Mariette, Auguste; Dickerman, Lysander [Hrsg.]: The monuments of Upper Egypt (Boston, 1890)

.MITKAlllOXNY.

107

tremely elongated form, stretching to the north
nearly as far as Geezeh and to the south to
Schinhab, an extent which accounts for its ceme-
teries being scattered widely apart. Throughout
the whole length of the space contained within
the above boundaries are mounds, more or less
arid, strewn here and there with blocks of
granite and foundations of walls which emerge
from the surface of the soil. On the most con-
siderable of these mounds is situated the village
of Mitrahenny, where once stood the famous
temple of Phtah, the Vulcan of Greek tradition.

The history of Memphis is, on the whole, very
much the same as that of Heliopolis. We have
here, however, materials that Heliopolis could
not yield. The still extant burial-grounds of
Memphis (the Pyramids, Abousir, Sakkarah and
Dashoor) furnish us with abundant information
on the history of that city during the different
periods of its existence. Founded under the
most ancient kings, the successors of Menes —
nourishing under the IVth dynasty, that grand
epoch which witnessed the rise of the Pyramids;
equally prosperous under the Vth and the begin-
ning of the VIth; neglected and abandoned under
the XIth, XIIth and XIIIth dynasties, Memphis