Giza (; sometimes spelled "Gizah "or "Jizah"; "", ) is the second-largest city in Egypt after Cairo and fourth-largest city in Africa after Kinshasa, Lagos and Cairo. It is the capital of Giza Governorate with a total population of 8.8 million as of October 2018. It is located on the west bank of the Nile, southwest of central Cairo, and is a core city of the Greater Cairo metropolis. Giza lies less than north of Memphis ("Men-nefer"), which was the capital city of the first unified Egyptian state from the days of the first pharaoh, Narmer.