the second capital of Egypt, situated on the western bank of the Nile, above the Delta, was scarcely inferior to Thebes in the extent and magnificence of its sacred edifices, and even in the time of Strabo was second only to Alexandria in point of size and population. The site and name of this ancient city were well known in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as appears from the account of it given by El-Idrisi. By the Arabian geographer it is mentioned under the name of Memphis or Memph, which is merely an abbreviation of the Egyptian name of Memphi or Memphes; the hieroglyphic name being MA-M-PITTHA, the sacred place, or temple of Phttha or Vulcan. Before the time of the Ptolemies, the place had apparently assumed the synonymous appellation of Panouphi or Panouphis, the Noph of the Hebrews, which signifies the temple of the good god. One of the most remarkable structures in Memphis was the temple dedicated to Phtha, the patron divinity of the place; of this, however, nothing but the débris remains. The same fate has overtaken the temple of Osiris, in which the sacred bull Apis was kept; another consecrated to Hathor, or Venus; and a third dedicated to Serapis, all adjoining to the great temple of Phtha. Of the wonderful Labyrinth, which, according to Herodotus, exceeded all description, not so much as a vestige or trace remains. Indeed, so rapidly has the work of destruction proceeded, especially since the fourteenth century, that few points have been more debated in modern times than the site of this celebrated city; and, excepting its pyramids, and the great plain of mummies which attest the vicinity of the spot whereon stood the second capital of Egypt, it might almost be said of it, Etiam periére ruinae. But its distance from the pyramids and the apex of the Delta, two fixed points, having been clearly pointed out by Strabo, Pococke and Bruce were thereby led to fix upon the neighbourhood of Mokhman and Monyet-Rahineh, two villages on the left or western bank of the Nile, as the ground upon which Memphis had once stood; and the opinion of these travellers was completely confirmed by the French during their military occupation of Egypt. In fact, after the successive generations of Greeks, Romans, and Arabsians had plundered Memphis, in the wantonness of victory, or for the purpose of transferring its monuments to Alexandria or Cairo, we may well wonder that, exclusively of those eternal structures the pyramids, enough should still remain to enable us to fix the probable site of the second capital of the Pharaohs. (See the article Egypt, vol. vii. p. 546.)