Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Memphis (1.)

MEMPHIS, the capital of the old Egyptian empire, founded by Menes, the first historical king; see vol. vii. pp. 731, 770. In the time of Strabo (xvii. p. 807) it was the second city of Egypt, inferior only to Alexandria, and with a mixed population like the latter. Memphis was still an important though declining place at the time of the Moslem conquest. Its final fall was due to the rise of the Arabic city of Fosṭáṭ on the right bank of the Nile almost opposite the northern end of the old capital; and its ruins, so far as they still lay above ground, gradually disappeared, being used as a quarry for the new city. The remains of “Menf” were still imposing late in the 12th century, when they were described by ‛Abd el-Laṭif. In the Old Testament Memphis is mentioned under the names of Moph (Hos. ix. 6) and Noph (Isa. xix. 13; Jer. ii. 16; Ezek. xxx. 13, 16).