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Ancient capital of Inebu-hedj, Egypt
Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Memphis (Arabic: ممفس, Egyptian Arabic: ممفيس) is the English name for the present-day site of one of the great ancient capital cities of Egypt. Although very little remains to be seen on the surface, Memphis features a great sculpture museum, in the Mit Rahina village some 24 km south of the modern Egyptian capital of Cairo. It allows an evocative insight into both ancient greatness (its transitory nature!) and modern Egyptian rural life.
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A pair of 10 m-tall statues of Ramses II were discovered in 1820 by Giovanni Caviglia, at the southern end of the temple of Ptah. One of the statues is now lying down under a small roof inside the museum, near where they were discovered. Its twin is now at the Grand Egyptian Museum of Giza.
By far the easiest way of visiting the Memphis open-air museum is to hire a taxi for the day - a visit to the city can best be combined with visits to Saqqara and other nearby sites.
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