Excerpted from Ancient Origins http://www.ancient-origins.net/
“… Memphis once carried the name Ineb-hedj, meaning ‘White
Walls’…”
Way back, in the early 90s, when I
started my research for KHAMSIN (without the help
of Google-search), I had a devil of a time to find the earliest name for
Memphis. Even a museum curator (or his assistant) replied to my query with a
disappointingly obtuse answer.
At last, glancing through some old accounts of Manetho, I think (it coulnd’t have
been Flinders Petrie or Howard Carter because they wrote about Memphis
as Menefer, etc.), I settled on Ineb-hedj,
City of White Walls (and have often since wondered if I was wrong in doing so).
Then, I subscribed an
the excellent blog entitled Ancient
Origins. It has all sorts of astounding facts about our history. But today, it featured an
article that made me grin all over my face: Russian Archaeologists Unearth
Legendary White Walls of Memphis.
You can read it in its entirety
here: http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/russian-archaeologists-unearth-legendary-white-walls-memphis-002927
Writing about Ancient Egypt is
tricky if you want to adhere to the original names without confounding the lay
reader. After all, a historical fiction novel should be entertaining; but if
one learns something in the process that is based on fact (provided it is well researched), the
better, I say.
