MEMPHIS, 
151 
Menes, as Herodotus relates, or by Uclioreus, 
according to Diodorus, it seems to have been the 
most ancient city of Lower Egypt. The Nile, 
emerging a little above Memphis, from the nar- 
rowest part of the valley, seems originally to have 
poured its stream into the vast morass of salt 
water which occupied the place of Lower Egypt* 
Before its waters had formed to themselves a 
channel in this waste and unsteady plain, many 
ages probably elapsed ; but soon after the ground 
began to assume a durable solidity, Memphis ap- 
pears to have been founded. Situated at the 
head of the Delta, it was nearly surrounded by 
the Nile, which, dividing its stream above the 
city, passed to the east and to the west of its walls. 
At this period, the most considerable branch of 
the Nile seems to have flowed on the west of 
Memphis, towards that sterile district which lies 
on the west of Alexandria, where it was partly 
lost in brackish lakes, and partly dissipated in 
the deserts of sand, without contributing much to 
the fertilization of the country, Menes, accord- 
ing to Herodotus,* the first sovereign of Egypt, 
by erecting an immense mound on the west of 
Memphis, forced the waters of the river to aban- 
don the western, and occupy the eastern channel. 
The remains of this mound were observed by 
* Herodot. Euterpe, 99. 
