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Memphis Trivia

Bears

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Bears Hamlet

Bears

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I think there are many intresting things in Memphis' history that are surprising and/or unusual. I think it would be great if people would post unknown things about town.

Memphis was named after a city in Egypt and means "City of the Dead"

Shotwell Road was renamed Getwell after a hospital for wounded World War 2 soldiers was built there.

The cobblestones next to the Mississippi River were laid in the mid-1800s to provide better access to the Mississippi River, but over the years the stones shifted.

Does anyone know the story behind the statue in front of the pyramid? I remember hearing a story about the missing nose when I was younger but can't recall it now.

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TennBear Hamlet

TennBear

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Memphis was named after a city in Egypt and means "City of the Dead"

Does anyone know the story behind the statue in front of the pyramid? I remember hearing a story about the missing nose when I was younger but can't recall it now.

Memphis does not mean "City of the Dead" and it is not Egyptian. The Egyptian name of the city was "Ineb Hedj" which means "The White Walls". Memphis is a Greek deformation of Pepi I's pyramid,"Men-nefer"

The current village that is on the West Bank near Saqqara is called "Mit-Rahineh".

The Greek historian Manetho referred to Memphis as Hi-Ku-P'tah ("Place of Ptah"), which he wrote in Greek as Aί γυ πτoς (Ai-gu-ptos), giving us the Latin AEGYPTVS and the modern English Egypt.

The Statue of Rameses II in front of the Pyramid is a copy of the statue in the "Midan Rameses" (Rameses Square" in Cairo. It is one of a pair from ancient Memphis. The other is in Mit-Rahineh. The one that is in Mit-Rahineh had been broke into pieces and the city of Memphis Tn helped to restore it in order to get the Rameses the Great Exhibit. The statue was a gift for thanks from Egypt.

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mandrws1 Hamlet

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Memphis has the world's largest artesian well water system.

Funny story: When I was in elementary school in about 1990, everyone was running scared about the great earthquake that was suppossedly coming. My teacher told the class that because the city sat on top of water the earthquake was going to make the city sink and everyone was going to drown <_< . Teachers really need to watch what they say because I was scared sick! I couldn't sleep until the day passed when the quake was suppossed to take place. I think it was sometime in December.

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Clobber Burg

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Memphis has the world's largest artesian well water system.

Funny story: When I was in elementary school in about 1990, everyone was running scared about the great earthquake that was suppossedly coming. My teacher told the class that because the city sat on top of water the earthquake was going to make the city sink and everyone was going to drown <_< . Teachers really need to watch what they say because I was scared sick! I couldn't sleep until the day passed when the quake was suppossed to take place. I think it was sometime in December.

Iben Browning. December 3. That f'in idiot.

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Bears Hamlet

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^I'm too young to remember what happened, so somebodys gonna have to tell me the story about what happened. All I know from my parents is that some of our neighbors ran away to Little Rock because of an earthquake scare. Anyone else got any stories like the one mandrws shared?

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crabbj Unincorporated Area

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December 3rd, 1990. It was the prediction of seismic proportion by some professor named Ivan Browning??? Not sure of the last name but I recall before that day there were people wearing "I'm Staying!" T-shirts on street corners around Park and Mt. Moriah and other locations. Funny. And yet, the day came and went. I have often wondered if anyone else remembered that uneventful day. I was in 10th grade.

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Bears Hamlet

Bears

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ok here's another.....was the peabody hotel always located where it is now? If the answer is no, where was it located?

No. The original hotel was built at the corner of Main and Monroe. In 1865 a guy named Robert Brinkley wanted to build the grandest hotel in the south called The Brinkley House Hotel. Just before the official opening in 1869, Mr. Brinkley's best friend, George Peabody, died and Brinkley decided to honor his friends memory by renaming the hotel The Peabody. The original Peabody enjoyed success until it closed in 1923. Then one thats standing now was built at a price of $5 million and opened in 1925.

After a few ownership changes and fires, the Peabody closed in 1975. Later that year Belz bought and did a $25 million renovation. The hotel reopened on September 1, 1981.

Here's a website with more Memphis history and trivia

http://www.memphislibrary.lib.tn.us/history/memphis2.htm

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Bears Hamlet

Bears

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Here's a question...Who is Sam Cooper? He has the unfinished expressway named after him. I know Bill Morris was a sherrif or mayor. Is it the same case with Sam Cooper?

Also, does anyone have any pictures of the Pyramid Arena under construction? I'm too young to remember the story about "Festival Island" and how the owner scammed the city or something. Didn't he have an AFL team in Memphis (Pharohs)? Is he still alive? I remember something about him being murdered.

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Clobber Burg

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Here's a question...Who is Sam Cooper? He has the unfinished expressway named after him. I know Bill Morris was a sherrif or mayor. Is it the same case with Sam Cooper?

Also, does anyone have any pictures of the Pyramid Arena under construction? I'm too young to remember the story about "Festival Island" and how the owner scammed the city or something. Didn't he have an AFL team in Memphis (Pharohs)? Is he still alive? I remember something about him being murdered.

Pharaohs were owned by someone different (Kevin Hunter) way after Schlenker was gone from the picture. Sydney Schlenker helped build the Pyramid. Hunter mentioned wanting to bring the NBA to Memphis; the Pharaohs were very successful until he traded the quarterback. After the trade, the team never won another game. He moved them to the then-new Rose Garden in Portland, renamed them the Forest Dragons. They have since moved again, and then were dissolved. I believe he intentionally tanked the team trading the best player in order to move to the Portland. At some point he was arrested for marijuana possession. I don't know if he or Schlenker were murdered. But that sounds kind of familiar now that you mention it.

Anyone who thinks we failed at supporting the Pharaohs, imo, is full of it.

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