Geomorphological development of the Memphite floodplain over the past 6,000 years

Abstract

The Memphite ruin mounds around the modem town of Mit Rahina in northern Egypt form a part of a region around which the capital of Egypt migrated through time. Some of these migrations were the responses to landscape changes and the area is one that is subject to a number of types of landscape change. The delta and river systems as well as the deserts that surround Memphis changed profoundly as global temperatures rose at the end of the last ice age. This paper summarises the main landscape processes that affected the area and proposes a model for river migration and delta-head change in the Memphite floodplain.