History of Egypt

o means of saying; he may have lived five hundred or even a thousand years earlier; but, until we can assign him an accurately correct date, it is best to retain the one here given. Naturally he occupies a high place in Egyptian tradition, being regarded as the first human king of the country. His birthplace was the small town of Tent (Greek, This), near Abydos. This town was not, however, favorably located for the capital of a great empire; so Mena left it, and removed the seat of the government to the city of Memphis, which lay on the Nile a little to the south of the apex of the Delta. This city was the home of the god Ptah, who thus became the official head of the Egyptian pantheon. The site of this city was on the left bank of the Nile, a little above the modern city of Cairo. At the modern village of Mitrahine a few mounds of rubbish and some scattered ruins still mark the place where once stood one of the greatest and richest cities of all antiquity. The Egyptian name of the city was Men- nefer?" the good (or beautiful) abode "?from which the Greek name Memphis, by which we designate the city, was derived. Every city of ancient Egypt had two names ?a common orprofane name and a sacred name, derived either from the name of its god or from some mythological event located at it. The sacred name of Men-nefer was Het-ka-Ptah, "the abode of the spirit of Ptah." It wasdefended by a citadel called " anbuhetj," " the white wall." The city itself was probably far ...