Memphis Acropolis

Avenue at Memphis, not much remains of the old city
Avenue at Memphis, not much remains of the old city

The rest of the site of the “lost” city of Memphis is a small garden with some pieces of statuary, and remains of an embalming house attached to the long-gone Temple of Ptah.

The city itself would have been huge — a cultural and political, as well as religious center. Royal palaces and other buildings would have been built here, with the huge stone temples. But the palaces were made of mud brick, and sank back into the nile without a trace; the stone of the temples was plundered for building

I didn’t recognized the statue as any specific pharaoh (and I couldn’t read any hieroglyphs at the time — and very few now) but it may be Amenhotep, since the face is obviously not that of the wide-faced, broad-jawed face that easily becomes recognizable as Ramesses II.

Although I’m sure that, if this was in place when Ramesses when on his building spree, it probably has his name carved on it someplace.

Standing statue of the pharaoh (with an armed guard or two)
Standing statue of the pharaoh Amenhotep  (with an armed guard or two)

There are a number of alabaster tables, which would have been used for embalimg (some say for the embalming of the Apis bulls buried in the Serapeum), and statues. And a few friendlyl, armed, tourist police willing to pose for a few pounds baksheesh.

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