The traces of this city which are found in classic authors correspond with the little of it that we know from the brief intimations of Holy Writ. Accord ing to Herodotus (ii. 59), Heliopolis was one of the four great cities that were rendered famous in Egypt by being the centres of solemn religious festivals, which were attended by splendid processions and homage to the gods. In Heliopolis the observance was held in honour of the sun. The majesty of these sacred visits may be best learned now by a careful study of the temples (in their ruins) in which the rites were performed (Wilkinson's Anc. Egypt ians). Heliopolis had its priesthood, a numerous and learned body, celebrated before other Egyptians for their historical and antiquarian lore ; it long continued the university of the Egyptians, the chief seat of their science (Kenrick's Herod. ii. 3; Wil kinson) ; the priests dwelt as a holy community in a spacious structure appropriated to their use. In Straho's time the halls were to be seen in which Eudoxus and Plato had studied under the direction of the priests of Heliopolis. A detailed description of the temple, with its long alleys of sphinxes, obelisks, etc., may be found in Strabo (xvii. ; Joseph. r. Apion. ii. 2), who says that the mural sculpture in it was very similar to the old Etruscan and Grecian works. In the temple a bullock was fed—a symbol of the god Mnevis. The city suffered
heavily by the Persian invasion. From the time of Shaw and Pococke, the place has been described by many travellers. At an early period remains of the famous temple were found. Abdallatif (A.D. 1200) saw many colossal sphinxes, partly prostrate, partly standing. He also saw the gates or propylaea of the temple covered with inscrip tions ; he describes two immense obelisks, whose summits were covered with massive brass, around which were others one-half or one-third the size of the first, placed in so thick a mass that they could scarcely be counted ; most of them thrown down. An obelisk which the Emperor Augustus caused to be carried to Rome, and placed in the Campus Martins, is held by Zoega (De Orig. et Usu Obelisci) to have been brought from Heliopolis, and to have owed its origin to Sesostris. This city furnished works of art to Augustus for adorning Rome, and to Constantine for adorning Constantinople. Ritter (Erdkunde, i. 823) says that the sole remaining obelisk is from sixty to seventy feet high, of a block of red granite, hearing hieroglyphics which remind the beholder of what Strabo terms the Etruscan style. The figure of the cross which it bears (crux ansata) has attracted the special notice of Christian antiquaries' (Ritter).—J. R. B.