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Why were stones from ancient Memphis reused in nearby villages and in Cairo?
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Memphis
Colossal statue of Ramses II, carved from limestone, that once adorned the great temple of Ptah in Memphis, Egypt.
After the ancient city of Memphis was abandoned, its remaining structures were dismantled so that the stone could be reused as building material in neighboring villages and in Cairo, following that city’s founding in the 10th century ce.1
This practice of repurposing stone from earlier monuments was not unique to the post-abandonment period; even during the New Kingdom, kings of the 19th dynasty pillaged the monuments of their predecessors to obtain building materials for their own projects. These reused blocks were often taken from structures within the city as well as from temples and pyramid complexes located in the surrounding Memphite necropolises.1