He was the founder of the fourth dynasty, and was probably born in Middle Egypt near Beni Hasan, in a town afterwards known as "Khufu's Nurse," but was connected with the Memphite third dynasty.
According to one account in Tacitus, Sarapis was the god of the village of Rhacotis before it suddenly expanded into a great capital; but it is not very probable that temples were erected to the dead Apis except at his Memphite tomb.
Theoretically, as its name Heptanomis implies, this division contained seven nomes, actually from the Hermopolite on the south to the Memphite on the north (excluding the Arsinoite according to the papyri).
In some places the highest priests bore special names, such as the Ouer maa, the Great Seer, of Re in Heliopolis, or the Khorp himet, chief artificer, of the Memphite Ptah.
The VIIth and VIIIth Dynasties are said to have been Memphite, but of them no record survives beyond some names of kings in the lists.