Menfi
Menfi
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Royal residence and capital during the protodynastic period and in the Ancient Reign, today it's almost completely vanished. Menfi was the administrative and religious center of the first nomo of Lower Egypt and its temples were among the most important ones of the country. It was one of the most inhabited cities in Egypt, famous in the whole ancient world with a cosmopolitan community. At the edge of the desert on the western bank of the Nile, an area more than thirty kilometers long is occupied by the necropoli of Menfi: Dahshus, Saqqara, Aburis, Zawyet el-'Aryan, Giza, Abu Rawash.For the administration, Giza and Abu Rawash already belonged to the second nomo of lower Egypt. The various parts of the necropoli today have the names of the nearby villages; the Egyptians themselves didn't use a specific word, nevertheless many names of places are known in ancient Egyptian. Sometimes the most important monuments named the areas of the city, that began around the original "city of the pyramid" inhabited by priests and functionaries assigned to the pyramids. Archaeological discoveries and classic sources proove the importance Menfi had as one of the most important administrative centers of the country right at the beginning of the Egyptian history, after 2920 BC. Erodoto talks about Menes, considered the first king in Egypt, who built an embankment to protect the city from the floods of the Nile. Manetone, instead, tells us that Athothis, Menes' successor, built the most ancient palaces in Menfi. The most ancient name of the district is Ineb-Hez, "The white wall", probably for the appearance of the fortified residence. Anyway, the most suitable name was probably the one that appeared in the Middle Reign "Ank-taui" (What joins the two lands, a word that emphasizes the strategical position of the city at the apex of the delta. To foreigners' eyes Menfi was Egypt. Only Tebe could compete with it for religious, political and economical importance. Menfi didn't resist to the gradual declne of the ancient Egyptian civilization during the first centuries of the christian epoch. The religious importance disappeared, when Teodosio I (379 - 95 AC) decreed Christianity as the religion for the entire Roman empire. Menfi disappeared completely in 641 aC, when the muslim conqueror "Amr ibn el-Asi" founded el-kustat, the new capital of Egypt, at the southern edge of the city of Cairo today.
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