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Ancient Egypt Top‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Ancient Egypt, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Egyptological subjects on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Ancient EgyptWikipedia:WikiProject Ancient EgyptTemplate:WikiProject Ancient EgyptAncient Egypt articles Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale. WikiProject Ancient Egypt to-do list: edit history watch purge Needed articles. We should have an article on every pyramid and every nome in Ancient Egypt. I'm sure the rest of us can think of other articles we should have. Cleanup. To start with, most of the general history articles badly need attention. And I'm told that at least some of the dynasty articles need work. Any other candidates? Standardize the Chronology. A boring task, but the benefit of doing it is that you can set the dates !(e.g., why say Khufu lived 2589-2566? As long as you keep the length of his reign correct, or cite a respected source, you can date it 2590-2567 or 2585-2563) Stub sorting Anyone? I consider this probably the most unimportant of tasks on Wikipedia, but if you believe it needs to be done . . . Data sorting. This is a project I'd like to take on some day, & could be applied to more of Wikipedia than just Ancient Egypt. Take one of the standard authorities of history or culture -- Herotodus, the Elder Pliny, the writings of Breasted or Kenneth Kitchen, & see if you can't smoothly merge quotations or information into relevant articles. Probably a good exercise for someone who owns one of those impressive texts, yet can't get access to a research library. Oriental Orthodoxy Low‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Oriental Orthodoxy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles on the Oriental Orthodox Church on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Oriental OrthodoxyWikipedia:WikiProject Oriental OrthodoxyTemplate:WikiProject Oriental OrthodoxyOriental Orthodoxy articles Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale. World Heritage Sites Top‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject World Heritage Sites, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of World Heritage Sites on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.World Heritage SitesWikipedia:WikiProject World Heritage SitesTemplate:WikiProject World Heritage SitesWorld Heritage Sites articles Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale. Cities This article is within the scope of WikiProject Cities, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of cities, towns and various other settlements on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CitiesWikipedia:WikiProject CitiesTemplate:WikiProject CitiesWikiProject Cities articles

"It occupied a strategic position at the mouth of the Nile delta". No it didn't. It was at the head of the Nile delta.

It is difficult and sometimes even impossible to rank the world´s top five largest cities in ancient times. The Chandler list [1] is based on some very general assumptions.--JFK 12:40, 10 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It is believed that Memphis was the largest city in the world from its foundation until around 2250 BC and from 1557 to 1400 BC. Its population was over 30,000.

Removed until verified. --JFK 11:29, 12 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think the figure stating that Memphis' population was 30,000 is correct, nor the satement about it being by far the largest settlement in 3000 BC. Ancient Egypt of the Pre-Dynastic, Early Dynastic, and Old Kingdom was made up of rather small "cities" believed to be around 5,000 to 10,000 in population at the largest. Cities in Mesopotamia were far larger, like Uruk c.3000BC with population estimates at around 50,000. I understand that there is much debate and difficulty in coming up with population figures concerning such ancient sites, but I really don't think this the data presented in the article is what research supports. Also, the article says Memphis was the ancient capital of the first nome of Lower Egypt, and of the Old Kingdom of Egypt from its foundation until around 1300 BC which isn't right either. --Melancholia i 21:10, 3 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The information about Memphis being the largest settlement seems to come from Tertius Chandler's Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth: An Historic Census. The stimate of 30,000 still seems a bit high, and Memphis being the largest city until 1300 BC would still be false.--Melancholia i 21:21, 3 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There is a claim that memphis was capital until 1300 B.C. What is the basis for this claim? Memphis ceased to be capital with the end of the old kingdom in about 2200. After the first intermediate period, the capitals changed to hieracontopolis and thebes, then to thebes alone, then to avaris, then back to thebes, and then 1300 rolled about. Thanatosimii 02:52, 11 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Depends of what definition you make use of; the article capital says: "the principal city or town associated with its government". Egyptologists have used another unspoken definition: Where the pharaoh built his tomb and mortuary monuments. In reality the pharaoh and his government resided in several capitals. Middle Kingdom: Itjtawy, Memphis, Thebes. New Kingdom: Akhetaten, Memphis, Pi-Ramesses, Thebes. However, I do not quite understand why the start of the 19th Dynasty in 1300 BC is giving as the "end" of Memphis´ capital status.--JFK 11:29, 12 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How is it that the First Dynasty city of Memphis is described as being built by Menes of Tanis, when the Wikipedia article on Tanis states that that city was built in the Twentieth Dynasty? Another city of the same name?

--Ziusudra 12:05, 11 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Menes of Tanis is flat out wrong. It is likely that Menes never even existed. Besides this, Menes was said to be from Upper Egypt, not the Delta (where Tanis is located). The earliest Egyptian kings are associated with Hierkonpolis (I think) and Abydos in the south.

--Tom

External link or links have recently been deleted by User:Calton as "horrible Tripod pages which add little information, are full of ads, and fail WP:EL standards." No better external links were substituted. Readers may like to judge these deleted links for themselves, by opening Page history. --Wetman 15:00, 2 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

there is also a memphis tenessee which is in the united states. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.130.90.216 (talk) 00:55, 30 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeh, so? I don't see how that should have any mention in this article. --Sauronjim (talk) 14:22, 29 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

what about da map??? the didn't include a map :( —Preceding unsigned comment added by Happykook101 (talk • contribs) 01:13, 27 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Why is "Memphis" automatically redirected to Memphis, Tenessee? Manf was the original city and Memphis, Tenessee is named for it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.235.150.190 (talk) 00:53, 10 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

USA-style neglect of history and anything outside USA... СЛУЖБА (talk) 08:48, 18 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

See Philadelphia and Philadelphia, Turkey. Just like Philadelphia, PA Memphis, TN is a city of around 700K people and is a current hub of technology and culture. Much like Philadelphia, Turkey; Memphis, Egypt is just a small city in the middle of the desert. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.72.247.188 (talk) 15:32, 8 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Memphis currently redirects here, despite the Memphis, TN article saying Memphis redirects to that page. I have to assume that one of the many people who are upset about Wikipedia's policy of having Memphis redirect to Memphis, TN, changed it without knowledge of the administrators, because I cannot find any discussion where it was agreed to move it. Someone should probably change the redirect so it will go to Memphis, TN again, as that seems to be the official Wikipedia decision.J'onn J'onzz (talk) 16:36, 12 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

On tourist trips I was told that the city was dismantled in the eighth and ninth century to build CairoEricl (talk)

"A Russian archaeological mission working in Mit Rahina discovered part of the white wall of Memphis city, the first capital of ancient Egypt, in addition to a number of ovens for manufacturing pottery and bronze tools ... The mission will continue excavation works at the site in an effort to find the remaining part of the wall, head of the mission said. Memphis was the ancient capital of Aneb-Hetch, the first name of Lower Egypt. Its ruins are located near the town of Mit Rahina, 20km south of Cairo."^[1]

Needs some "fair" explanation of weight, construction, transportation...--81.39.104.252 (talk) 17:02, 27 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The use of "Memphis" is under discussion, see Talk:Memphis (disambiguation)#Requested move 4 September 2018. Crouch, Swale (talk) 10:05, 4 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I noticed that the infobox section with the native name of Memphis says "menes". Indeed, king Menes founded the city, but was it named after him? Plus, this name is not mentioned in the main article. 89.210.99.172 (talk) 21:00, 9 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

• For the record, User:The Houndsworth has been blocked as a sock per Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/SwissArmyGuy. Thanks. BilCat (talk) 20:23, 14 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The points raised in this 2003 article need to be incorporated in this article:

"Questioning the Location of the Old Kingdom Capital of Memphis, Egypt". Volume 14. 14 (0). UCL Press. 2003-11-15. doi:10.5334/pia.201. ISSN 2041-9015.((cite journal)): CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)

Specifically:

• The term "Memphis" was used inconsistently in Egyptology for a long time, meaning that care must be taken when using older works
• There is a modern scholarly debate on the location of Memphis, specifically whether it is just Mit Rahina or a wider location stretching all the way to Giza.

This can be seen best by looking at this map from the Description de l'Égypte, the foundational work of modern Egyptology. It includes two references to Memphis, one in the top left corner "Pyramids of Giza or of Memphis" and one in the bottom center "Ruins of Memphis" at the location of Mit Rahina.

Onceinawhile (talk) 22:16, 11 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I have removed the two "transliterations" ⲙⲟⲩⲛ ⲛⲟϥⲣⲓ and ϩⲱ ⲭⲟ ⲡⲑⲁϩ which had been added by an IP-address-only user (so, unfortunately, I could not reach out first). These are not transliterations because the hieroglyphs do not indicate vowels. A Coptic transliteration of the first would be ⲙⲛ ⲛϥⲣ. Rather than transliterations, these are projections forward of how the old name of the city may have sounded like in Coptic. This is, however, entirely speculative and could easily be confused with a real attested name by a casual reader. Referencing the Coptic WP incubator is not a good source, in my mind, because, as much as I like it, any neologisms there are still essentially conlangs, not really attested forms (unless they get adopted at some point in the future by a broad consensus outside WP). If I am wrong and these are actually attested in Coptic please make sure to provide a historical source for that before restoring. Thanks! MikuChan39 (talk) 05:51, 28 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

W/Memphis 113.199.229.197 (talk) 05:43, 19 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Sometimes it is implied that Memphis was the capital for dynasties 1-6, other times just for dynasties 3-6 (Old Kingdom only). Or was it the royal residence for dynasties 1-6, but capital for dynasties 3-6 ? cheers, Michael C. Price ^talk 14:19, 14 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Was Memphis the capital during dynasties 1 & 2 ? i.e. straight after unification? cheers, Michael C. Price ^talk 15:49, 14 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Tried to remove all the inconsistencies. Was capital immediately after unification. cheers, Michael C. Price ^talk 16:09, 14 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]