title: Republic (Plato)

text: Socrates' argument is that in the ideal city, a true philosopher with understanding of forms will facilitate the harmonious co-operation of all the citizens of the city—the governance of a city-state is likened to the command of a ship, the Ship of State. This philosopher-king must be intelligent, reliable, and willing to lead a simple life. However, these qualities are rarely manifested on their own, and so they must be encouraged through education and the study of the Good.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: The Allegory of the Cave primarily depicts Plato's distinction between the world of appearances and the 'real' world of the Forms., Just as visible objects must be illuminated in order to be seen, so must also be true of objects of knowledge if light is cast on them.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: Plato imagines a group of people who have lived their entire lives as prisoners, chained to the wall of a cave in the subterranean so they are unable to see the outside world behind them. However a constant flame illuminates various moving objects outside, which are silhouetted on the wall of the cave visible to the prisoners. These prisoners, through having no other experience of reality, ascribe forms to these shadows such as either "dog" or "cat". Plato then goes on to explain how the philosopher is akin to a prisoner who is freed from the cave. The prisoner is initially blinded by the light, but when he adjusts to the brightness he sees the fire and the statues and how they caused the images witnessed inside the cave. He sees that the fire and statues in the cave were just copies of the real objects; merely imitations. This is analogous to the Forms. What we see from day to day are merely appearances, reflections of the Forms. The philosopher, however, will not be deceived by the shadows and will hence be able to see the 'real' world, the world above that of appearances; the philosopher will gain knowledge of things in themselves. At the end of this allegory, Plato asserts that it is the philosopher's burden to reenter the cave. Those who have seen the ideal world, he says, have the duty to educate those in the material world. Since the philosopher recognizes what is truly good only he is fit to rule society according to Plato.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: In Books VIII–IX stand Plato's criticism of the forms of government. Plato categorized governments into five types of regimes: aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and tyranny.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: The starting point is an imagined, alternate aristocracy (ruled by a philosopher-king); a just government ruled by a philosopher king, dominated by the wisdom-loving element. Aristocracy degenerates into timocracy when, due to miscalculation on the part of its governing class, the next generation includes persons of an inferior nature, inclined not just to cultivating virtues but also producing wealth. In a timocracy, governors will apply great effort in gymnastics and the arts of war, as well as the virtue that pertains to them, that of courage. As the emphasis on honor is compromised by wealth accumulation, it is replaced by oligarchy. The oligarchic government is dominated by the desiring element, in which the rich are the ruling class. Oligarchs do, however, value at least one virtue, that of temperance and moderation—not out of an ethical principle or spiritual concern, but because by dominating wasteful tendencies they succeed in accumulating money.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: As this socioeconomic divide grows, so do tensions between social classes. From the conflicts arising out of such tensions, the poor majority overthrow the wealthy minority, and democracy replaces the oligarchy preceding it. In democracy, the lower class grows bigger and bigger. A visually appealing demagogue is soon lifted up to protect the interests of the lower class, who can exploit them to take power in order to maintain order. Democracy then degenerates into tyranny where no one has discipline and society exists in chaos. In a tyrannical government, the city is enslaved to the tyrant, who uses his guards to remove the best social elements and individuals from the city to retain power (since they pose a threat), while leaving the worst. He will also provoke warfare to consolidate his position as leader. In this way, tyranny is the most unjust regime of all.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: In parallel to this, Socrates considers the individual or soul that corresponds to each of these regimes. He describes how an aristocrat may become weak or detached from political and material affluence, and how his son will respond to this by becoming overly ambitious.The timocrat in turn may be defeated by the courts or vested interests; his son responds by accumulating wealth in order to gain power in society and defend himself against the same predicament, thereby becoming an oligarch. The oligarch's son will grow up with wealth without having to practice thrift or stinginess, and will be tempted and overwhelmed by his desires, so that he becomes democratic, valuing freedom above all. The democratic man is torn between tyrannical passions and oligarchic discipline, and ends up in the middle ground: valuing all desires, both good and bad. The tyrant will be tempted in the same way as the democrat, but without an upbringing in discipline or moderation to restrain him. Therefore, his most base desires and wildest passions overwhelm him, and he becomes driven by lust, using force and fraud to take whatever he wants. The tyrant is both a slave to his lusts, and a master to whomever he can enslave.Socrates points out the human tendency to be corrupted by power leads down the road to timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny. From this, he concludes that ruling should be left to philosophers, who are the most just and therefore least susceptible to corruption. This "good city" is depicted as being governed by philosopher-kings; disinterested persons who rule not for their personal enjoyment but for the good of the city-state ("polis"). The philosophers have seen the "Forms" and therefore know what is good. They understand the corrupting effect of greed and own no property and receive no salary. They also live in sober communism, eating and sleeping together.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: Concluding a theme brought up most explicitly in the Analogies of the Sun and Divided Line in Book VI, Socrates finally rejects any form of imitative art and concludes that such artists have no place in the just city. He continues on to argue for the immortality of the psyche and even espouses a theory of reincarnation. He finishes by detailing the rewards of being just, both in this life and the next. Artists create things but they are only different copies of the idea of the original.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: "And whenever any one informs us that he has found a man who knows all the arts, and all things else that anybody knows, and every single thing with a higher degree of accuracy than any other man—whoever tells us this, I think that we can only imagine to be a simple creature who is likely to have been deceived by some wizard or actor whom he met, and whom he thought all-knowing, because he himself was unable to analyze the nature of knowledge and ignorance and imitation."


title: Republic (Plato)

text: He speaks about illusions and confusion. Things can look very similar, but be different in reality. Because we are human, at times we cannot tell the difference between the two.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: With all of us, we may approve of something, as long we are not directly involved with it. If we joke about it, we are supporting it.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: Sometimes we let our passions rule our actions or way of thinking, although they should be controlled, so that we can increase our happiness.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: Plato's most prominent pupil Aristotle, systematises many of Plato's analyses in his "Politika", and criticizes the propositions of several political philosophers for the ideal city-state.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: It has been suggested that Isocrates parodies the "Republic" in his work "Busiris" by showing Callipolis' similarity to the Egyptian state founded by a king of that name.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism, wrote his version of an ideal society, "Zeno's Republic", in opposition to Plato's "Republic". "Zeno's Republic" was controversial and was viewed with some embarrassment by some of the later Stoics due to its defenses of free love, incest, and cannibalism and due to its opposition to ordinary education and the building of temples, law-courts, and gymnasia.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: The English title of Plato's dialogue is derived from Cicero's "De re publica", written some three centuries later. Cicero's dialogue imitates Plato's style and treats many of the same topics, and Cicero's main character Scipio Aemilianus expresses his esteem for Plato and Socrates. "Res publica" is not an exact translation of Plato's Greek title "politeia". Rather, "politeia" is a general term for the actual and potential forms of government for a "polis" or city-state, and Plato attempts to survey all possible forms of the state. Cicero's discussion is more parochial, focusing on the improvement of the participants' own state, the Roman Republic in its final stages.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: In antiquity, Plato's works were largely acclaimed, but a few commentators regarded them as too theoretical. Tacitus, commented on such works as "The Republic" and Aristotle's "Politics" in his "Annals" (IV, 33):


title: Republic (Plato)

text: In this work, Tacitus undertakes the prosaic description and minute analysis of how real states are governed, attempting to derive more practical lessons about good versus bad governance than can be deduced from speculations on ideal governments.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: In the pivotal era of Rome's move from its ancient polytheist religion to Christianity, Augustine wrote his magnum opus "The City of God": Again, the references to Plato, Aristotle and Cicero and their visions of the ideal state were legion: Augustine equally described a model of the "ideal city", in his case the eternal Jerusalem, using a visionary language not unlike that of the preceding philosophers.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: Islamic philosophers were much more interested in Aristotle than Plato, but not having access to Aristotle's "Politics", Ibn Rushd (Averroes) produced instead a commentary on


title: Republic (Plato)

text: Plato's "Republic". He advances an authoritarian ideal, following Plato's paternalistic model. Absolute monarchy, led by a philosopher-king, creates a justly ordered society. This requires extensive use of coercion, although persuasion is preferred and is possible if the young are properly raised. Rhetoric, not logic, is the appropriate road to truth for the common man. Demonstrative knowledge via philosophy and logic requires special study. Rhetoric aids religion in reaching the masses.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: Following Plato, Ibn Rushd accepts the principle of women's equality. They should be educated and allowed to serve in the military; the best among them might be tomorrow's philosophers or rulers. He also accepts Plato's illiberal measures such as the censorship of literature. He uses examples from Arab history to illustrate just and degenerate political orders.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: Hegel respected Plato's theories of state and ethics much more than those of the early modern philosophers such as Locke, Hobbes and Rousseau, whose theories proceeded from a fictional "state of nature" defined by humanity's "natural" needs, desires and freedom. For Hegel this was a contradiction: since nature and the individual are contradictory, the freedoms which define individuality as such are latecomers on the stage of history. Therefore, these philosophers unwittingly projected man as an individual in modern society onto a primordial state of nature. Plato however had managed to grasp the ideas specific to his time:


title: Republic (Plato)

text: For Hegel, Plato's Republic is not an abstract theory or ideal which is too good for the real nature of man, but rather is not ideal enough, not good enough for the ideals already inherent or nascent in the reality of his time; a time when Greece was entering decline. One such nascent idea was about to crush the Greek way of life: modern freedoms—or Christian freedoms in Hegel's view—such as the individual's choice of his social class, or of what property to pursue, or which career to follow. Such individual freedoms were excluded from Plato's Republic:


title: Republic (Plato)

text: Greece being at a crossroads, Plato's new "constitution" in the "Republic" was an attempt to preserve Greece: it was a reactionary reply to the new freedoms of private property etc., that were eventually given legal form through Rome. Accordingly, in ethical life, it was an attempt to introduce a religion that elevated each individual not as an owner of property, but as the possessor of an immortal soul.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: In his "A History of Western Philosophy" (1945), Bertrand Russell identifies three parts to the "Republic":


title: Republic (Plato)

text: The core of the second part is the Allegory of the Cave and the discussion of the theory of ideal forms. The third part concerns the Five Regimes and is strongly related to the later dialogue "The Laws"; and the Myth of Er.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: Eric Voegelin in "Plato and Aristotle" (Baton Rouge, 1957), gave meaning to the concept of 'Just City in Speech' (Books II–V). For instance, there is evidence in the dialogue that Socrates himself would not be a member of his 'ideal' state. His life was almost solely dedicated to the private pursuit of knowledge. More practically, Socrates suggests that members of the lower classes could rise to the higher ruling class, and vice versa, if they had 'gold' in their veins—a version of the concept of social mobility. The exercise of power is built on the 'noble lie' that all men are brothers, born of the earth, yet there is a clear hierarchy and class divisions. There is a tripartite explanation of human psychology that is extrapolated to the city, the relation among peoples. There is no family among the guardians, another crude version of Max Weber's concept of bureaucracy as the state non-private concern. Together with Leo Strauss, Voegelin considered Popper's interpretation to be a gross misunderstanding not only of the dialogue itself, but of the very nature and character of Plato's entire philosophic enterprise.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: The paradigm of the city—the idea of the Good, the "Agathon"—has manifold historical embodiments, undertaken by those who have seen the Agathon, and are ordered via the vision. The centerpiece of the "Republic", Part II, nos. 2–3, discusses the rule of the philosopher, and the vision of the Agathon with the Allegory of the Cave, which is clarified in the theory of forms. The centerpiece is preceded and followed by the discussion of the means that will secure a well-ordered "polis" (city). Part II, no. 1, concerns marriage, the community of people and goods for the guardians, and the restraints on warfare among the Hellenes. It describes a partially communistic "polis". Part II, no. 4, deals with the philosophical education of the rulers who will preserve the order and character of the city-state.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: In part II, the "Embodiment of the Idea", is preceded by the establishment of the economic and social orders of a "polis" (part I), followed by an analysis (part III) of the decline the order must traverse. The three parts compose the main body of the dialogues, with their discussions of the "paradigm", its embodiment, its genesis, and its decline.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: The introduction and the conclusion are the frame for the body of the "Republic". The discussion of right order is occasioned by the questions: "Is justice better than injustice?" and "Will an unjust man fare better than a just man?" The introductory question is balanced by the concluding answer: "Justice is preferable to injustice". In turn, the foregoing are framed with the "Prologue" (Book I) and the "Epilogue" (Book X). The prologue is a short dialogue about the common public "doxai" (opinions) about justice. Based upon faith, and not reason, the "Epilogue" describes the new arts and the immortality of the soul.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: Francis Cornford, , and Voegelin contributed to an establishment of sub-divisions marked with special formulae in Greek:


title: Republic (Plato)

text: In his 1934 "Plato und die Dichter" ("Plato and the Poets"), as well as several other works, Hans-Georg Gadamer describes the utopic city of the "Republic" as a heuristic utopia that should not be pursued or even be used as an orientation-point for political development. Rather, its purpose is said to be to show how things would have to be connected, and how one thing would lead to another—often with highly problematic results—if one would opt for certain principles and carry them through rigorously. This interpretation argues that large passages in Plato's writing are ironic, a line of thought initially pursued by Kierkegaard.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: The city portrayed in the "Republic" struck some critics as harsh, rigid, and unfree; indeed, as totalitarian. Karl Popper gave a voice to that view in his 1945 book "The Open Society and Its Enemies", where he singled out Plato's state as a dystopia. Popper distinguished Plato's ideas from those of Socrates, claiming that the former in his later years expressed none of the humanitarian and democratic tendencies of his teacher. Popper thought Plato's envisioned state totalitarian as it advocated a government composed only of a distinct hereditary ruling class, with the working class—who Popper argues Plato regards as "human cattle"—given no role in decision making. He argues that Plato has no interest in what are commonly regarded as the problems of justice—the resolution of disputes between individuals—because Plato has redefined justice as "keeping one's place".


title: Republic (Plato)

text: Some of Plato's proposals have led theorists like Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom to ask readers to consider the possibility that Socrates was creating not a blueprint for a real city, but a learning exercise for the young men in the dialogue. There are many points in the construction of the "Just City in Speech" that seem contradictory, which raise the possibility Socrates is employing irony to make the men in the dialogue question for themselves the ultimate value of the proposals. In turn, Plato has immortalized this 'learning exercise' in the "Republic".


title: Republic (Plato)

text: Leo Strauss identified a four-part structure to the "Republic", perceiving the dialogues as a drama enacted by particular characters, each with a particular perspective and level of intellect:


title: Republic (Plato)

text: One of many examples is that Socrates calls the marriages of the ruling class 'sacred'; however, they last only one night and are the result of manipulating and drugging couples into predetermined intercourse with the aim of eugenically breeding guardian-warriors. Strauss and Bloom's interpretations, however, involve more than just pointing out inconsistencies; by calling attention to these issues they ask readers to think more deeply about whether Plato is being ironic or genuine, for neither Strauss nor Bloom present an unequivocal opinion, preferring to raise philosophic doubt over interpretive fact.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: Strauss's approach developed out of a belief that Plato wrote esoterically. The basic acceptance of the exoteric-esoteric distinction revolves around whether Plato really wanted to see the "Just City in Speech" of Books V–VI come to pass, or whether it is just an allegory. Strauss never regarded this as the crucial issue of the dialogue. He argued against Karl Popper's literal view, citing Cicero's opinion that the "Republic's" true nature was to bring to light the nature of political things. In fact, Strauss undermines the justice found in the "Just City in Speech" by implying the city is not natural, it is a man-made conceit that abstracts away from the erotic needs of the body. The city founded in the "Republic" "is rendered possible by the abstraction from eros".


title: Republic (Plato)

text: An argument that has been used against ascribing ironic intent to Plato is that Plato's Academy produced a number of tyrants who seized political power and abandoned philosophy for ruling a city. Despite being well-versed in Greek and having direct contact with Plato himself, some of Plato's former students like Clearchus, tyrant of Heraclea; Chaeron, tyrant of Pellene; Erastus and Coriscus, tyrants of Skepsis; Hermias of Atarneus and Assos; and Calippus, tyrant of Syracuse ruled people and did not impose anything like a philosopher-kingship. However, it can be argued whether these men became "tyrants" through studying in the academy. Plato's school had an elite student body, some of whom would by birth, and family expectation, end up in the seats of power. Additionally, it is important that it is by no means obvious that these men were tyrants in the modern, totalitarian sense of the concept. Finally, since very little is actually known about what was taught at Plato's Academy, there is no small controversy over whether it was even in the business of teaching politics at all.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: Mussolini utilized works of Plato, Georges Sorel, Nietzsche, and the economic ideas of Vilfredo Pareto, to develop fascism. Mussolini admired Plato's "The Republic", which he often read for inspiration. "The Republic" expounded a number of ideas that fascism promoted, such as rule by an elite promoting the state as the ultimate end, opposition to democracy, protecting the class system and promoting class collaboration, rejection of egalitarianism, promoting the militarization of a nation by creating a class of warriors, demanding that citizens perform civic duties in the interest of the state, and utilizing state intervention in education to promote the development of warriors and future rulers of the state. Plato was an idealist, focused on achieving justice and morality, while Mussolini and fascism were realist, focused on achieving political goals.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: Many critics, both ancient and modern (like Julia Annas), have suggested that the dialogue's political discussion actually serves as an analogy for the individual soul, in which there are also many different "members" that can either conflict or else be integrated and orchestrated under a just and productive "government." Among other things, this analogical reading would solve the problem of certain implausible statements Plato makes concerning an ideal political republic. Norbert Blössner (2007) argues that the "Republic" is best understood as an analysis of the workings and moral improvement of the individual soul with remarkable thoroughness and clarity. This view, of course, does not preclude a legitimate reading of the "Republic" as a political treatise (the work could operate at both levels). It merely implies that it deserves more attention as a work on psychology and moral philosophy than it has sometimes received.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: The above-mentioned views have in common that they view the "Republic" as a theoretical work, not as a set of guidelines for good governance. However, Popper insists that the Republic, "was meant by its author not so much as a theoretical treatise, but as a topical political manifesto" and Bertrand Russell argues that at least in "intent", and all in all not so far from what was possible in ancient Greek city-states, the form of government portrayed in the "Republic" was meant as a practical one by Plato.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: One of Plato's recurring techniques in the "Republic" is to refine the concept of justice with reference to various examples of greater or lesser injustice. However, in "The Concept of Injustice", Eric Heinze challenges the assumption that 'justice' and 'injustice' form a mutually exclusive pair. Heinze argues that such an assumption traces not from strict deductive logic, but from the arbitrary etymology of the word 'injustice'. Heinze critiques what he calls 'classical' Western justice theory for having perpetuated that logical error, which first appears in Plato's "Republic", but manifests throughout traditional political philosophy, in thinkers otherwise as different as Aristotle, Aquinas, Locke, Rousseau, Hegel and Marx.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: In 2001, a survey of over 1,000 academics and students voted the "Republic" the greatest philosophical text ever written. Julian Baggini argued that although the work "was wrong on almost every point, the questions it raises and the methods it uses are essential to the western tradition of philosophy. Without it we might not have philosophy as we know it."


title: Republic (Plato)

text: According to a survey, The Republic is the most studied book in the top universities in the United States.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: Martin Luther King Jr., nominated The Republic as the one book he would have taken to a deserted island, alongside the Bible.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: In fiction, Jo Walton's 2015 novel "The Just City" explored the consequences of establishing a city-state based on the "Republic" in practice.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: The "Republic" is generally placed in the "middle period" of Plato's dialogues—that is, it is believed to be written after the "early period" dialogues but before the "late period" dialogues. However, the distinction of this group from the early dialogues is not as clear as the distinction of the late dialogues from all the others. Nonetheless, Ritter, Arnim, and Baron—with their separate methodologies—all agreed that the "Republic" was well distinguished, along with "Parmenides", "Phaedrus" and "Theaetetus".


title: Republic (Plato)

text: However, the first book of the "Republic", which shares many features with earlier dialogues, is thought to have originally been written as a separate work, and then the remaining books were conjoined to it, perhaps with modifications to the original of the first book.


title: Republic (Plato)

text: Several Oxyrhynchus Papyri fragments were found to contain parts of the "Republic", and from other works such as Phaedo, or the dialogue Gorgias, written around 200–300 CE. Fragments of a different version of Plato's "Republic" were discovered in 1945, part of the Nag Hammadi library, written ca. 350 CE. These findings highlight the influence of Plato during those times in Egypt.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Memphis or Men-nefer ( '  ; Bohairic ; ) was the ancient capital of Inebu-hedj, the first nome of Lower Egypt that was known as "mḥw" (""north""). Its ruins are located near the present day town of Mit Rahina"' (). Its name is derived from the late Ancient Egyptian name for Memphis "mjt-rhnt" meaning "Road of the Ram-Headed Sphinxes", 20 km (12 mi) south of Giza in Greater Cairo, Egypt.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: According to legends related in the early third century BC by Manetho, a priest and historian who lived in the Ptolemaic Kingdom during the Hellenistic period of ancient Egypt, the city was founded by King Menes. It was the capital of ancient Egypt ("Kemet" or "Kumat") during the Old Kingdom and remained an important city throughout ancient Egyptian history. It occupied a strategic position at the mouth of the Nile Delta, and was home to bustling activity. Its principal port, Peru-nefer (not to be confused with Peru-nefer at Avaris), featured a high density of workshops, factories, and warehouses that distributed food and merchandise throughout the ancient kingdom. During its golden age, Memphis thrived as a regional centre for commerce, trade, and religion.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Memphis was believed to be under the protection of the god Ptah, the patron of craftsmen. Its great temple, "Hut-ka-Ptah" (meaning "Enclosure of the ka of Ptah"), was one of the most prominent structures in the city. The name of this temple, rendered in Greek as "Aἴγυπτoς (Ai-gy-ptos)" by Manetho, is believed to be the etymological origin of the modern English name "Egypt".


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The history of Memphis is closely linked to that of the country itself. Its eventual downfall is believed to have been due to the loss of its economic significance in late antiquity, following the rise of coastal Alexandria. Its religious significance was diminished after the abandonment of the ancient religion following the Edict of Thessalonica (380 AD), which made Nicene Christianity the sole religion of the Roman empire.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Today, the ruins of the former capital offer fragmented evidence of its past. Along with the pyramid complex at Giza, they have been preserved as a World Heritage Site since 1979. The site is open to the public as an open-air museum.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Memphis has had several names during its history of almost four millennia. Its Ancient Egyptian name was Inebu-hedj (𓊅𓌉, translated as "the white walls").


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Because of its size, the city also came to be known by various other names that were the names of neighbourhoods or districts that enjoyed considerable prominence at one time or another. For example, according to a text of the First Intermediate Period, it was known as Djed-Sut ("everlasting places"), which is the name of the pyramid of Teti.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: At one point the city was referred to as Ankh-Tawy (meaning "Life of the Two Lands"), stressing the strategic position of the city between Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. This name appears to date from the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1640 BCE), and is frequently found in ancient Egyptian texts. Some scholars maintain that this name was that of an area that contained a sacred tree, the western district of the city that lay between the great Temple of Ptah and the necropolis at Saqqara.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: At the beginning of the New Kingdom (c. 1550 BC), the city became known as "mn-nfr" (anglicized as Men-nefer, meaning "enduring and beautiful"), which became "Memfi" () in Bohairic Coptic. The name "Memphis" () is the Greek adaptation of the name that they had given to the pyramid of Pepi I, located west of the city.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The modern town Mit Rahina probably received its name from the ancient Egyptian later name for Memphis "mjt-rhnt" meaning "Road of the Ram-Headed Sphinxes" being a reference to the ancient causeway connecting Memphis and Saqqara, on which the procession of the dead bull travelled for burial in the Serapeum of Saqqara.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: While attempting to draw ancient Egyptian history and religious elements into that of their own traditions, the Greek poet Hesiod in his "Theogony" explained the name of the city by saying that Memphis was a daughter of the Greek river god Nilus and the wife of Epaphus (the son of Zeus and Io), who founded the city and named it after his wife.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The city of Memphis is south of Cairo, on the west bank of the Nile. The modern cities and towns of Mit Rahina, Dahshur, Abusir, Abu Gorab, and Zawyet el'Aryan, south of Cairo, all lie within the administrative borders of historical Memphis (). The city was also the place that marked the boundary between Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. (The 22nd nome of Upper Egypt and 1st nome of Lower Egypt).


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Today, the footprint of the ancient city is uninhabited. The closest modern settlement is the town of Mit Rahina. Estimates of historical population size differ widely among sources. According to Tertius Chandler, Memphis had some 30,000 inhabitants and was by far the largest settlement worldwide from the time of its foundation until approximately 2250 BC and from 1557 to 1400 BC. K. A. Bard is more cautious and estimates the city's population to have numbered approximately 6,000 inhabitants during the Old Kingdom.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: During the Old Kingdom, Memphis became the capital of Ancient Egypt for more than eight consecutive dynasties. The city reached a peak of prestige under the Sixth Dynasty as a centre for the worship of Ptah, the god of creation and artworks. The alabaster sphinx that guards the Temple of Ptah serves as a memorial of the city's former power and prestige. The Memphis triad, consisting of the creator god Ptah, his consort Sekhmet, and their son Nefertem, formed the main focus of worship in the city.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Memphis declined after the Eighteenth Dynasty with the rise of Thebes and the New Kingdom, but was revived under the Persians, before falling firmly into second place following the founding of Alexandria. Under the Roman Empire, Alexandria remained the most important Egyptian city. Memphis remained the second city of Egypt until the establishment of Fustat (or Fostat) in 641 AD. Afterward it was largely abandoned and became a source of stone for the surrounding settlements. It was still an imposing set of ruins in the twelfth century, but soon became little more than an expanse of low ruins and scattered stone.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The legend recorded by Manetho was that Menes, the first king to unite the Two Lands, established his capital on the banks of the Nile by diverting the river with dikes. The Greek historian Herodotus, who tells a similar story, relates that during his visit to the city, the Persians, at that point the suzerains of the country, paid particular attention to the condition of these dams so that the city was saved from the annual flooding. It has been theorised that Menes may have been a mythical king, similar to Romulus of Rome. Some scholars suggest that Egypt most likely became unified through mutual need, developing cultural ties and trading partnerships, although it is undisputed that the first capital of united Egypt was the city of Memphis. Some Egyptologists had identified the legendary Menes with the historical Narmer, who is represented on the Palette of Narmer conquering the territory of the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt and establishing himself as king. This palette has been dated to ca. 31st century BC and thus, would correlate with the legend of Egypt's unification by Menes. However, in 2012 an inscription depicting the visit of the predynastic king Iry-Hor to Memphis was discovered in the Sinai. Since Iry-Hor predates Narmer by two generations, the latter cannot have been the founder of the city. Alternatively, Epaphus (king of Egypt, whose wife was Memphis) is regarded in the Greek myths as the founder of Memphis, Egypt.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Little is known about the city of the Old Kingdom. It was the state capital of the powerful kings, who reigned from Memphis from the date of the First Dynasty. According to Manetho, during the earliest years of the reign of Menes, the seat of power was farther to the south, at Thinis. According to Manetho, ancient sources suggest the "white walls" (Ineb-hedj) or "fortress of the white wall" were founded by Menes. It is likely that the king established himself there to better control the new union between the two kingdoms that formerly were rivals. The complex of Djoser of the Third Dynasty, located in the ancient necropolis at Saqqara, would then be the royal funerary chamber, housing all the elements necessary to royalty: temples, shrines, ceremonial courts, palaces, and barracks.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The golden age began with the Fourth Dynasty, which seems to have furthered the primary role of Memphis as a royal residence where rulers received the double crown, the divine manifestation of the unification of the Two Lands. Coronations and jubilees such as the Sed festival were celebrated in the temple of Ptah. The earliest signs of such ceremonies were found in the chambers of Djoser.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: During this period, the clergy of the temple of Ptah came into being. The importance of the temple is attested with payments of food and other goods necessary for the funerary rites of royal and noble dignitaries. This temple also is cited in the annals preserved on the Palermo Stone, and beginning from the reign of Menkaura, we know the names of the high priests of Memphis who seem to have worked in pairs, at least until the reign of Teti.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The architecture of this period was similar to that seen at Giza royal necropolis of the Fourth Dynasty, where recent excavations have revealed that the essential focus of the kingdom at that time centred on the construction of the royal tombs. A strong suggestion of this notion is the etymology of the name of the city itself, which matched that of the pyramid of Pepi I of the Sixth Dynasty. Memphis was then the heir to a long artistic and architectural practice, constantly encouraged by the monuments of preceding reigns.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: All these necropoleis were surrounded by camps inhabited by craftsmen and labourers, dedicated exclusively to the construction of royal tombs. Spread over several kilometres stretching in all directions, Memphis formed a true megalopolis, with temples connected by sacred temenos, and ports connected by roadways and canals. The perimeter of the city thus gradually extended into a vast urban sprawl. Its centre remained around the temple complex of Ptah.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: At the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, the capital and court of the king had moved to Thebes in the south, leaving Memphis for a time. Although the seat of political power had shifted, Memphis did remain perhaps the most important commercial and artistic centre, as evidenced by the discovery of handicrafts districts and cemeteries, located west of the temple of Ptah.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Also found were vestiges attesting to the architectural focus of this time. A large granite offering table on behalf of Amenemhat I mentioned the erection by the king of a shrine to the god Ptah, master of Truth. Other blocks registered in the name of Amenemhat II were found to be used as foundations for large monoliths preceding the pylons of Ramses II. These kings were also known to have ordered mining expeditions, raids, or military campaigns beyond the borders, erecting monuments or statues to the consecration of deities, evinced by a panel recording official acts of the royal court during this time. In the ruins of the Temple of Ptah, a block in the name of Senusret II bears an inscription indicating an architectural commission as a gift to the deities of Memphis. Moreover, many statues found at the site, later restored by the New Kingdom kings, are attributed to kings of the Twelfth Dynasty. Examples include the two stone giants that have been recovered amidst the temple ruins, which were later restored under the name of Rameses II.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Finally, according to the tradition recorded by Herodotus, and Diodorus, Amenemhat III built the northern gate of the Temple of Ptah. Remains attributed to this king were indeed found during the excavations in this area conducted by Flinders Petrie, who confirmed the connection. It is also worth noting that, during this time, mastabas of the high priests of Ptah were constructed near the royal pyramids at Saqqara, showing that the royalty and the clergy of Memphis at that time were closely linked. The Thirteenth Dynasty continued this trend, and some kings of this line were buried at Saqqara, attesting that Memphis retained its place at the heart of the monarchy.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: With the invasion of the Hyksos and their rise to power ca. 1650 BC, the city of Memphis came under siege. Following its capture, many monuments and statues of the ancient capital were dismantled, looted, or damaged by the Hyksos kings, who later carried them off to adorn their new capital at Avaris. Evidence of royal propaganda has been uncovered and attributed to the Theban kings of the Seventeenth Dynasty, who initiated the reconquest of the kingdom half a century later.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The Eighteenth Dynasty thus opened with the victory over the invaders by the Thebans. Although the reigns of Amenhotep II (r. 1427–1401/1397 BC) and Thutmose IV (r. 1401/1397–1391/1388 BC) saw considerable royal focus in Memphis, but for the most part, power remained in the south. With the long period of peace that followed, prosperity again took hold of the city, which benefited from her strategic position. Strengthening trade ties with other empires meant that the port of Peru-nefer (literally means "Bon Voyage") became the gateway to the kingdom for neighbouring regions, including Byblos and the Levant.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: In the New Kingdom, Memphis became a centre for the education of royal princes and the sons of the nobility. Amenhotep II, born and raised in Memphis, was made the "setem"—the high priest over Lower Egypt—during the reign of his father. His son, Thutmose IV received his famed and recorded dream whilst residing as a young prince in Memphis. During his exploration of the site, Karl Richard Lepsius identified a series of blocks and broken colonnades in the name of Thutmose IV to the east of the Temple of Ptah. They had to belong to a royal building, most likely a ceremonial palace.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The founding of the temple of Astarte (Mespotamian or Assyrian goddess of fertility and war; Babylonian = Ishtar), which Herodotus syncretically understands is dedicated to the Greek goddess Aphrodite, also may be dated to the Eighteenth Dynasty, specifically the reign of Amenhotep III (r. 1388/86–1351/1349 BC). The greatest work of this king in Memphis, however, was a temple called "Nebmaatra united with Ptah", which is cited by many sources from the period of his reign, including artefacts listing the works of Huy, the High Steward of Memphis. The location of this temple has not been precisely determined, but a number of its brown quartzite blocks were found to have been reused by Ramesses II (r. 1279–1213 BC) for the construction of the small temple of Ptah. This leads some Egyptologists to suggest that the latter temple had been built over the site of the first.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: According to inscriptions found in Memphis, Akhenaten (r. 1353/51–1336/34 BC; formerly Amenhotep IV) founded a temple of Aten in the city. The burial chamber of one of the priests of this cult has been uncovered at Saqqara. His successor Tutankhamun (r. 1332–1323 BC; formerly Tutankhaten) relocated the royal court from Akhenaten's capital Akhetaten ("Horizon of the Aten") to Memphis before the end of the second year of his reign. Whilst in Memphis, Tutankhamun initiated a period of restoration of the temples and traditions following the era of Atenism, which became regarded as heresy.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The tombs of important officials from his reign, such as Horemheb and Maya, are situated in Saqqara, although Horemheb was buried in the Valley of the Kings after reigning as king himself (r. 1319–1292 BC). He had been commander of the army under Tutankhamun and Ay. Maya was overseer of the treasury during the reigns of Tutankhamun, Ay, and Horemheb. Ay had been Tutankhamun's chief minister, and succeeded him as king (r. 1323–1319 BC). To consolidate his power he married Tutankhamun's widow Ankhesenamun, the third of the six daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Her fate is unknown. Similarly, Horemheb consolidated power when he married Nefertiti's sister Mutnodjemet.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: There is evidence that, under Ramesses II, the city developed new importance in the political sphere through its proximity to the new capital Pi-Ramesses. The king devoted many monuments in Memphis and adorned them with colossal symbols of glory. Merneptah (r. 1213–1203 BC), his successor, constructed a palace and developed the southeast wall of the temple of Ptah. For the early part of the 19th Dynasty, Memphis received the privileges of royal attention, and it is this dynasty that is most evident among the ruins of the city today.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: With the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Dynasties, there is a continuation of the religious development initiated by Ramesses. Memphis does not seem to have suffered a decline during the Third Intermediate Period, which saw great changes in the geopolitics of the country. Instead it is likely that the kings worked to develop the Memphite cult in their new capital of Tanis, to the northeast. In light of some remains found at the site, it is known that a temple of Ptah was based there. Siamun is cited as having built a temple dedicated to Amun, the remains of which were found by Flinders Petrie in the early twentieth century, in the south of the temple of Ptah complex.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: According to inscriptions describing his architectural work, Sheshonk I (r. 943–922 BC), founder of the Twenty-second Dynasty, constructed a forecourt and pylon of the temple of Ptah, a monument that he named the "Castle of Millions of Years of Sheshonk, Beloved of Amun". The funerary cult surrounding this monument, well known in the New Kingdom, was still functioning several generations after its establishment at the temple, leading some scholars to suggest that it may have contained the royal burial chamber of the king. Sheshonk also ordered the building of a new shrine for the god Apis, especially devoted to funeral ceremonies in which the bull was led to his death before being ritually mummified.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: A necropolis for the high priests of Memphis dating precisely from the Twenty-second Dynasty has been found west of the forum. It included a chapel dedicated to Ptah by a prince Shoshenq, son of Osorkon II (r. 872–837 BC), whose tomb was found in Saqqara in 1939 by Pierre Montet. The chapel is currently visible in the gardens of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, behind a trio of colossi of Ramesses II, which are also from Memphis.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: During the Third Intermediate Period and the Late Period, Memphis is often the scene of liberation struggles of the local dynasties against an occupying force, such as the Kushites, Assyrians, and Persians. The triumphant campaign of Piankhi, ruler of the Kushites, saw the establishment of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, whose seat of power was in Napata. Piankhi's conquest of Egypt was recorded on the Victory Stele at the Temple of Amun in Gebel Barkal. Following the capture of Memphis, he restored the temples and cults neglected during the reign of the Libyans. His successors are known for building chapels in the southwest corner of the temple of Ptah.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Memphis was at the heart of the turmoil produced by the great Assyrian threat. Under Taharqa, the city formed the frontier base of the resistance, which soon crumbled as the Kushite king was driven back into Nubia. The Assyrian king Esarhaddon, supported by some of the native Egyptian princes, captured Memphis in 671 BC. His forces sacked and raided the city, slaughtered villagers, and erected piles of their heads. Esarhaddon returned to his capital Nineveh with rich booty, and erected a victory stele showing the son of Taharqa in chains. Almost as soon as the king left, Egypt rebelled against Assyrian rule.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: In Assyria, Ashurbanipal succeeded his father and resumed the offensive against Egypt. In a massive invasion in 664 BC, the city of Memphis was again sacked and looted, and the king Tantamani was pursued into Nubia and defeated, putting a definitive end to the Kushite reign over Egypt. Power then returned to the Saite kings, who, fearful of an invasion from the Babylonians, reconstructed and even fortified structures in the city, as is attested by the palace built by Apries at Kom Tuman.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Egypt and Memphis were taken for Persia by king Cambyses in 525 BC after the Battle of Pelusium. Under the Persians, structures in the city were preserved and strengthened, and Memphis was made the administrative headquarters of the newly conquered satrapy. A Persian garrison was permanently installed within the city, probably in the great north wall, near the domineering palace of Apries. The excavations by Flinders Petrie revealed that this sector included armouries. For almost a century and a half, the city remained the capital of the Persian satrapy of Egypt ("Mudraya"/"Musraya"), officially becoming one of the epicentres of commerce in the vast territory conquered by the Achaemenid monarchy.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The stelae dedicated to Apis in the Serapeum at Saqqara, commissioned by the reigning monarch, represent a key element in understanding the events of this period. As in the Late Period, the catacombs in which the remains of the sacred bulls were buried gradually grew in size, and later took on a monumental appearance that confirms the growth of the cult's hypostases throughout the country, and particularly in Memphis and its necropolis. Thus, a monument dedicated by Cambyses II seems to refute the testimony of Herodotus, who lends the conquerors a criminal attitude of disrespect against the sacred traditions.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The nationalist awakening came with the rise to power, however briefly, of Amyrtaeus in 404 BC, who ended the Persian occupation. He was defeated and executed at Memphis in October 399 BC by Nepherites I, founder of the Twenty-ninth Dynasty. The execution was recorded in an Aramaic papyrus document (Papyrus Brooklyn 13). Nepherites moved the capital to Mendes, in the eastern delta, and Memphis lost its status in the political sphere. It retained, however, its religious, commercial, and strategic importance, and was instrumental in resisting Persian attempts to reconquer Egypt.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Under Nectanebo I, a major rebuilding program was initiated for temples across the country. In Memphis, a powerful new wall was rebuilt for the Temple of Ptah, and developments were made to temples and chapels inside the complex. Nectanebo II meanwhile, while continuing the work of his predecessor, began building large sanctuaries, especially in the necropolis of Saqqara, adorning them with pylons, statues, and paved roads lined with rows of sphinxes. Despite his efforts to prevent the recovery of the country by the Persians, he succumbed to an invasion in 340 BC. Nectanebo II retreated south to Memphis, to which the Achaemenid king Artaxerxes III laid siege, forcing the king to flee to Upper Egypt, and eventually to Nubia.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: A brief liberation of the city under the rebel-king Khababash (338 to 335 BC) is evinced by an Apis bull sarcophagus bearing his name, which was discovered at Saqqara dating from his second year. The armies of Darius III eventually regained control of the city.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Memphis under the Late Period saw recurring invasions followed by successive liberations. Several times besieged, it was the scene of several of the bloodiest battles in the history of the country. Despite the support of their Greek allies in undermining the hegemony of the Achaemenids, the country nevertheless fell into the hands of the conquerors, and Memphis was never again to become the nation's capital. In 332 BC came the Greeks, who took control of the country from the Persians, and Egypt would never see a new native ruler ascend the throne until the Egyptian Revolution of 1952.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: In 332 BC, Alexander the Great was crowned king in the Temple of Ptah, ushering in the Hellenistic period. The city retained a significant status, especially religious, throughout the period following the takeover by one of his generals, Ptolemy I. On the death of Alexander in Babylon (323 BCE), Ptolemy took great pains in acquiring his body and bringing it to Memphis. Claiming that the king had officially expressed a desire to be buried in Egypt, he then carried the body of Alexander to the heart of the temple of Ptah, and had him embalmed by the priests. By custom, kings in Macedon asserted their right to the throne by burying their predecessor. Ptolemy II later transferred the sarcophagus to Alexandria, where a royal tomb was constructed for its burial. The exact location of the tomb has been lost since then. According to Aelian, the seer Aristander foretold that the land where Alexander was laid to rest "would be happy and unvanquishable forever".


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Thus began the Ptolemaic dynasty, during which began the city's gradual decline. It was Ptolemy I who first introduced the cult of Serapis in Egypt, establishing his cult in Saqqara. From this period date many developments of the Saqqara Serapeum, including the building of the Chamber of Poets, as well as the "dromos" adorning the temple, and many elements of Greek-inspired architecture. The cult's reputation extended beyond the borders of the country, but was later eclipsed by the great Alexandrian Serapeum, built in Ptolemy's honour by his successors.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The Decrees of Memphis were issued in 216 and 196 BC, by Ptolemy IV and Ptolemy V respectively. Delegates from the principal clergies of the kingdom gathered in synod, under the patronage of the High Priest of Ptah and in the presence of the king, to establish the religious policy of the country for years to come, also dictating fees and taxes, creating new foundations, and paying tribute to the Ptolemaic rulers. These decrees were engraved on stelae in three scripts to be read and understood by all: Demotic, hieroglyphic, and Greek. The most famous of these stelae is the Rosetta Stone, which allowed the deciphering of ancient Egyptian script in the nineteenth century. There were other stelae, funerary this time, discovered on the site that have forwarded knowledge of the genealogy of the higher clergy of Memphis, a dynasty of high priests of Ptah. The lineage retained strong ties with the royal family in Alexandria, to the extent that marriages occurred between certain high priests and Ptolemaic princesses, strengthening even further the commitment between the two families.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: With the arrival of the 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 Christianity taking root deep into the country, spelled the complete ruin of the ancient cults of Memphis.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: During the Byzantine and Coptic 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 Arabs who 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-ul-Latif, upon visiting the site, described and gave testimony to the grandeur of the ruins.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: 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.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: 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 List of UNESCO in 1979.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: During the time of the New Kingdom, and especially under the reign of the rulers of the Nineteenth Dynasty, Memphis flourished in power and size, rivalling Thebes both politically and architecturally. An indicator of this development can be found in a chapel of Seti I dedicated to the worship of Ptah. After more than a century of excavations on the site, archaeologists have gradually been able to confirm the layout and expansion of the ancient city.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The "Hout-ka-Ptah", dedicated to the worship of the creator god Ptah, was the largest and most important temple in ancient Memphis. It was one of the most prominent structures in the city, occupying a large precinct within the city's centre. Enriched by centuries of veneration, the temple was one of the three foremost places of worship in Ancient Egypt, the others being the great temples of Ra in Heliopolis, and of Amun in Thebes.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Much of what is known today about the ancient temple comes from the writings of Herodotus, who visited the site at the time of the first Persian invasion, long after the fall of the New Kingdom. Herodotus claimed that the temple had been founded by Menes, and that the core building of the complex was restricted to priests and kings. His account, however, gives no physical description of the complex. Archaeological work undertaken in the last century has gradually unearthed the temple's ruins, revealing a huge walled compound accessible by several monumental gates located along the southern, western, and eastern walls.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The remains of the great temple and its premises are displayed as an open-air museum near the great colossus of Rameses II, which originally marked the southern axis of the temple. Also in this sector is a large sphinx monolith, discovered in the nineteenth century. It dates from the Eighteenth Dynasty, most likely having been carved during the reign of either Amenhotep II or Thutmose IV. It is one of the finest examples of this kind statuary still present on its original site. The outdoor museum houses numerous other statues, colossi, sphinxes, and architectural elements. However, the majority of the finds have been sold to major museums around the world. For the most part, these can be found on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The specific appearance of the temple is unclear at present, and only that of the main access to the perimeter are known. Recent developments include the discovery of giant statues that adorned the gates or towers. Those that have been found date from the reign of Ramsses II. This king also built at least three shrines within the temple compound, where worship is associated with those deities to whom they were dedicated.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: This small temple, adjoining the southwest corner of the larger Temple of Ptah, was dedicated to the deified Rameses II, along with the three state deities: Horus, Ptah and Amun. It is known in full as the Temple of Ptah of Rameses, Beloved of Amun, God, Ruler of Heliopolis.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Its ruins were discovered in 1942 by archaeologist Ahmed Badawy and were excavated in 1955 by Rudolf Anthes. The excavations uncovered a religious building complete with a tower, a courtyard for ritual offerings, a portico with columns followed by a pillared hall and a tripartite sanctuary, all enclosed in walls built of mudbricks. Its most recent exterior has been dated from the New Kingdom era.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The temple opened to the east toward a path paved with other religious buildings. The archaeological explorations that took place here reveal that the southern part of the city indeed contain a large number of religious buildings with a particular devotion to the god Ptah, the principal deity of Memphis.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Located farther east, and near to the great colossus of Rameses, this small temple is attributed to the nineteenth dynasty, and seems to have been dedicated to Ptah and his divine consort Sekhmet, as well as deified Rameses II. Its ruins are not so well preserved as others nearby, as its limestone foundations appear to have been quarried after the abandonment of the city in late antiquity.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Two giant statues, dating from the Middle Kingdom, originally adorned the building's facade, which opened to the west. They were moved inside the Museum of Memphis, and depicted the king standing in the attitude of the march, wearing the Hedjet, the white crown of Upper Egypt.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: In the southeast of the Great Temple complex, the king Merneptah of the Nineteenth Dynasty founded a new shrine in honour of the chief deity of the city, Ptah. This temple was discovered in the early twentieth century by Flinders Petrie, who identified it as a depiction of the Greek god Proteus cited by Herodotus.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The site was excavated during the First World War by Clarence Stanley Fisher. Excavations began in the anterior part, which is formed by a large courtyard of approximately 15 sq metres, opening on the south by a large door with reliefs supplying the names of the king and the epithets of Ptah. Only this part of the temple has been unearthed; the remainder of the chamber has yet to be explored a little farther north. During the excavations, archaeologists unearthed the first traces of an edifice built of mudbrick, which quickly proved to be a large ceremonial palace built alongside the temple proper. Some of the key elements of the stone temple were donated by Egypt to the museum at the University of Pennsylvania, which financed the expedition, while the other remained at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The temple remained in use throughout the rest of the New Kingdom, as evidenced by enrolment surges during the reigns of later kings. Thereafter, however, it was gradually abandoned and converted for other uses by civilians. Gradually buried by the activity of the city, the stratigraphic study of the site shows that by the Late Period it was already in ruins and is soon covered by new buildings.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: This small temple of Hathor was unearthed south of the great wall of the Hout-Ka-Ptah by Abdullah al-Sayed Mahmud in the 1970s and also dates from the time of Rameses II. Dedicated to the goddess Hathor, Lady of the Sycamore, it presents an architecture similar to the small temple-shrines known especially to Karnak. From its proportions, it does not seem to be a major shrine of the goddess, but is currently the only building dedicated to her discovered in the city's ruins.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: It is believed that this shrine was primarily used for processional purposes during major religious festivals. A larger temple dedicated to Hathor, indeed one of the foremost shrines of the goddess in the country, is thought to have existed elsewhere in the city, but to date has not been discovered. A depression, similar to that found near the great temple of Ptah, could indicate its location. Archaeologists believe that it could house the remains of an enclosure and a large monument, a theory attested by ancient sources.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The temple of the goddess Neith was said to have been located to the north of the temple of Ptah. It has not been discovered to date.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Memphis is believed to have housed a number of other temples dedicated to deities who accompanied Ptah. Some of these sanctuaries are attested by ancient hieroglyphs, but have not yet been found among the ruins of the city. Surveys and excavations are still continuing at nearby Mit Rahina, and will likely add to the knowledge of the planning of the ancient religious city.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: A temple dedicated to Mithras, dated from the Roman period, has been uncovered in the grounds north of Memphis. The temple of Astarte, described by Herodotus, was located in the area reserved to the Phoenicians during the time when the Greek author visited the city, but has not been discovered to date.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: A temple dedicated to the goddess Sekhmet, consort of Ptah, has not yet been found, but is currently certified by Egyptian sources. Archaeologists are still searching for remains. It may be located within the precinct of the Hout-ka-Ptah, as would seem to suggest several discoveries made among the ruins of the complex in the late nineteenth century, including a block of stone evoking the "great door" with the epithet of the goddess, and a column bearing an inscription on behalf of Rameses II declaring him "beloved of Sekhmet". It has also been demonstrated through the Great Harris Papyrus, which states that a statue of the goddess was made alongside those of Ptah and their son, the god Nefertem, during the reign of Rameses III, and that it was commissioned for the deities of Memphis at the heart of the great temple.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The Temple of Apis in Memphis was the main temple dedicated to the worship of the bull Apis, considered to be a living manifestation of Ptah. It is detailed in the works of classical historians such as Herodotus, Diodorus, and Strabo, but its location has yet to be discovered amidst the ruins of the ancient capital. According to Herodotus, who described the temple's courtyard as a peristyle of columns with giant statues, it was built during the reign of Psamtik I. The Greek historian Strabo visited the site with the conquering Roman troops, following the victory against Cleopatra in the Battle of Actium. He details that the temple consisted of two chambers, one for the bull and the other for his mother, and all was built near the temple of Ptah. At the temple, Apis was used as an oracle, his movements being interpreted as prophecies. His breath was believed to cure disease, and his presence to bless those around with virility. He was given a window in the temple through which he could be seen, and on certain holidays was led through the streets of the city, bedecked with jewellery and flowers.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: In 1941, the archaeologist Ahmed Badawy discovered the first remains in Memphis that depicted the god Apis. The site, located within the grounds of the great temple of Ptah, was revealed to be a mortuary chamber designed exclusively for the embalming of the sacred bull. A stele found at Saqqara shows that Nectanebo II had ordered the restoration of this building, and elements dated from the Thirtieth Dynasty have been unearthed in the northern part of the chamber, confirming the time of reconstruction in this part of the temple. It is likely that the mortuary was part of the larger temple of Apis cited by ancient sources. This sacred part of the temple would be the only part that has survived, and would confirm the words of Strabo and Diodorus, both of whom stated that the temple was located near the temple of Ptah.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The majority of known Apis statues come from the burial chambers known as Serapeum, located to the northwest at Saqqara. The most ancient burials found at this site date back to the reign of Amenhotep III.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: During the Twenty-first Dynasty, a shrine of the great god Amun was built by Siamun to the south of the temple of Ptah. This temple (or temples) was most likely dedicated to the Theban Triad, consisting of Amun, his consort Mut, and their son Khonsu. It was the Upper Egyptian counterpart of the Memphis Triad (Ptah, Sekhmet, and Nefertem).


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: A temple dedicated to Aten in Memphis is attested by hieroglyphs found within the tombs of Memphite dignitaries of the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty, uncovered at Saqqara. Among them, that of Tutankhamun, who began his career under the reign of his father, Akhenaten, as a "steward of the temple of Aten in Memphis".


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Since the early excavations at Memphis in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, artefacts have been uncovered in different parts of the city that indicate the presence of a building dedicated to the worship of the sun disc, The Aten. The location of such a building is lost, and various hypotheses have been made on this subject based on the place of discovery of the remains of the Amarna Period features.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Within the museum in Memphis is a giant statue of him carved of monumental limestone, about 10 metres in length. It was discovered in 1820 near the southern gate of the temple of Ptah by Italian archaeologist Giovanni Caviglia. Because the base and feet of the sculpture are broken off from the rest of the body, it is currently displayed lying on its back. Some of the colours are still partially preserved, but the beauty of this statue lies in its flawless detail of the complex and subtle forms of human anatomy. The king wears the white crown of Upper Egypt, Hedjet.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Caviglia offered to send the statue to Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II, through the mediation of Ippolito Rosellini. Rosellini advised the sovereign of the terrible expenses involved with transportation, and considered as necessary the cutting of the colossus into pieces. The Wāli and self-declared Khedive of Egypt and Sudan, Muhammad Ali Pasha, offered to donate it to the British Museum, but the museum declined the offer because of the difficult task of shipping the huge statue to London. It therefore remained in the archaeological area of Memphis in the museum built to protect it.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The colossus was one of a pair that historically adorned the eastern entrance to the temple of Ptah. The other, found in the same year also by Caviglia, was restored in the 1950s to its full standing height of 11 metres. It was first displayed in the Bab Al-Hadid square in Cairo, which was subsequently renamed Ramses Square. Deemed an unsuitable location, it was moved in 2006 to a temporary location in Giza, where it underwent restoration before being installed at the entrance of the Grand Egyptian Museum in January 2018. A replica of the statues stands in a suburb of Cairo, Heliopolis.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Because of its antiquity and its large population, Memphis had several necropoleis spread along the valley, including the most famous, Saqqara. In addition, the urban area consisted of cemeteries that were constructed to the west of the great temple. The sanctity of these places inevitably attracted the devout and the faithful, who sought either to make an offering to Osiris, or to bury another.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The part of the city called "Ankh-tawy" was already included in the Middle Kingdom necropolis. Expansions of the western sector of the temple of Ptah were ordered by the kings of the Twenty-second Dynasty, seeking to revive the past glory of the Ramesside age. Within this part of the site was founded a necropolis of the high priests.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: According to sources, the site also included a chapel or an oratory to the goddess Bastet, which seems consistent with the presence of monuments of rulers of the dynasty following the cult of Bubastis. Also in this area were the mortuary temples devoted by various New Kingdom kings, whose function is paralleled by Egyptologists to that played by the Temples of a Million years of the Theban kings.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Memphis was the seat of power for the kings of more than eight dynasties. According to Manetho, the first royal palace was founded by Hor-Aha, the successor of Narmer, the founder of the 1st Dynasty. He built a fortress in Memphis of white walls. Egyptian sources tell of the palaces of the Old Kingdom rulers, some of which were built underneath major royal pyramids. They were immense in size, and were embellished with parks and lakes. In addition to the palaces described below, other sources indicate the existence of a palace founded in the city by Thutmose I, which was still operating under the reign of Tuthmosis IV.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: According to official texts of his reign, Merneptah ordered the building of a large walled enclosure housing a new temple and an adjoining palace. Later Apries, had a palatial complex constructed at Kom Tuman on a promontory overlooking the city. It was part of a series of structures built within the temple precinct in the Late Period, and contained a royal palace, a fortress, barracks, and armouries. Flinders Petrie excavated the area and found considerable signs of military activity.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The centrally located palaces and temples were surrounded by different districts of the city, in which were many craftsmen's workshops, arsenals, and dockyards. Also were residential neighbourhoods, some of which were inhabited primarily by foreigners—first Hittites and Phoenicians, later Persians, and finally Greeks. The city was indeed located at the crossroads of trade routes and thus attracted goods imported from diverse regions of the Mediterranean.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Ancient texts confirm that citywide development took place regularly. Furthermore, there is evidence that the Nile has shifted over the centuries to the east, leaving new lands to occupy in the eastern part of the old capital. This area of the city was dominated by the large eastern gate of the temple of Ptah.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The site of Memphis has been famous since ancient times and is cited in many ancient sources, including both Egyptian and foreign. Diplomatic records found on different sites have detailed the correspondence between the city and the various contemporary empires in the Mediterranean, Ancient Near East, and Africa. These include for example the Amarna letters, which detail trade conducted by Memphis with the sovereigns of Babylon and the various city-states of Lebanon. The proclamations of the later Assyrian kings cite Memphis among its list of conquests.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Beginning with the second half of the first millennium BC, the city was detailed more and more intensely in the words of ancient historians, especially with the development of trade ties with Greece. The descriptions of the city by travellers who followed the traders in the discovery of Egypt have proved instrumental in reconstructing an image of the glorious past of the ancient capital. Among the main classical authors are:


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: Subsequently, the city is often cited by other Latin or Greek authors, in rare cases providing an overall description of the city or detailing its cults, as do Suetonius and Ammianus Marcellinus, who pay particular attention to the city's worship of Apis.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The city was plunged into oblivion during the Christian period that followed. Few sources are available to attest to the city's activities during its final stages.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: It was not until the conquest of the country by the Arabs that a description of the city reappears, by which time it was in ruins. Among the major sources from this time:


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: In 1652 during his trip to Egypt, Jean de Thévenot identified the location of the site and its ruins, confirming the accounts of the old Arab authors for Europeans. His description is brief, but represents the first step toward the exploration that will emerge after the development of archaeology. The starting point of archaeological exploration in Memphis was Napoléon Bonaparte's great foray into Egypt in 1798. Research and surveys of the site confirmed the identification of Thévenot, and the first studies of its remains were carried out by scientists accompanying French soldiers. The results of the first scientific studies were published in the monumental "Description de l'Égypte", a map of the region, the first to give the location of Memphis with precision.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The early French expeditions paved the way for explorations of a deeper scope that would follow from the nineteenth century until today, conducted by leading explorers, Egyptologists, and major archaeological institutions. Here is a partial list:


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: During the British era in Egypt, the development of agricultural technology along with the systematic cultivation of the Nile floodplains led to a considerable amount of accidental archaeological discoveries. Much of what was found would fall into the hands of major European collectors travelling the country on behalf of the great museums of London, Paris, Berlin, and Turin. It was during one of these land cultivations that peasants accidentally discovered elements of a Roman temple of Mithras during 1847 near the village of Mit Rahina. It was probably at this location where eleven statues were found. A review of "Les Statues Ptolémaïques du Sarapieion de Memphis" noted they were probably built in the third century with limestone and stucco, some standing others sitting. In 1956, Rowe and Rees suggested that this theme was similar to Plato's Academy mosaic. The statues were attributed to, Pindar (seated, identified per a graffiti), an inscription at the back of his chair that reads Dionysi, Demetrius of Phalerum, Orphic, aux oiseaux, Hesiode, Homer seated in the center (head was recovered), Protagoras, Thales, Heraclite, Platon (per inscription), and Aristote.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: From 1852 to 1854, Joseph Hekekyan, then working for the Egyptian government, conducted geological surveys on the site, and on these occasions made a number of discoveries, such as those at Kom el-Khanzir (northeast of the great temple of Ptah). These stones decorated with reliefs from the Amarna period, originally from the ancient temple of Aten in Memphis, had almost certainly been reused in the foundations of another ruined monument. He also discovered the great colossus of Rameses II in pink granite.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: This spate of archaeological discoveries gave birth to the constant risk of seeing all these cultural riches leaving Egyptian soil. Auguste-Édouard Mariette, who visited Saqqara in 1850, became aware of the need to create an institution in Egypt responsible for the exploration and conservation of the country's archaeological treasures. He established the Egyptian Antiquities Organisation (EAO) in 1859, and organised excavations at Memphis that revealed the first evidence of the great temple of Ptah, and uncovered the royal statues of the Old Kingdom.


title: Memphis, Egypt

text: The major excavations of the British Egyptologist Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, conducted from 1907 to 1912, uncovered the majority of the ruins as seen today. Major discoveries on the site during these excavations included the pillared hall of the temple of Ptah, the pylon of Rameses II, the great alabaster sphinx, and the great wall north of the palace of Apries. He also discovered the remains of the Temple of Amun of Siamon, and the Temple of Ptah of Merneptah. His work was interrupted during the First World War, and would later be taken up by other archaeologists, gradually uncovering some of the forgotten monuments of the ancient capital.


title: 30 for 30

text: 30 for 30 is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This includes three "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series under the "ESPN Films Presents" title in 2011–2012, and a series of "30 for 30 Shorts" shown through the ESPN.com website. The series has also expanded to include "Soccer Stories", which aired in advance of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and audio podcasts.


title: 30 for 30

text: The idea for the series began in 2007 from ESPN.com columnist and Grantland.com founder Bill Simmons and ESPN's Connor Schell. The title, "30 for 30", derived from the series's genesis as 30 films in celebration of ESPN's 30th anniversary in 2009, with an exploration of the biggest stories from ESPN's first 30 years on-air, through a series of 30 one-hour films by 30 filmmakers. Volume I premiered in October 2009 and ran through December 2010, chronicling 30 stories from the "ESPN era", beginning with the network's founding in 1979. Each film in Volume I details a striking sports issue or event that occurred during those three decades, including what Simmons describes as "stories that resonated at the time [they occurred] but were eventually forgotten for whatever reason." Subsequent films, including Volume II and online-only shorts, expanded the series beyond the "ESPN era".


title: 30 for 30

text: In September 2014, Schell said, "Even though we have been at this for five years now, there is no shortage of incredible moments from the world of sports, so that enables us to continue making "30 for 30" films we're proud of." In 2010, John Dahl, Connor Schell and Simmons served as "30 for 30's" executive producers. In April 2018, it was announced that the entire archive of "30 for 30" films and shorts would be available on ESPN+, ESPN's direct-to-consumer online platform, once the service launched on April 12, 2018.


title: 30 for 30

text: Other films were previously announced for Volume I of the series but were not included. These films, which began airing in 2011, are a continuation of "30 for 30", dealing with more sports stories that "30 for 30" did not cover. According to "30 for 30" producer Bill Simmons, "We're spinning off the "30 for 30" series next year into something that will probably be called "30 for 30 Presents" or something like that... So even though the SMU doc will be the 30th one (right after the Heisman ceremony) don't think the spirit of the series is going away." These additional films include:


title: 30 for 30

text: On May 15, 2012, it was announced that the "30 for 30" series would return in October 2012, with 30 all new documentaries. The documentaries were integrated with "Grantland.com" by podcasts, feature stories and oral histories.


title: 30 for 30

text: In September 2015, it was announced that "30 for 30" would return for a third volume of 30 films, beginning in October 2015.


title: 30 for 30

text: "O.J.: Made in America", which was directed by Ezra Edelman, was billed as a "mini-series event" in the "30 for 30" series. The five-part documentary series examines the life of O. J. Simpson, as well as the broader issues of race and celebrity in the United States as it pertained to Simpson's 1995 criminal trial for the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her acquaintance, Ronald Lyle Goldman. "Made in America" also focuses on other aspects in Simpson's life, including his success on the football field, his celebrity away from the gridiron, and his later conviction and imprisonment in a robbery case. "Part 1" aired on June 11, 2016, with "Parts 2–5" airing on June 14, 15, 17 and 18, respectively.


title: 30 for 30

text: The series received week-long theatrical releases in Los Angeles County and New York City before being broadcast, qualifying it for Oscar consideration. It ultimately received the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 89th Academy Awards.


title: 30 for 30

text: On January 7, 2019, ESPN announced the next set of "30 For 30" documentaries. In March 2020, ESPN announced that "The Last Dance" would air earlier on April 19, 2020, due to the high demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: 30 for 30

text: "Down in the Valley", directed by Jason Hehir, explores how Sacramento mayor and former NBA all-star Kevin Johnson played "point guard" in an effort to keep the Kings from relocating to Seattle. The film was originally scheduled to air on October 20, 2015, as part of Volume III, but was delayed to an unspecified date in early October 2015, in light of then-recent articles revisiting allegations of sexual misconduct involving Johnson. It did have a local premiere in Sacramento before its planned broadcast.


title: 30 for 30

text: "30 for 30 Shorts" are short films that have been featured on the "30 for 30" website as well as the now-defunct Grantland.com website; they have also been featured on ESPN or its related networks, either on "30 for 30" compilation shows or on "SportsCenter".


title: 30 for 30

text: On a number of occasions, the "30 for 30" format has been used to promote sports films and television:


title: 30 for 30

text: On April 17, 2019, YouTube Premium released a "30 for 30" featurette for the second season of its web-based series, "Cobra Kai", a comedic reboot of "The Karate Kid" featuring the main cast members and select ESPN personalities analyzing the 1984 match between Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence. It was nominated for a Clio Award.


title: 30 for 30

text: On March 21, 2021, ahead of the premiere of "", Disney+ and ESPN collaborated on a promotional featurette in partnership with Cheerios on the Minnesota Pee-Wee hockey state championship game between the original Ducks and the Hawks, shown in the original "Mighty Ducks" film from 1992. Among those who provide commentary are Fulton Reed (Elden Henson), Lester Averman (Matt Doherty) and Connie Moreau (Marguerite Moreau) from the original Ducks – who all also went on to appear in "Game Changers" – Sofi Hanson-Bhatt (Swayam Bhatia) and Evan Morrow (Brady Noon) from "Game Changers" protagonist team the Don't Bothers, United States women's hockey forward and Olympic gold medalist Meghan Duggan and ESPN hockey analysts and "SportsCenter" anchors Linda Cohn, John Buccigross and Steve Levy.


title: 30 for 30

text: On January 11, 2014, it was announced that a soccer-only "30 for 30" series, featuring two-feature-length films and six 30-minute films, would be aired in April 2014, featuring "compelling narratives from around the international soccer landscape". Additionally, a 10-part vignette series, titled "Coraçao", aired during ESPN's 2014 FIFA World Cup coverage and examined the history and culture of host country Brazil.


title: 30 for 30

text: On September 7, 2016, it was announced that ESPN Films and ESPN Audio would produce "30 for 30 Podcasts", reporting on new sports stories using a narrative podcasting approach. The podcast was launched in June 2017, with the first season produced and hosted by Jody Avirgan and a team of in-house producers. Future season have featured both single-episode and serialized, season-long subject matter, produced "in collaboration with outside reporters, documentarians, and ESPN talent." The "30 for 30" theme music was re-worked for the podcast series by Hrishikesh Hirway, who is a musician, composer and the host of the "Song Exploder" podcast.


title: 30 for 30

text: The first season was released in mid-2017 and was produced and hosted by Jody Avirgan and a team of in-house producers. It featured the following episodes:


title: 30 for 30

text: Season three, subtitled "Bikram", consists of five episodes that released in May 2018. Reported and produced by Julia Lowrie Henderson, it explores the life of Bikram Choudhury, who has been lauded as an innovator and guru of yoga but has also had a history of dark behavior, including bankruptcy, and sexual assault and harassment allegations.


title: 30 for 30

text: The fifth season, subtitled "The Sterling Affairs" and released in August 2019, explored former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling and his subsequent ban for life by commissioner Adam Silver from the National Basketball Association after the exposure of his racist comments. Ramona Shelburne served as reporter and host for the season, which was produced in part with ESPN's "The Undefeated" website.


title: 30 for 30

text: Season seven features the seven-part miniseries "Heavy Medals", focusing on women's gymnastics coaches Béla & Márta Karolyi and their controversial training methods. All seven episodes of the season were released on July 14, 2020, and are reported by Bonnie D. Ford and Alyssa Roenigk.


title: 30 for 30

text: "The A.V. Club" review for the eighth entry, "Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. the New York Knicks", called it "the most hotly anticipated [of the first eight]" and stated that "it more than lived up to the hype." Special praise was given to Brett Morgen's collage documentary "June 17th, 1994" as a standout episode. "The A.V. Club" has given positive and negative reviews for different episodes in the series, with notable critical reviews of the three Volume I episodes that had involvement by the media production arms of Major League Baseball ("Four Days in October"), the NBA ("Once Brothers") and NASCAR ("Tim Richmond: To the Limit").


title: 30 for 30

text: The series had a slow beginning. The first film, Peter Berg's "Kings Ransom", a chronicle of Wayne Gretzky's trade from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings, premiered on October 6, 2009, to poor ratings. "Kings Ransom" drew a 0.5 national rating and a total viewership of 645,000. As awareness and critical acclaim grew, the viewing audience also grew. By the seventh episode, "The U", the audience had grown to a 1.8 rating and well over 2 million viewers.


title: 30 for 30

text: Cadillac and Levi's are the presenting sponsors of the series. The Cadillac name appears on the 30 for 30 logo, while the Levi's "go forth" slogan appears on the bottom corner of the screen during the directors interstitial comments, which appear for 45 seconds at the beginning of each film and 30 seconds at the end. Commercials for both companies were shown during every intermission during the original air dates, with Levi's guaranteed a 60-second commercial slot at the beginning of the third act. Cadillac replaced Honda as a primary sponsor; during its time as a contributor, Honda aired parts of its "Dream the Impossible" documentary series in the first commercial break.


title: 30 for 30

text: During broadcasts in the UK on BT Sport, these sponsorship logos are blurred out due to compliance regulations.


title: Dry ice

text: Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide. It is commonly used for temporary refrigeration as CO does not have a liquid state at normal atmospheric pressure and sublimates directly from the solid state to the gas state. It is used primarily as a cooling agent, but is also used in fog machines at theatres for dramatic effects. Its advantages include lower temperature than that of water ice and not leaving any residue (other than incidental frost from moisture in the atmosphere). It is useful for preserving frozen foods (such as ice cream) where mechanical cooling is unavailable.


title: Dry ice

text: Dry ice sublimates at at Earth atmospheric pressure. This extreme cold makes the solid dangerous to handle without protection from frostbite injury. While generally not very toxic, the outgassing from it can cause hypercapnia (abnormally elevated carbon dioxide levels in the blood) due to buildup in confined locations.


title: Dry ice

text: Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide (CO), a molecule consisting of a single carbon atom bonded to two oxygen atoms. Dry ice is colorless, odorless, and non-flammable, and can lower the pH of a solution when dissolved in water, forming carbonic acid (HCO).


title: Dry ice

text: At pressures below 5.13 atm and temperatures above (the triple point), CO changes from a solid to a gas with no intervening liquid form, through a process called sublimation. The opposite process is called deposition, where CO changes from the gas to solid phase (dry ice). At atmospheric pressure, sublimation/deposition occurs at .


title: Dry ice

text: The density of dry ice increases with decreasing temperature and ranges between about below . The low temperature and direct sublimation to a gas makes dry ice an effective coolant, since it is colder than water ice and leaves no residue as it changes state. Its enthalpy of sublimation is 571 kJ/kg (25.2 kJ/mol).


title: Dry ice

text: Dry ice is non-polar, with a dipole moment of zero, so attractive intermolecular van der Waals forces operate. The composition results in low thermal and electrical conductivity.


title: Dry ice

text: It is generally accepted that dry ice was first observed in 1835 by French inventor Adrien-Jean-Pierre Thilorier (1790–1844), who published the first account of the substance. In his experiments, it was noted that when opening the lid of a large cylinder containing liquid carbon dioxide, most of the liquid carbon dioxide quickly evaporated. This left only solid dry ice in the container. In 1924, Thomas B. Slate applied for a US patent to sell dry ice commercially. Subsequently, he became the first to make dry ice successful as an industry. In 1925, this solid form of CO was trademarked by the DryIce Corporation of America as "Dry ice", leading to its common name. That same year the DryIce Co. sold the substance commercially for the first time, marketing it for refrigeration purposes.


title: Dry ice

text: Dry ice is easily manufactured. The most common industrial method of manufacturing dry ice first involves the production gases with a high concentration of carbon dioxide. Such gases can be a byproduct of another process, such as producing ammonia from nitrogen and natural gas, oil refinery activities or large-scale fermentation. Second, the carbon dioxide-rich gas is pressurized and refrigerated until it liquefies. Next, the pressure is reduced. When this occurs some liquid carbon dioxide vaporizes, causing a rapid lowering of temperature of the remaining liquid. As a result, the extreme cold causes the liquid to solidify into a snow-like consistency. Finally, the snow-like solid carbon dioxide is compressed into small pellets or larger blocks of dry ice.


title: Dry ice

text: Dry ice is typically produced in three standard forms: large blocks, small ( diameter) cylindrical pellets and tiny ( diameter) cylindrical, high surface to volume pellets that float on oil or water and do not stick to skin because of their high radii of curvature. Tiny dry ice pellets are used primarily for dry ice blasting, quick freezing, fire fighting, oil solidifying and have been found to be safe for experimentation by middle school students wearing appropriate personal protective equipment such as gloves and safety glasses. A standard block weighing approximately covered in a taped paper wrapping is most common. These are commonly used in shipping, because they sublime relatively slowly due to a low ratio of surface area to volume. Pellets are around in diameter and can be bagged easily. This form is suited to small scale use, for example at grocery stores and laboratories where it is stored in a thickly insulated chest. Density of pellets is 60-70% of the density of blocks.


title: Dry ice

text: Dry ice is also produced as a byproduct of cryogenic air separation, an industry primarily concerned with manufacturing extremely cold liquids such as liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen. In this process, carbon dioxide liquefies and/or freezes at a far higher temperature compared to that needed to liquefy nitrogen and oxygen. The carbon dioxide must be removed during the process to prevent dry ice from fouling the equipment, and once separated can be processed into commercial dry ice in a manner similar to that described above.


title: Dry ice

text: It is frequently used to package items that must remain cold or frozen, such as ice cream or biological samples, in the absence of availability or practicality of mechanical cooling.


title: Dry ice

text: Dry ice is critical in the deployment of some vaccines, which require storage at ultra-cold temperatures along their supply line.


title: Dry ice

text: Dry ice can be used to flash-freeze food or laboratory biological samples, carbonate beverages, make ice cream, solidify oil spills and stop ice sculptures and ice walls from melting.


title: Dry ice

text: Dry ice can be used to arrest and prevent insect activity in closed containers of grains and grain products, as it displaces oxygen, but does not alter the taste or quality of foods. For the same reason, it can prevent or retard food oils and fats from becoming rancid.


title: Dry ice

text: When dry ice is placed in water, sublimation is accelerated, and low-sinking, dense clouds of smoke-like fog are created. This is used in fog machines, at theatres, haunted house attractions, and nightclubs for dramatic effects. Unlike most artificial fog machines, in which fog rises like smoke, fog from dry ice hovers near the ground. Dry ice is useful in theatre productions that require dense fog effects. The fog originates from the bulk water into which the dry ice is placed, and not from atmospheric water vapor (as is commonly assumed).


title: Dry ice

text: It is occasionally used to freeze and remove warts. However, liquid nitrogen performs better in this role, since it is colder so requires less time to act, and less pressure. Dry ice has fewer problems with storage, since it can be generated from compressed carbon dioxide gas as needed.


title: Dry ice

text: In plumbing, dry ice is used to cut off water flow to pipes to allow repairs to be made without shutting off water mains. Pressurised liquid CO is forced into a jacket wrapped around a pipe, which in turn causes the water inside to freeze and block the pipe. When the repairs are done, the jacket is removed and the ice plug melts, allowing the flow to resume. This technique can be used on pipes up to 4 inches or 100 mm in diameter.


title: Dry ice

text: Dry ice can be used as bait to trap mosquitoes, bedbugs, and other insects, due to their attraction to carbon dioxide.


title: Dry ice

text: It can be used to exterminate rodents. This is done by dropping pellets into rodent tunnels in the ground and then sealing off the entrance, thus suffocating the animals as the dry ice sublimates.


title: Dry ice

text: Tiny dry ice pellets can be used to fight fire by both cooling fuel and suffocating the fire by excluding oxygen.


title: Dry ice

text: The extreme temperature of dry ice can cause viscoelastic materials to change to glass phase. Thus, it is useful for removing many types of pressure sensitive adhesives.