That the arts were carried to a great degree of excellence at Memphis is proved by the most abundant evidence. Its manufacturers of glass were famed for the superior quality of their workmanship, with which Rome continued to be supplied long after Egypt became a province of the empire. The environs of Memphis presented cultivated groves of the acacia tree, of whose wood were made the planks and masts of boats, the handles of offensive weapons of war, and va rious articles of furniture (Wilkinson, iii, 92 168). Memphis was also distinguished as be ing the place where Apis was kept, and where his worship received special honor. The city's over throw was predicted (Is. xix:i3; Jer. xlvi :i9). The latest of these predictions was uttered nearly 600 years before Christ, and half a century before the invasion of Egypt by Cambyses, B. C. 525. The city never recovered from the blow inflicted by Cambyses. The rise of Alexandria hastened its decline. The caliph conquerors founded Old Cairo upon the opposite bank of the Nile, a few miles north of Memphis, and brought materials from the old city to build their new capital, A. D. 638. At length so complete was the ruin of Nlemphis that for a long time its very site was lost. Recent explorations have brought to light many of its antiquities, and specimens of its relics are now in museums in Europe and America. A
little village, Mitrahineh, stands upon a portion of the site of ancient Memphis. "The immense necropolis at the west of Memphis, on the bor ders of the Libyan desert, still extends from Abu-Rosh in the north to Dashur in the south. The gigantic royal tombs, the pyramids, attract numerous visitors from the whole world. Usually, only the most remarkable group of pyramids (those of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkare of the fourth dynasty—in Herodotus, Cheops, Chephren, and Mycerinus) at Gizeh are visited; about fifty other pyramids of smaller size or still more dilapidated are less known (those at Sakkara, be longing to the sixth dynasty, and of Dashur of the fourth dynasty, being most remarkable). The immense sphinx at Gizell (probably a work of Klzafre—Chephren, although recently some schol ars place it in the twelfth dynasty), and many private tombs, the latter much destroyed, contrib ute to make the site of ancient Memphis still remarkable." (M. Max Miiller, Hastings' Bib. Dict.) (6) Literature. Vyse, Pyramids of Gizeh; Wilkinson, Modern Egypt and Thebes; Poole, Englishwoman in Egypt; Niebuhr, Travels; Classical Dictionaries. (See Ecvm..)