DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
they are founded, is elevated about fifty feet above 
the level of the plain. On the western bank of the 
Nile, between the river and the line of pyramids 
which shuts up the entrance into the desert, the 
villages of Metrahenny and Mohanan mark the 
site of the ancient Memphis. These villages lie 
about nine G. miles above Fostat, in N. L. 29° 53'. 
They are surrounded by groves of palm trees, which 
conceal from observation the remains of that great 
city, of which the very ruins have almost perished. 
Besides the name of Menf, or Menouf, given by 
the Arabs to a position at which the ruins were vi- 
sible to a late period, some vast shapeless mounds 
of rubbish, where the thistle springs luxuriantly, 
and canals lined with stone, but choked up with 
earth, are the only remains of the ancient Memphis, 
a city which was once about fourteen miles in cir- 
cumference.* In these mounds, which chiefly ap- 
pear on the extremities of the plain, some frag- 
ments of sculptured stones have been found ; but 
there are no obelisks, no hieroglyphics, no superb 
monuments, no ruins of temples or public build- 
ings, to mark the site of former magnificence. In 
a small lake, however, which contracts its sur- 
face when the waters of the Nile, in years of ex- 
treme drought, rise not to their ordinary height, 
more perfect and magnificent ruins have been dis- 
Diodorus Siculus, 1. 1. § 2, 
