Editing Memphis, Egypt (section)

===Decline and abandonment===
With the arrival of the [[History of Roman Egypt|Romans]], Memphis, like Thebes, lost its place permanently in favour of [[Alexandria]], which opened onto the empire. The rise of the cult of [[Serapis]], a syncretic deity most suited to the mentality of the new rulers of Egypt, and the emergence of [[History of Christianity|Christianity]] taking root deep into the country, spelled the complete ruin of the ancient cults of Memphis.

During the [[Byzantine Egypt#Byzantine Egypt|Byzantine]] and [[Copt]]ic periods the city gradually dwindled and finally dropped out of existence. It then became a quarry from which its stones were used to build new settlements nearby, including [[Fustat]], the new capital founded by the [[Arab]]s who [[Muslim conquest of Egypt|took possession]] in the seventh century AD. The foundations of Fustat and later [[Cairo]], both built farther north, were laid with stones of dismantled temples and ancient necropoleis of Memphis. In the thirteenth century, the Arab chronicler [[Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi (medieval writer)|Abd-ul-Latif]], upon visiting the site, described and gave testimony to the grandeur of the ruins.

<blockquote>Enormous as are the extent and antiquity of this city, in spite of the frequent change of governments whose yoke it has borne, and the great pains more than one nation has been at to destroy it, to sweep its last trace from the face of the earth, to carry away the stones and materials of which it was constructed, to mutilate the statues which adorned it; in spite, finally, of all that more than four thousand years have done in addition to man, these ruins still offer to the eye of the beholder a mass of marvels which bewilder the senses and which the most skillful pens must fail to describe. The more deeply we contemplate this city the more our admiration rises, and every fresh glance at the ruins is a fresh source of delight ... The ruins of Memphis hold a half-[[day's journey]] in every direction.<ref>Joanne & Isambert, ''Itinéraire descriptif, historique et archéologique de l'Orient'', p. 1009.</ref><ref>Maspero, ''Histoire ancienne des peuples de l'Orient'', Ch. I, § Origine des Égyptiens.</ref></blockquote>

Although the remains today are nothing compared to what was witnessed by the Arab historian, his testimony has inspired the work of many archaeologists. The first surveys and excavations of the nineteenth century, and the extensive work of [[Flinders Petrie]], have been able to show a little of the former glory of the ancient capital. Memphis and its necropolis, which include funerary rock tombs, mastabas, temples, and pyramids, were inscribed on the [[World Heritage Site|World Heritage List]] of UNESCO in 1979.