Heliopolis

I made slaughter and destruction very numerous.

I made him turn back from Heliopolis, my district and its farmland, toward the east.

Give me the ration, since Pharaoh has not provided it to this day.

One does not usually give a ration from the house of the gold nor silver wage to a man who has not fought for his city, but I, the broken fragment seems to imply, am worth all of this, even though the armor of Inaros has been stolen from my house.

Tuthmosis had two of them made.

The other one is in London, and they were outside of his temple in Heliopolis.

Heliopolis was the Harvard of ancient Egypt.

It's where all the important pharaohs went to school.

They learned what are known as the ancient mysteries, lessons we now call the seven classic arts and sciences, which included mathematics, geometry, and astronomy.

Today, all that's left of Heliopolis are ruins in Cairo, an obelisk in London, and this obelisk in New York City.

So this obelisk here in Central Park, how did it get over here from Egypt?

Well, it's a really interesting story, Scott.

I must also refer to a fine scarab, found in the rubbish mounds of the ancient city of Kamombos in Upper Egypt, which bears upon it the name of Sutku-Apopi.

It shows us that the author of the story of the expulsion of the Hyksos, in calling the king Ra-Apopi, merely, like an orthodox Egyptian, substituted the name of the god of Heliopolis for that of the foreign deity.

Equally interesting are the scarabs brought to light by Professor Flinders Petrie, on which a hitherto unknown Ya'akob-Hal, or Jacob-El, receives the titles of a pharaoh.

In volumes 7, 8, and 9, Professor Maspero concludes his monumental work on the history of the ancient East.

A few principalities were established at the apex of the delta in localities where the soil had earliest been won from the river.

It appears that one of these divisions embraced the country south of and between the bifurcation of the Nile.

Aunnu of the north, the Heliopolis of the Greeks, was its capital.

In very early times the principality was divided and formed three new states, independent of each other.

that so it came to pass i heard from the priests of that hephaistos who dwells at memphis that so it came to pass i heard from the priests of that hephaistos who dwells at memphis but the hellenes relate besides many other idle tales that psammetichos cut out the tongues of certain women and then caused the children to live with these women with regard then to the rearing of the children they related so much as i have said and i heard also other things at memphis when i had speech with the priests of hephaistos moreover i visited both thebes and heliopolis for this very cause namely because i wished to know whether the priests at these places would agree in their accounts with those at memphis for the men of heliopolis are said to be the most learned in records of the egyptians those of their narrations which i heard with regard to the gods i am not earnest to relate in full but i shall name them only because i consider that all men are equally ignorant of these matters and whatever things of them i may record i shall record only because i am compelled by the course of the story but as to those matters which concern men the priests agreed with one another in saying that the egyptians were the first of all men on earth to find out the course of the year having divided the seasons into twelve parts to make up the whole and this they said they found out from the stars and they reckon to this extent more wisely than the hellenes as it seems to me inasmuch as the hellenes throw in an intercalated month every other year to make the seasons right whereas the egyptians reckoning the twelve months at thirty days each bring in also every year five days beyond number and thus the circle of their season is completed and comes round to the same point whence it set out They said, moreover, that the Egyptians were the first who brought into use appellations for the twelve gods, and the Hellenes took up the use from them, and that they were the first who assigned altars and images and temples to the gods, and who engraved figures on stones.

And with regard to the greater number of these things they showed me by actual facts that they had happened so.

they said also that the first man who became king of egypt was min and that in his time all egypt except the district of thebes was a swamp and none of the regions were then above water which now lie below the lake of moiris to which lake it is a voyage of seven days up the river from the sea and i thought that they said well about the land for it is manifest in truth even to a person who has not heard it beforehand but has only seen at least if he have understanding that the egypt to which the hellenes came in ships is a land which has been won by the egyptians as an addition and that it is a gift of the river moreover the regions which lie above this lake also for a distance of three days sail about which they did not go on to say anything of this kind are nevertheless another instance of the same thing for the nature of the land of egypt is as follows first when you are still approaching it in a ship and are distant a day's run from the land if you let down a sounding line you will bring up mud and you will find yourself in eleven fathoms this then so far shows that there is a silting forward of the land then secondly as to egypt itself the extent of it along the sea is sixty scoines according to our definition of egypt as extending from the gulf of plinthene to the serbonian lake along which stretches mount cassion from this lake then the sixty scoines are reckoned for those of men who are poor in land have their country measured by fathoms those who are less poor by furlongs those who have much land by parasangs and those who have land in very great abundance by scoines now the parasang is equal to thirty furlongs and each skoyne which is an egyptian measure is equal to sixty furlongs so there would be an extent of three thousand six hundred furlongs for the coast land of egypt from thence and as far as heliopolis inland egypt is broad and the land is all flat and without springs of water and formed of mud and the road as one goes inland from the sea to heliopolis is about the same in length as that which leads from the altar of the twelve gods at athens to pisa and the temple of olympian zeus Reckoning up, you would find the difference very small by which these roads fail of being equal in length, not more indeed than fifteen furlongs, for the road from Athens to Pisa wants fifteen furlongs of being fifteen hundred, while the road to Heliopolis from the sea reaches that number completely.

From Heliopolis, however, as you go up, Egypt is narrow.

for on the one side a mountain range belonging to arabia stretches along by the side of it going in a direction from the north towards the mid-day and the south wind tending upwards without a break to that which is called the erythraean sea in which range are the stone quarries which were used in cutting stone for the pyramids at memphis on this side then the mountain ends where i have said and then takes a turn back and where it is widest as i was informed it is a journey of two months across from east to west and the borders of it which turn towards the east are said to produce frankincense such then is the nature of this mountain range and on the side of egypt towards libya another range extends rocky and enveloped in sand in this are the pyramids and it runs in the same direction as those parts of the arabian mountains which go towards the mid-day so then i say from heliopolis the land has no longer a great extent so far as it belongs to egypt and for about four days sail up the river egypt properly so called is narrow and the space between the mountain ranges which have been mentioned is plain land but where it is narrowest it did not seem to me to exceed two hundred furlongs from the arabian mountains to those which are called the libyan after this again egypt is broad such is the nature of this land and from heliopolis to thebes is a voyage up the river of nine days and the distance of the journey in furlongs is four thousand eight hundred and sixty the number of scoines being eighty-one if these measures of egypt in furlongs be put together the result is as follows i have already before this shown that the distance along the sea amounts to three thousand six hundred furlongs and i will now declare what the distance is inland from the sea to thebes namely six thousand one hundred and twenty furlongs and again the distance from thebes to the city called elephantine is one thousand eight hundred furlongs of this land then concerning which i have spoken it seemed to myself also according as the priests said that the greater part had been won as an addition by the egyptians for it was evident to me that the space between the aforesaid mountain ranges which lie above the city of memphis once was a gulf of the sea like the regions about ilion and euphrania and ephesus and the plains of miander if it be permitted to compare small things with great and small these are in comparison for of the rivers which heaped up the soil in those regions none is worthy to be compared in volume with a single one of the mouths of the nile which has five mouths moreover there are other rivers also not in size at all equal to the nile which have performed great feats of which i can mention the names of several and especially the which throwing through acharnania and so issuing out into the sea has already made half of the echinades from islands into mainland now there is in the land of arabia not far from egypt a gulf of the sea running in from that which is called the erythraean sea very long and narrow as i am about to tell with respect to the length of the voyage along it one who set out from the innermost point to sail out through it into the open sea would spend forty days upon the voyage using oars and with respect to breadth where the gulf is broadest it is half a day's sail across and there is in it an ebb and flow of tide every day just another gulf i suppose that egypt was and that the one ran in towards ethiopia from the northern sea and the other the arabian of which i am about to speak tended from the south towards syria the gulfs boring in so as almost to meet at their extreme points and passing by one another with but a small space left between if then the stream of the nile should turn aside into this arabian gulf what would hinder that gulf from being filled up with silt as the river continued to flow at all events within a period of twenty thousand years indeed for my part i am of the opinion that it would be filled up even within ten thousand years how then in all the time that has elapsed before i came into being should not a gulf be filled up even of much greater size than this by a river so great and so active as regards egypt then i both believe those who say that things are so and for myself also i am strongly of opinion that they are so because i have observed that egypt runs out into the sea further than the adjoining land and that shells are found upon the mountains of it and an efflorescence of salt forms upon the surface so that even the pyramids are being eaten away by it and moreover that of all the mountains of egypt the range which lies above memphis is the only one which has sand besides which i notice that egypt resembles neither the land of arabia which borders upon it nor libya nor yet syria for they are syrians who dwell in the parts of arabia lying along the sea but that it has soil which is black and easily breaks up seeing that it is in truth mud and silt brought down from ethiopia by the river but the soil of libya we know is reddish in colour and rather sandy while that of arabia and syria is somewhat clayey and rocky the priests also gave me a strong proof concerning this land as follows namely that in the reign of king moeris whenever the river reached a height of at least eight cubits it walked at egypt below memphis and not yet nine hundred years had gone by since the death of moeris when i heard these things from the priests now however unless the river rises to sixteen cubits or fifteen at the least it does not go over the land i think too that those egyptians who dwell below the lake of moiris and especially in that region which is called the delta if the land continues to grow in height according to this proportion and to increase similarly in extent will suffer for all remaining time from the nile not overflowing their land the same thing which they themselves said that the hellenes would at some time suffer for hearing that the whole land of the hellenes had rain and is not watered by rivers as theirs is said that the hellenes would at some time be disappointed of a great hope and would suffer the ills of famine This saying means that if the god shall not send them rain, but shall allow drought to prevail for a long time, the Hellenes will be destroyed by hunger, for they have in fact no other supply of water to save them except from Zeus alone.

This has been rightly said by the Egyptians with reference to the Hellenes, but now let me tell how matters are with the Egyptians themselves in their turn.

La plupart, la majorité.

Ils viennent du temple d'Héliopolis.

La plupart viennent de là-bas.

Et l'histoire de transporter ces obélisques jusqu'en France et jusqu'en Angleterre, parce qu'il n'y a pas de documentation comment les Romains, ils ont fait.

Ça leur a pris vingt-cinq minutes pour la mettre sur son côté et je pense plusieurs mois pour la transporter jusqu'au bateau.

Les Anglais, c'était autre chose.

Ils avaient pris une Alexandrie, une des deux de Cléopâtre, parce que c'était dans le temple de Cléopâtre, mais elles viennent d'Héliopolis.

Ils l'ont mis dans un cylindre et le cylindre, ils l'ont transporté jusqu'en Angleterre.

It was evidently strongly defended, for the Arab general had to summon reinforcements till his army mustered 12,000 before he could attack it.

Amr divided his forces into three corps, one of which he posted to the north of Babylon, the second was stationed at Tindunyas, probably the Umm Dunain of the Arabic writers, and the third withdrew northwards to Heliopolis in the hope of tempting the Romans out of their fortifications upon which the other two corps were to fall on their rear or flank.

The maneuver succeeded.

The Romans marched out of their fortifications and attacked the Saracens at Heliopolis, but, being themselves taken in rear by the other divisions, were routed and driven to the Nile, when they took to their boats and fled down the river.

Upon this the Muslims occupied Tindunyas, the garrison of which had perished in the battle except 300 men, who shut themselves up in the fort, whence they retired by boat to Nikyu.

The taking of Tindunyas was evidently followed by, or synonymous with, the taking of the whole city of Miser, except its citadel, which was blockaded, for John of Nikyu, from whose almost contemporary chronicle this account is taken, mentions no subsequent siege or conquest of the city of Miser, but only the reduction of the fortress.

The collection of the taxes shall be by thirds, one-third at each time.

For sureties for this covenant stand the security and warranty of God, the warranty of his prophet, and the warranty of the caliph, the commander of the faithful, and the warranty of the true believers.

The meaning of the ceremony in which the kings of Babylon took the hands of Bel has been given by Winkler.

Teal compares it very aptly with the rite performed by the Egyptian kings at Heliopolis, for example, when they entered alone the sanctuary of Ra, and there contemplated the god face to face.

The rite was probably repeated annually at the Zagmuku, that is, the New Year festival.

End footnote.

These were mere village strongholds perched on the summit of some eminence, and surrounded by a strip of cornland.

Beyond the frontier extended a region of bare rock, or a wide plain saturated with the ill-regulated surplus water of the inundation.

The land of Goshen was bounded by the cities of Heliopolis on the south, Bubastis on the west, and Tanis and Mendes on the north.

The garrison of Avaris could easily keep watch over it and maintain order within it, while they could at the same time defend it from the incursions of the Monatiu and the Hirushaitu.

Well, how would you explain it then, Dominic?

Well, if we'd been standing up here 4,500 years ago, we'd have been able to see Heliopolis.

And I think that's a really important clue.

And why is that?

Well, if you buy me a cup of coffee, I might just tell you.

OK, you're on.

Heliopolis, the center of sun worship in ancient Egypt, and the city at the heart of the pharaoh's beliefs.

A city now lost in suburban sprawl.