Editing Memphis, Egypt (section)

==Toponymy==
{{Hiero | Memphis (mn nfr) | <hiero>mn:n nfr f:r O24 niwt</hiero> | align=left | era=default}}

Memphis has had several names during its history of almost four millennia. Its [[Egyptian language|Ancient Egyptian]] name was '''[[Inebu-hedj]]''' (𓊅𓌉, translated as "the white walls"<ref>[http://www.abebooks.com/Memphis-City-White-Walls-Dimick-Univ/1280894368/bd M. T. Dimick] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502184442/http://www.abebooks.com/Memphis-City-White-Walls-Dimick-Univ/1280894368/bd |date=2 May 2014 }} retrieved 14:19GMT 1.10.11</ref><ref>[http://www.behindthename.com/submit/name/memphis ''Etymology website''-www.behindthename.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502162446/http://www.behindthename.com/submit/name/memphis |date=2 May 2014 }} retrieved 14:22GMT 1.10.11</ref>).<ref>''National Geographic Society: Egypt's Nile Valley Supplement Map'', produced by the Cartographic Division.</ref>

Because of its size, the city also came to be known by various other names that were the names of neighbourhoods or districts that enjoyed considerable prominence at one time or another. For example, according to a text of the [[First Intermediate Period of Egypt|First Intermediate Period]],<ref>''Hieratic Papyrus 1116A'', of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg; cf Scharff, ''Der historische Abschnitt der Lehre für König Merikarê'', p.36</ref> it was known as '''Djed-Sut''' ("everlasting places"), which is the name of the [[pyramid of Teti]].<ref>Montet, ''Géographie de l'Égypte ancienne'', (Vol I), pp. 28–29.</ref>

At one point the city was referred to as '''Ankh-Tawy''' (meaning "Life of the Two Lands"), stressing the strategic position of the city between [[Upper Egypt]] and [[Lower Egypt]]. This name appears to date from the [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt|Middle Kingdom]] (c. 2055–1640 BCE), and is frequently found in ancient Egyptian texts.<ref name="Najovits171" /> Some scholars maintain that this name was that of an area that contained a sacred tree, the western district of the city that lay between the great Temple of Ptah and the necropolis at [[Saqqara]].<ref>Montet, ''Géographie de l'Égypte ancienne'', (Vol I), p. 32.</ref>

At the beginning of the [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]] (c. 1550 BC), the city became known as ''[[wikt:mn-nfr|mn-nfr]]'' (anglicized as '''Men-nefer''', meaning "enduring and beautiful"), which became "'''Memfi'''" ({{lang|cop|ⲙⲉⲙϥⲓ}}) in Bohairic [[Coptic language|Coptic]]. The name "'''Memphis'''" ({{lang|grc|Μέμφις}}) is the [[Greek language|Greek]] adaptation of the name that they had given to the [[Mortuary complex of Pepi I|pyramid of Pepi I]],{{#tag:ref|<hiero><- p p i i -> Y5:N35-F35-O24</hiero><br />''Ppj-mn-nfr'' = Pepi-men-nefer ("Pepi is perfection", or "Pepi is beauty").|group=Fnt|name=hieropepi}} located west of the city.<ref>McDermott, Bridget (2001). ''Decoding Egyptian Hieroglyphs: How to Read the Secret Language of the Pharaohs''. Chronicle Books, p.130</ref>

Some claim that modern town '''Mit Rahina'''  received its name from the ancient Egyptian later name for Memphis ''[[wiktionary:mjt-rhnt|mjt-rhnt]]'' meaning "Road of the Ram-Headed Sphinxes" being a reference to the ancient causeway connecting Memphis and Saqqara, on which the procession of the dead bull travelled for burial in the [[Serapeum of Saqqara]],<ref name="Daly">{{Cite book |last=Daly |first=Okasha El |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GmuTDAAAQBAJ&dq=%22mit+rhnt%22&pg=PT59 |title=Egyptology: The Missing Millennium: Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings |date=1 July 2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-315-42976-2 |language=en}}</ref> but its been rejected by numerous Egyptologists on the basis of the town's earlier name Minyat Rahina ({{Langx|ar|منية رهينة}}), which could possibly be derived from the name of a Bedouin tribe.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Carsten Peust |title=Die Toponyme vorarabischen Ursprungs im modernen Ägypten |year=2010 |pages=75 |language=de}}</ref>

While attempting to draw ancient Egyptian history and religious elements into that of their own traditions, the Greek poet [[Hesiod]] in his ''[[Theogony]]'' explained the name of the city by saying that Memphis was a daughter of the Greek river god [[Nilus (mythology)|Nilus]] and the wife of [[Epaphus]] (the son of [[Zeus]] and [[Io (mythology)|Io]]), who founded the city and named it after his wife.<ref>Pseudo-Apollodorus, "Bibliotheca", Β 1,4.</ref>

In the Bible, Memphis is called either ‘’Noph’’, or ''Moph''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Hosea 9:6|url=https://www.blueletterbible.org/wlc/hos/9/6/s_871006|access-date=27 February 2021|website=BlueLetterBible}}</ref>

The Muslim tradition adopted the Coptic etymology which operates with an etymon ''Māfah'', derived from {{Langx|cop|ⲙⲁⲁⲃ|lit=thirty}}. It made the number significant in the following traditions relating to Memphis: it was thirty miles long, [[Menes|Manqāwus]] built it for his thirty daughters and Baysar lived here with his thirty children.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Al-Maqrīzī |title=Book of Exhortations and Useful Lessons in Dealing with Topography and Historical Remains |publisher=Hans A. Stowasser |pages=27 |translator-last=Stowasser |translator-first=Karl}}</ref>