HELIOPOLIS

This article appears in Volume V13, Page 230 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: HEG-HIG

HELIOPOLIS , one of the most ancient cities of

Egypt

EGYPT

, met with in the Bible under its native name On. It stood 5 M. E. of the Nile at the apex of the

Delta

DELTA (from the shape of the Gr. letter A, delta, originally used of the mouth of the Nile)

. It was the

principal

PRINCIPAL

seat of sun-

worship

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

, and in historic times its importance was entirely religious. There appear to have been two forms of the sun-god at Heliopolis in the New Kingdomnamely, Ra-Harakht, or Re`-Harmakhis, falcon-headed, and Etom, human-headed; the former was the sun in his mid-day strength, the latter the evening sun. A sacred

bull

was worshipped here under the name Mnevis (Eg. Mreu), and was especially connected with Etom. The sun-god Re' (see

EGYPT

EGYPT

: Religion) was especially the royal god, the ancestor of all the Pharaohs, who therefore held the temple of Heliopolis in

great

GREAT

honour. Each dynasty might give the first place to the god of its residencePtah of Memphis, Ammon of Thebes, Neith of Sais, Bubastis of Bubastis, but all alike honoured Re`. His temple became in a

special

SPECIAL

degree a depository for royal records, and Herodotus states that the priests of Heliopolis were the best informed in matters of history of all the Egyptians. The schools of philosophy and astronomy are said to have been frequented by Plato and other Greek philosophers; Strabo, however, found them deserted, and the town itself almost uninhabited, although priests were still there, and cicerones for the curious traveller. The Ptolemies probably took little

interest

INTEREST

in their " father " Re', and Alexandria had eclipsed the learning of Heliopolis; thus with the withdrawal of royal favour Heliopolis quickly dwindled, and the students of native

lore

LORE
LORE, AMBROISE DE (1396-1446)

deserted it for other temples supported by a wealthy population of pious citizens. In Roman times obelisks were taken from its temples to adorn the northern cities of the

Delta

DELTA (from the shape of the Gr. letter A, delta, originally used of the mouth of the Nile)

, and even across the Mediterranean to Rome. Finally the growth of Fostat and Cairo, only 6 m. to the S.W., caused the ruins to be ransacked for building materials. The site was known to the Arabs as `A yin esh shems, " the fountain of the sun," more recently as Tel Hisn. It has now been brought for the most part under cultivation, but the ancient city walls of crude brick are to be seen in the fields on all sides, and the position of the

great

GREAT

temple is marked by an obelisk still

standing

STANDING

(the earliest known, being one of a pair set up by Senwosri I., the second king of the Twelfth Dynasty) and a few granite blocks bearing the name of Rameses II.
See Strabo xvii. cap. 1. 27-28; Baedeker's Egypt. (F. Li.. G.)

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