Online Encyclopedia

HELIOPOLIS

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 230 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

HELIOPOLIS  , one of the most

ancient cities of
See also:
Egypt, met with in the Bible under its native name On . It stood 5 M . E. of the Nile at the
See also:
apex of the Delta . It was the
See also:
principal seat of sun-worship, and in historic times its importance was entirely religious . There appear to have been two forms of the sun-
See also:
god at Heliopolis in the New Kingdom—namely, Ra-Harakht, or Re`-Harmakhis, falcon-headed, and Etom, human-headed; the former was the sun in his
See also:
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: Religion) was especially the royal god, the ancestor of all the Pharaohs, who therefore held the temple of Heliopolis in
See also:
great honour . Each dynasty might give the first place to the god of its residence—Ptah of
See also:
Memphis, Ammon of Thebes,
See also:
Neith of Sais,
See also:
Bubastis of Bubastis, but all alike honoured Re` . His temple became in a
See also:
special degree a depository for royal records, and Herodotus states that the priests of Heliopolis were the best informed in matters of
See also:
history of all the Egyptians . The
See also:
schools of philosophy and astronomy are said to have been frequented by
See also:
Plato and other Greek philosophers; Strabo, however, found them deserted, and the
See also:
town itself almost uninhabited, although priests were still there, and cicerones for the curious traveller . The
See also:
Ptolemies probably took little
See also:
interest in their "
See also:
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 deserted it for other temples supported by a wealthy population of pious citizens .

In

See also:
Roman times obelisks were taken from its temples to adorn the
See also:
northern cities of the Delta, 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
See also:
building materials . The site was known to the
See also:
Arabs as `A yin esh shems, " the fountain of the sun," more recently as Tel Hisn . It has now been brought for the most
See also:
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 temple is marked by an obelisk still
See also:
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 ..

End of Article: HELIOPOLIS
[back]
HELIOMETER (from Gr. iXtos, sun, and p.Erpov, a mea...
[next]
HELIOSTAT (from Gr. rtXtor, the sun, vrares, fixed,...

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.