The name is driven from 'Min Nefer" or the (Good harbor). The first king that chose the place to be the capital of Egypt was king "Mena". This king made the first recoded revaluation in the history of Egypt when he attempted to unit Upper and lower Egyptian territories into one at 3100 BC. Historians hence put him on top of the Egyptian kings list ..."first king in the first dynasty". Old Kingdome kings continued ruling from Memphis including all the pyramids builders. No doubt ,the midst location of the new capital enabled the Egyptian king of spreading his arms over the country. Memphis with is the undisputable first capital build in the world. However the capital moved north to delta in the middle kingdom and south to upper Egypt in the city Memphis remained a symbol of severity as Alexander the Great held his coronation ceremony with Greek style at Memphis.

Ramsses Colossus

No other Egyptian king gained such a reputation such as king Ramsses ^II. Where ever you go you run into his name. never the less he was a great king. the number of monuments found in this king's name would 100 times exceed any other Egyptian king.

for an egoist like Ramsses II, no wonder if His statues were always colossus size. probably fragments of smaller statues could give a good proportion. This one was 20 m including the missing part of the pedestal. Since it is limestone, it weighs only 9 tones. on the other hand a twine statue was found of the same king but in granite and weighs more than 90 tons. for the good condition of the late one , was taken and erected down town Cairo till 2008. the sarcastic thing , in 1954 it had to be cut into 6 pieces to be transferred on 2 large trucks!!

Till 1953 , visitors that liked to see the front of the statue , had to go down a pit under ground, since the statue lied broken on the ground for centuries.

The alabaster sphinx

However , the biggest sphinx and most famous one is the Giza sphinx it seems to have been traditional for later Egyptian kings to be depicted in sphinx form. The second biggest one in Egypt is the Memphis sphinx however the owner is indecisive. No royal cartouches have been found on this sphinx. So whose sphinx is that?  Will solve the puzzle together over there.