos kings, who later carried them off to adorn their new capital at Avaris . Evidence of royal propaganda has been uncovered and attributed to the Theban kings of the Seventeenth Dynasty , who initiated the reconquest of the kingdom half a century later. The Eighteenth Dynasty thus opened with

10350-603: The city of Thebes, which he made the capital of his kingdom. In Karnak he erected a pink granite statue of himself wearing the Pschent (the double crown of Egypt). Taharqa accomplished many notable projects at Thebes (i.e. the Kiosk in Karnak) and Nubia before the Assyrians started to wage war against Egypt. In 667 BC, attacked by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal 's army, Taharqa abandoned Lower Egypt and fled to Thebes. After his death three years later his nephew (or cousin) Tantamani seized Thebes, invaded Lower Egypt and laid siege to Memphis, but abandoned his attempts to conquer

10500-409: The city was abandoned by the court, and the worship of Amun was proscribed. The capital was moved to the new city of Akhetaten (Amarna in modern Egypt), midway between Thebes and Memphis. After his death, his son Tutankhamun returned the capital to Memphis, but renewed building projects at Thebes produced even more glorious temples and shrines. With the 19th Dynasty the seat of government moved to

10650-409: The city's gradual decline. It was Ptolemy I who first introduced the cult of Serapis in Egypt, establishing his cult in Saqqara. From this period date many developments of the Saqqara Serapeum, including the building of the Chamber of Poets, as well as the dromos adorning the temple, and many elements of Greek-inspired architecture. The cult's reputation extended beyond the borders of the country, but

10800-468: The city's population to have numbered approximately 6,000 inhabitants during the Old Kingdom. During the Early Dynastic Period and Old Kingdom, Memphis became the capital of Ancient Egypt for more than six consecutive dynasties . The city reached a peak of prestige under the Sixth Dynasty as a centre for the worship of Ptah , the god of creation and artworks. The alabaster sphinx that guards

10950-461: The city. Memphis under the Late Period saw recurring invasions followed by successive liberations. Several times besieged, it was the scene of several of the bloodiest battles in the history of the country. Despite the support of their Greek allies in undermining the hegemony of the Achaemenids, the country nevertheless fell into the hands of the conquerors, and Memphis was never again to become

11100-473: The cognate sets between Egyptian and Afroasiatic, the traditional theory and the neuere Komparatistik , founded by Semiticist Otto Rössler. According to the neuere Komparatistik , in Egyptian, the Proto-Afroasiatic voiced consonants */d z ð/ developed into pharyngeal ⟨ꜥ⟩ /ʕ/ : Egyptian ꜥr.t 'portal', Semitic dalt 'door'. The traditional theory instead disputes

11250-421: The construction of royal tombs. Spread over several kilometres stretching in all directions, Memphis formed a true megalopolis , with temples connected by sacred temenos , and ports connected by roadways and canals. The perimeter of the city thus gradually extended into a vast urban sprawl . Its centre remained around the temple complex of Ptah. At the beginning of the Middle Kingdom , the capital and court of

11400-529: The country in 663 BC and retreated southwards. The Assyrians pursued him and took Thebes , whose name was added to a long list of cities plundered and destroyed by the Assyrians, as Ashurbanipal wrote: This city, the whole of it, I conquered it with the help of Ashur and Ishtar. Silver, gold, precious stones, all the wealth of the palace, rich cloth, precious linen, great horses, supervising men and women, two obelisks of splendid electrum, weighing 2,500 talents,

11550-570: The country, and particularly in Memphis and its necropolis. Thus, a monument dedicated by Cambyses II seems to refute the testimony of Herodotus, who lends the conquerors a criminal attitude of disrespect against the sacred traditions. The nationalist awakening came with the rise to power, however briefly, of Amyrtaeus in 404 BC, who ended the Persian occupation. He was defeated and executed at Memphis in October 399 BC by Nepherites I , founder of

11700-767: The definite article ⲡ is unaspirated when the next word begins with a glottal stop: Bohairic ⲡ + ⲱⲡ > ⲡⲱⲡ 'the account'. The consonant system of Coptic is as follows: Here is the vowel system reconstructed for earlier Egyptian: Vowels are always short in unstressed syllables ( ⟨tpj⟩ = */taˈpij/ 'first') and long in open stressed syllables ( ⟨rmṯ⟩ = */ˈraːmac/ 'man'), but they can be either short or long in closed stressed syllables ( ⟨jnn⟩ = */jaˈnan/ 'we', ⟨mn⟩ = */maːn/ 'to stay'). Memphis, Egypt Memphis ( Arabic : مَنْف , romanized :  Manf , pronounced [mænf] ; Bohairic Coptic : ⲙⲉⲙϥⲓ ; Greek : Μέμφις ), or Men-nefer ,

11850-445: The doors of temples I tore from their bases and carried them off to Assyria. With this weighty booty I left Thebes. Against Egypt and Kush I have lifted my spear and shown my power. With full hands I have returned to Nineveh, in good health. Thebes never regained its former political significance, but it remained an important religious centre. Assyrians installed Psamtik I (664–610 BC), who ascended to Thebes in 656 BC and brought about

12000-482: The early twentieth century, in the south of the temple of Ptah complex. According to inscriptions describing his architectural work, Sheshonk I (r. 943–922 BC), founder of the Twenty-second Dynasty, constructed a forecourt and pylon of the temple of Ptah, a monument that he named the "Castle of Millions of Years of Sheshonk, Beloved of Amun". The funerary cult surrounding this monument, well known in

12150-545: The eastern Nile Delta. They eventually founded the 14th Dynasty at Avaris in c.  1805 BC or c.  1710 BC . By doing so, the Asiatics established hegemony over the majority of the Delta region, subtracting these territories from the influence of the 13th Dynasty that had meanwhile succeeded the 12th. A second wave of Asiatics called Hyksos (from Heqa-khasut , "rulers of foreign lands" as Egyptians called their leaders) immigrated into Egypt and overran

12300-637: The emphatic consonants were realised is unknown. Early research had assumed that the opposition in stops was one of voicing, but it is now thought to be either one of tenuis and emphatic consonants , as in many Semitic languages, or one of aspirated and ejective consonants , as in many Cushitic languages . Since vowels were not written until Coptic, reconstructions of the Egyptian vowel system are much more uncertain and rely mainly on evidence from Coptic and records of Egyptian words, especially proper nouns, in other languages/writing systems. The actual pronunciations reconstructed by such means are used only by

12450-439: The end of a stressed syllable and eventually null word-finally: ⟨pḏ.t⟩ */ˈpiːɟat/ > Akkadian transcription -pi-ta 'bow'. The most important source of information about Demotic phonology is Coptic. The consonant inventory of Demotic can be reconstructed on the basis of evidence from the Coptic dialects. Demotic orthography is relatively opaque . The Demotic "alphabetical" signs are mostly inherited from

12600-403: The erection by the king of a shrine to the god Ptah, master of Truth. Other blocks registered in the name of Amenemhat II were found to be used as foundations for large monoliths preceding the pylons of Ramses II. These kings were also known to have ordered mining expeditions, raids, or military campaigns beyond the borders, erecting monuments or statues to the consecration of deities, evinced by

12750-425: The executions of many conspirators, including Theban officials and women. Under the later Ramessids, Thebes began to decline as the government fell into grave economic difficulties. During the reign of Ramesses IX (1129–1111 BC), about 1114 BC, a series of investigations into the plundering of royal tombs in the necropolis of western Thebes uncovered proof of corruption in high places, following an accusation made by

12900-547: The first known Coptic text, still pagan ( Old Coptic ), from the 1st century AD. Coptic survived into the medieval period, but by the 16th century was dwindling rapidly due to the persecution of Coptic Christians under the Mamluks . It probably survived in the Egyptian countryside as a spoken language for several centuries after that. Coptic survives as the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church and

13050-421: The footprint of the ancient city is uninhabited. The closest modern settlement is the town of Mit Rahina. Estimates of historical population size differ widely among sources. According to Tertius Chandler , Memphis had some 30,000 inhabitants and was by far the largest settlement worldwide from the time of its foundation until approximately 2250 BC and from 1557 to 1400 BC. K. A. Bard is more cautious and estimates

13200-528: The founder of the city. Alternatively, Epaphus (king of Egypt, whose wife was Memphis ) is regarded in the Greek myths as the founder of Memphis, Egypt. Little is known about the city of the Old Kingdom and before. It was the state capital of the powerful kings, who reigned from Memphis from the date of the First Dynasty . According to Manetho, during the earliest years of the reign of Menes,

13350-541: The founding of Alexandria . Under the Roman Empire , Alexandria remained the most important Egyptian city. Memphis remained the second city of Egypt until the establishment of Fustat (or Fostat) in 641 AD. Afterward it was largely abandoned and became a source of stone for the surrounding settlements. It was still an imposing set of ruins in the twelfth century, but soon became little more than an expanse of low ruins and scattered stone. The legend recorded by Manetho

13500-655: The graphemes ⟨s⟩ and ⟨z⟩ are used interchangeably. In addition, / j / had become / ʔ / word-initially in an unstressed syllable (⟨ jwn ⟩ /jaˈwin/ > */ʔaˈwin/ "colour") and after a stressed vowel ( ⟨ḥjpw⟩ */ˈħujpVw/ > /ˈħeʔp(Vw)/ '[the god] Apis'). In Late Egyptian (1069–700 BC), the phonemes d ḏ g gradually merge with their counterparts t ṯ k ( ⟨dbn⟩ */ˈdiːban/ > Akkadian transcription ti-ba-an 'dbn-weight'). Also, ṯ ḏ often become /t d/ , but they are retained in many lexemes ; ꜣ becomes / ʔ / ; and /t r j w/ become / ʔ / at

13650-677: The hands of the High Priests of Amun , so that during the Third Intermediate Period , the High Priest of Amun exerted absolute power over the South, a counterbalance to the 21st and 22nd Dynasty kings who ruled from the Delta. Intermarriage and adoption strengthened the ties between them, daughters of the Tanite kings being installed as God's Wife of Amun at Thebes, where they wielded greater power. Theban political influence receded only in

13800-435: The hieroglyphic orthography, and it is frequently written as if it were / n / or / r / . That is probably because the standard for written Egyptian is based on a dialect in which / l / had merged with other sonorants. Also, the rare cases of / ʔ / occurring are not represented. The phoneme / j / is written as ⟨ j ⟩ in the initial position (⟨ jt ⟩ = */ˈjaːtVj/ 'father') and immediately after

13950-519: The hieroglyphic script, and due to historical sound changes they do not always map neatly onto Demotic phonemes . However, the Demotic script does feature certain orthographic innovations, such as the use of the sign h̭ for / ç /, which allow it to represent sounds that were not present in earlier forms of Egyptian. The Demotic consonants can be divided into two primary classes: obstruents ( stops , affricates and fricatives ) and sonorants ( approximants , nasals , and semivowels ). Voice

14100-601: The high priests of Memphis dating precisely from the Twenty-second Dynasty has been found west of the forum. It included a chapel dedicated to Ptah by a prince Shoshenq , son of Osorkon II (r. 872–837 BC), whose tomb was found in Saqqara in 1939 by Pierre Montet . The chapel is currently visible in the gardens of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, behind a trio of colossi of Ramesses II, which are also from Memphis. During

14250-458: The high priests of Ptah were constructed near the royal pyramids at Saqqara, showing that the royalty and the clergy of Memphis at that time were closely linked. The Thirteenth Dynasty continued this trend, and some kings of this line were buried at Saqqara, attesting that Memphis retained its place at the heart of the monarchy. With the invasion of the Hyksos and their rise to power ca. 1650 BC,

14400-648: The hundred-gated Thebes." More than sixty annual festivals were celebrated in Thebes. The major festivals among these, according to the Edfu Geographical Text, were: the Beautiful Feast of Opet , the Khoiak (Festival), Festival of I Shemu , and Festival of II Shemu. Another popular festivity was the halloween-like Beautiful Festival of the Valley . Thebes was inhabited from around 3200 BC. It

14550-454: The king had moved to Thebes in the south, leaving Memphis for a time. Although the seat of political power had shifted, Memphis did remain perhaps the most important commercial and artistic centre, as evidenced by the discovery of handicrafts districts and cemeteries, located west of the temple of Ptah. Also found were vestiges attesting to the architectural focus of this time. A large granite offering table on behalf of Amenemhat I mentioned

14700-471: The king left, Egypt rebelled against Assyrian rule. In Assyria, Ashurbanipal succeeded his father and resumed the offensive against Egypt. In a massive invasion in 664 BC, the city of Memphis was again sacked and looted, and the king Tantamani was pursued into Nubia and defeated, putting a definitive end to the Kushite reign over Egypt. Power then returned to the Saite kings , who, fearful of an invasion from

14850-464: The language's final stage of development, the Coptic alphabet replaced the older writing system. Hieroglyphs are employed in two ways in Egyptian texts: as ideograms to represent the idea depicted by the pictures and, more commonly, as phonograms to represent their phonetic value. As the phonetic realization of Egyptian cannot be known with certainty, Egyptologists use a system of transliteration to denote each sound that could be represented by

15000-640: The large granaries (built around the Ramesseum) that concentrated the taxes collected from Upper Egypt; and by the gold from expeditions to Nubia and the Eastern Desert. During Ramesses' long 66-year reign, Egypt and Thebes reached an overwhelming state of prosperity that equaled or even surpassed the earlier peak under Amenhotep III. The city continued to be well kept in the early 20th Dynasty . The Great Harris Papyrus states that Ramesses III (reigned 1187–56) donated 86,486 slaves and vast estates to

15150-480: The largest city in the world at the time). By 1800 BC, the population of Memphis was down to about 30,000, making Thebes the largest city in Egypt at the time. Historian Ian Morris has estimated that by 1500 BC, Thebes may have grown to be the largest city in the world, with a population of about 75,000, a position it held until about 900 BC, when it was surpassed by Nimrud (among others). Shomarka Keita reported that

15300-406: The latter of which it shares much with. In the earlier stages of Demotic, such as those texts written in the early Demotic script, it probably represented the spoken idiom of the time. However, as its use became increasingly confined to literary and religious purposes, the written language diverged more and more from the spoken form, leading to significant diglossia between the late Demotic texts and

15450-531: The mayor of the east bank against his colleague on the west. The plundered royal mummies were moved from place to place and at last deposited by the priests of Amun in a tomb-shaft in Deir el-Bahri and in the tomb of Amenhotep II . (The finding of these two hiding places in 1881 and 1898, respectively, was one of the great events of modern archaeological discovery.) Such maladministration in Thebes led to unrest. Control of local affairs tended to come more and more into

15600-467: The name of a Bedouin tribe. While attempting to draw ancient Egyptian history and religious elements into that of their own traditions, the Greek poet Hesiod in his Theogony explained the name of the city by saying that Memphis was a daughter of the Greek river god Nilus and the wife of Epaphus (the son of Zeus and Io ), who founded the city and named it after his wife. In the Bible, Memphis

15750-588: The nation's capital. In 332 BC came the Greeks, who took control of the country from the Persians, and Egypt would never see a new native ruler ascend the throne until the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 . In 332 BC, Alexander the Great was crowned king in the Temple of Ptah, ushering in the Hellenistic period . The city retained a significant status, especially religious, throughout the period following

15900-538: The nearby port of Peru-nefer (literally, "Good Travels" or " Bon Voyage ") the gateway to the kingdom for neighbouring regions, including Byblos and the Levant . In the New Kingdom, Memphis became a centre for the education of royal princes and the sons of the nobility. Amenhotep II, born and raised in Memphis, was made the setem —the high priest over Lower Egypt—during the reign of his father. His son, Thutmose IV received his famed and recorded dream whilst residing as

16050-417: The other Afroasiatic branches, linguists have variously suggested that the Egyptian language shares its greatest affinities with Berber and Semitic languages, particularly Arabic (which is spoken in Egypt today) and Hebrew . However, other scholars have argued that the Egyptian language shared closer linguistic ties with northeastern African regions. There are two theories that seek to establish

16200-608: The priests of this cult has been uncovered at Saqqara. His successor Tutankhamun (r. 1332–1323 BC; formerly Tutankhaten) relocated the royal court from Akhenaten's capital Akhetaten ("Horizon of the Aten") to Memphis before the end of the second year of his reign. Whilst in Memphis, Tutankhamun initiated a period of restoration of the temples and traditions following the era of Atenism , which became regarded as heresy . The tombs of important officials from his reign, such as Horemheb and Maya , are situated in Saqqara, although Horemheb

16350-512: The quality of the surrounding vowels. / ʔ / is not indicated orthographically unless it follows a stressed vowel; then, it is marked by doubling the vowel letter (except in Bohairic): Akhmimic ⳉⲟⲟⲡ /xoʔp/ , Sahidic and Lycopolitan ϣⲟⲟⲡ šoʔp , Bohairic ϣⲟⲡ šoʔp 'to be' < ḫpr.w * /ˈχapraw/ 'has become'. The phoneme ⲃ / b / was probably pronounced as a fricative [ β ] , becoming ⲡ / p / after

16500-870: The reality" that the geographical location of Egypt is, of course, in Africa. While the consonantal phonology of the Egyptian language may be reconstructed, the exact phonetics is unknown, and there are varying opinions on how to classify the individual phonemes. In addition, because Egyptian is recorded over a full 2,000 years, the Archaic and Late stages being separated by the amount of time that separates Old Latin from Modern Italian , significant phonetic changes must have occurred during that lengthy time frame. Phonologically, Egyptian contrasted labial, alveolar, palatal, velar, uvular, pharyngeal, and glottal consonants. Egyptian also contrasted voiceless and emphatic consonants, as with other Afroasiatic languages, but exactly how

16650-506: The recovery of the country by the Persians, he succumbed to an invasion in 340 BC. Nectanebo II retreated south to Memphis, to which the Achaemenid king Artaxerxes III laid siege, forcing the king to flee to Upper Egypt, and eventually to Nubia. A brief liberation of the city under the rebel-king Khababash (338 to 335 BC) is evinced by an Apis bull sarcophagus bearing his name, which was discovered at Saqqara dating from his second year. The armies of Darius III eventually regained control of

16800-423: The reign of Senusret I . Thebes was already, in the Middle Kingdom, a town of considerable size. Excavations around the Karnak temple show that the Middle Kingdom town had a layout with a grid pattern . The city was at least one kilometre long and 50 hectares in area. Remains of two palatial buildings were also detected. Starting in the later part of the 12th Dynasty, a group of Canaanite people began settling in

16950-451: The remaining part of Upper Egypt. The Theban rulers were apparently descendants of the prince of Thebes, Intef the Elder . His probable grandson Intef I was the first of the family to claim in life a partial pharaonic titulary , though his power did not extend much further than the general Theban region. Finally by c.  2050 BC , Intef III 's son Mentuhotep II (meaning "Montu

17100-470: The revolt in 185 BC, Ptolemy V , in need of the support of the priesthood, pardoned them. Half a century later the Thebans rose again, elevating a certain Harsiesi to the throne in 132 BC. Harsiesi, having helped himself to the funds of the royal bank at Thebes, fled the following year. In 91 BC, another revolt broke out. In the following years, Thebes was subdued, and the city turned into rubble. During

17250-524: The royal funerary chamber, housing all the elements necessary to royalty: temples, shrines, ceremonial courts, palaces, and barracks. The golden age began with the Fourth Dynasty , which seems to have furthered the primary role of Memphis as a royal residence where rulers received the double crown , the divine manifestation of the unification of the Two Lands. Coronations and jubilees such as

17400-417: The royal tombs. A strong suggestion of this notion is the etymology of the name of the city itself, which matched that of the pyramid of Pepi I of the Sixth Dynasty . Memphis was then the heir to a long artistic and architectural practice, constantly encouraged by the monuments of preceding reigns. All these necropoleis were surrounded by camps inhabited by craftsmen and labourers, dedicated exclusively to

17550-599: The same graphemes are used for the pulmonic stops ( ⟨ ⲧ ϫ ⲕ ⟩ ), the existence of the former may be inferred because the stops ⟨ ⲡ ⲧ ϫ ⲕ ⟩ /p t c k/ are allophonically aspirated [pʰ tʰ cʰ kʰ] before stressed vowels and sonorant consonants. In Bohairic, the allophones are written with the special graphemes ⟨ ⲫ ⲑ ϭ ⲭ ⟩ , but other dialects did not mark aspiration: Sahidic ⲡⲣⲏ , Bohairic ⲫⲣⲏ 'the sun'. Thus, Bohairic does not mark aspiration for reflexes of older *d ḏ g q : Sahidic and Bohairic ⲧⲁⲡ */dib/ 'horn'. Also,

17700-433: The script was supplanted by an early version of Coptic (about the third and fourth centuries), the system remained virtually unchanged. Even the number of signs used remained constant at about 700 for more than 2,000 years. Middle Egyptian was spoken for about 700 years, beginning around 2000 BC, during the Middle Kingdom and the subsequent Second Intermediate Period . As the classical variant of Egyptian, Middle Egyptian

17850-496: The seat of power was farther to the south, at Thinis . According to Manetho, ancient sources suggest the "white walls" (Ineb-hedj) or "fortress of the white wall" were founded by Menes. It is likely that the king established himself there to better control the new union between the two kingdoms that formerly were rivals. The complex of Djoser of the Third Dynasty , located in the ancient necropolis at Saqqara , would then be

18000-464: The six daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Her fate is unknown. Similarly, Horemheb consolidated power when he married Nefertiti's sister Mutnodjemet. There is evidence that, under Ramesses II , the city developed new importance in the political sphere through its proximity to the new capital Pi-Ramesses . The king devoted many monuments in Memphis and adorned them with colossal symbols of glory. Merneptah (r. 1213–1203 BC), his successor, constructed

18150-480: The southern Saidic dialect, the main classical dialect, and the northern Bohairic dialect, currently used in Coptic Church services. Most surviving texts in the Egyptian language are written on stone in hieroglyphs . The native name for Egyptian hieroglyphic writing is zẖꜣ n mdw-nṯr ("writing of the gods' words"). In antiquity, most texts were written on the quite perishable medium of papyrus though

18300-508: The spoken language of the time, similar to the use of classical Middle Egyptian during the Ptolemaic Period. Coptic is the name given to the late Egyptian vernacular when it was written in a Greek-based alphabet, the Coptic alphabet; it flourished from the time of Early Christianity (c. 31/33–324) , but Egyptian phrases written in the Greek alphabet first appeared during the Hellenistic period c.  3rd century BC , with

18450-473: The story in the modern setting some 3000 years later. In "The Egyptian" by the author Mika Waltari, there are elaborate descriptions on how Thebes looked during the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. Egyptian language The Egyptian language , or Ancient Egyptian ( r n kmt ; "speech of Egypt") is an extinct branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages that was spoken in ancient Egypt . It

18600-606: The support of the Louvre and the British Museum , a three-month exhibition on the city of Thebes and the role of women in the city at that time. In popular culture, Thebes is a setting in the films The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001). It is said to be the "Land of the Living". (In real history, there was no such name given to it.) The films feature scenes taking place in ancient Egypt in its prime, which affect

18750-526: The takeover by one of his generals, Ptolemy I . On the death of Alexander in Babylon (323 BCE), Ptolemy took great pains in acquiring his body and bringing it to Memphis. Claiming that the king had officially expressed a desire to be buried in Egypt, he then carried the body of Alexander to the heart of the temple of Ptah, and had him embalmed by the priests. By custom, kings in Macedon asserted their right to

18900-426: The temple ruins, which were later restored under the name of Rameses II. Finally, according to the tradition recorded by Herodotus, and Diodorus , Amenemhat III built the northern gate of the Temple of Ptah. Remains attributed to this king were indeed found during the excavations in this area conducted by Flinders Petrie , who confirmed the connection. It is also worth noting that, during this time, mastabas of

19050-474: The temples of Amun . The Theban god Amun became a principal state deity and every building project sought to outdo the last in proclaiming the glory of Amun and the pharaohs themselves. Thutmose I (reigned 1506–1493 BC) began the first great expansion of the Karnak temple. After this, colossal enlargements of the temple became the norm throughout the New Kingdom. Queen Hatshepsut (reigned 1479–1458 BC) helped

19200-556: The temples of Amun, Amenhotep increased construction in Thebes to unprecedented levels. On the west bank, he built the enormous mortuary temple and the equally massive Malkata palace-city, which fronted a 364-hectare artificial lake. In the city proper he built the Luxor temple and the Avenue of the Sphinxes leading to Karnak. For a brief period in the reign of Amenhotep III's son Akhenaten (1351–1334 BC), Thebes fell on hard times;

19350-561: The temples of Amun. Ramesses III received tributes from all subject peoples including the Sea Peoples and Meshwesh Libyans. The whole of Egypt was experiencing financial problems, however, exemplified in the events at Thebes' village of Deir el-Medina . In the 25th year of his reign, workers in Deir el-Medina began striking for pay and there arose a general unrest of all social classes. Subsequently, an unsuccessful Harem conspiracy led to

19500-582: The territory of the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt and establishing himself as king. This palette has been dated to ca. 31st century BC and thus, would correlate with the legend of Egypt's unification by Menes. However, in 2012 an inscription depicting the visit of the predynastic king Iry-Hor to Memphis was discovered in the Sinai. Since Iry-Hor predates Narmer by two generations, the latter cannot have been

19650-415: The throne by burying their predecessor. Ptolemy II later transferred the sarcophagus to Alexandria, where a royal tomb was constructed for its burial. The exact location of the tomb has been lost since then. According to Aelian , the seer Aristander foretold that the land where Alexander was laid to rest "would be happy and unvanquishable forever". Thus began the Ptolemaic dynasty , during which began

19800-644: The values given to those consonants by the neuere Komparatistik , instead connecting ⟨ꜥ⟩ with Semitic /ʕ/ and /ɣ/ . Both schools agree that Afroasiatic */l/ merged with Egyptian ⟨n⟩ , ⟨r⟩ , ⟨ꜣ⟩ , and ⟨j⟩ in the dialect on which the written language was based, but it was preserved in other Egyptian varieties. They also agree that original */k g ḳ/ palatalise to ⟨ṯ j ḏ⟩ in some environments and are preserved as ⟨k g q⟩ in others. The Egyptian language has many biradical and perhaps monoradical roots, in contrast to

19950-447: The victory over the invaders by the Thebans. Some Eighteenth Dynasty kings, particularly Amenhotep II (r. 1427–1401/1397 BC) and Thutmose IV (r. 1401/1397–1391/1388 BC) gave considerable royal focus to Memphis, but for the most part, power remained in the south. With the long period of peace that followed, prosperity again took hold of the city, which benefited from her strategic position. Strengthening trade ties with other empires made

20100-541: The west bank of the Nile . The modern cities and towns of Mit Rahina, Dahshur , Abusir , Abu Gorab , and Zawyet el'Aryan , south of Cairo, all lie within the administrative borders of historical Memphis ( 29°50′58.8″N 31°15′15.4″E  /  29.849667°N 31.254278°E  / 29.849667; 31.254278 ). The city was also the place that marked the boundary between Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. (The 22nd nome of Upper Egypt and 1st nome of Lower Egypt). Today,

20250-573: Was transmitted to Egypt along this corridor. It is the likely that Thinis , the capital of the First Dynasty, was located in the same region as Thebes for this reason. Both cities were at a crossroad region in Upper Egypt between the Nile in the north to south direction and Saharan caravan routes connecting to Red Sea maritime routes via Wadi Hammamat in the East West direction. The Wadi el-Hol

20400-399: Was believed to be under the protection of the god Ptah , the patron of craftsmen. Its great temple , Hut-ka-Ptah (meaning "Enclosure of the ka of Ptah"), was one of the most prominent structures in the city. The name of this temple, rendered in Greek as Aἴγυπτoς (Ai-gy-ptos) by Manetho, is believed to be the etymological origin of the modern English name Egypt . The history of Memphis

20550-513: Was buried in the Valley of the Kings after reigning as king himself (r. 1319–1292 BC). He had been commander of the army under Tutankhamun and Ay . Maya was overseer of the treasury during the reigns of Tutankhamun, Ay, and Horemheb. Ay had been Tutankhamun's chief minister, and succeeded him as king (r. 1323–1319 BC). To consolidate his power he married Tutankhamun's widow Ankhesenamun , the third of

20700-442: Was initiated for temples across the country. In Memphis, a powerful new wall was rebuilt for the Temple of Ptah, and developments were made to temples and chapels inside the complex. Nectanebo II meanwhile, while continuing the work of his predecessor, began building large sanctuaries, especially in the necropolis of Saqqara, adorning them with pylons, statues, and paved roads lined with rows of sphinxes. Despite his efforts to prevent

20850-560: Was later eclipsed by the great Alexandrian Serapeum , built in Ptolemy's honour by his successors. The Decrees of Memphis were issued in 216 and 196 BC, by Ptolemy IV and Ptolemy V respectively. Delegates from the principal clergies of the kingdom gathered in synod , under the patronage of the High Priest of Ptah and in the presence of the king, to establish the religious policy of the country for years to come, also dictating fees and taxes, creating new foundations, and paying tribute to

21000-544: Was located along the banks of the Nile River in the middle part of Upper Egypt about 800 km south of the Delta . It was built largely on the alluvial plains of the Nile Valley, which follows a great bend of the Nile. As a natural consequence, the city was laid in a northeast–southwest axis parallel to the contemporary river channel. Thebes had an area of 93 km (36 sq mi), which included parts of

21150-459: Was permanently installed within the city, probably in the great north wall, near the domineering palace of Apries. The excavations by Flinders Petrie revealed that this sector included armouries. For almost a century and a half, the city remained the capital of the Persian satrapy of Egypt ("Mudraya"/"Musraya"), officially becoming one of the epicentres of commerce in the vast territory conquered by

21300-428: Was published by Adolf Erman in 1894, surpassed in 1927 by Alan Gardiner 's work. Middle Egyptian has been well-understood since then, although certain points of the verbal inflection remained open to revision until the mid-20th century, notably due to the contributions of Hans Jakob Polotsky . The Middle Egyptian stage is taken to have ended around the 14th century BC, giving rise to Late Egyptian. This transition

21450-479: Was recorded; or the Afroasiatic family has so far been studied with an excessively Semitocentric approach; or, as G. W. Tsereteli suggests, Afroasiatic is a sprachbund , rather than a true genetic language family. The Egyptian language can be grouped thus: The Egyptian language is conventionally grouped into six major chronological divisions: Old, Middle, and Late Egyptian were all written using both

21600-418: Was short-lived, as less than twenty years had elapsed between the death of Mentuhotep II and that of Mentuhotep IV , in mysterious circumstances. During the 12th Dynasty , Amenemhat I moved the seat of power North to Itjtawy . Thebes continued to thrive as a religious center as the local god Amun was becoming increasingly prominent throughout Egypt. The oldest remains of a temple dedicated to Amun date to

21750-530: Was taking place in the later period of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (known as the Amarna Period ). Original Old Egyptian and Middle Egyptian texts were still used after the 14th century BCE. And an emulation of predominately Middle Egyptian, but also with characteristics of Old Egyptian, Late Egyptian and Demotic, called " Égyptien de tradition " or "Neo-Middle Egyptian" by scholars,

21900-525: Was that Menes , the first king to unite the Two Lands , established his capital on the banks of the Nile by diverting the river with dikes. The Greek historian Herodotus , who tells a similar story, relates that during his visit to the city, the Persians , at that point the suzerains of the country, paid particular attention to the condition of these dams so that the city was saved from the annual flooding . It has been theorised that Menes may have been

22050-476: Was the ancient capital of Inebu-hedj , the first nome of Lower Egypt that was known as mḥw ("North"). Its ruins are located in the vicinity of the present-day village of Mit Rahina (Arabic: ميت رهينة ), in markaz ( county ) Badrashin , Giza , Egypt . Along with the pyramid fields that stretch on a desert plateau for more than 30 kilometres (19 mi) on its west, including the famous Pyramids of Giza , Memphis and its necropolis have been listed as

22200-450: Was the eponymous capital of Waset, the fourth Upper Egyptian nome . At this time it was still a small trading post, while Memphis served as the royal residence of the Old Kingdom pharaohs. Although no buildings survive in Thebes older than portions of the Karnak temple complex that may date from the Middle Kingdom , the lower part of a statue of Pharaoh Nyuserre of the 5th Dynasty has been found in Karnak. Another statue dedicated by

22350-486: Was therefore translated into Greek as Diospolis, "City of Zeus". To distinguish it from the numerous other cities by this name, it was known as the "Great Diospolis" ( Διόσπολις Μεγάλη , Diospolis Megálē ; Latin : Diospolis Magna ). The Greek names came into wider use after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great , when the country came to be ruled by the Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty . Thebes

22500-547: Was used as a literary language for new texts since the later New Kingdom in official and religious hieroglyphic and hieratic texts in preference to Late Egyptian or Demotic. Égyptien de tradition as a religious language survived until the Christianisation of Roman Egypt in the 4th century. Late Egyptian was spoken for about 650 years, beginning around 1350 BC, during the New Kingdom of Egypt . Late Egyptian succeeded but did not fully supplant Middle Egyptian as

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