Volume V Plate 1 - Plan of Memphis ~ This map is one of several created by the French savants, which included engineers and surveyors who accompanied Bonaparte on his Egyptian campaign. Memphis, founded around 3,100 BC, is the legendary city of the King who united Upper and Lower Egypt. It became the religious and administrative and center of Egypt, a cosmopolitan community with Greeks, Jews, Phoenicians and Libyans among the population. Judging from the size of its necropolises which extend for some 19 miles along the west bank of the Nile, Memphis was one of the largest and most important cities in the ancient world. When the Greeks arrived, and moved the Egyptian capital to Alexandria, Memphis suffered, and with the entrance of Christianity and the decline of Egyptian religion, Memphis became a mere shadow of the former great city. Finally, when Muslim conquerors established their new capital at Fustat, which is now a part of Cairo, in 641 A.D., Memphis became, quite literally, a ghost town.

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