| The ancient city of Memphis, the capital of the Old Kingdom, use to be located near Saqqara. Even after the Old Kingdom ended, Memphis continued to be an important city, even well into the Ptolemaic Period. Today, though, nothing remained; villages and cultivated fields have reclaimed the site that was once Memphis. In one of the villages, we visited the small museum containing the few artifacts that have been found in the Memphis area, and most of these artifacts have come from the New Kingdom period. Especially impressive were the limestone colossal statue of Ramses II and the Great Alabaster Sphinx, the largest alabaster statue ever found. In the evening we returned to the Giza plateau for the Sound and Light Show where the ancient history of Giza was retold by the Sphinx through illuminations. |
