Ruined city beside the Nile, 19 km/12 mi southwest of Cairo, Egypt. Once the centre of the worship of Ptah, it was the earliest capital of a united Egypt under King Menes in about 3050
BC, and acted intermittently as capital until around 1300
BC.
Memphis was later used as a stone quarry, but the cemetery city of Sakkara survives, with the step pyramid built for King Zoser by
Imhotep, probably the world's oldest stone building.
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