Heliopolis, “the city of the sun,” was a primary destination for ancient tourists. Homer, Solon, Pythagoras, and Plato were all said to have visited the city, whose famous temple, dedicated to the sun god, Ra, rivaled even the temple of Amun at Karnak. But unlike Karnak, almost nothing of the temple at Heliopolis remains. This is due in part to the encroachment of Cairo’s suburbs and the high water table which hampers the work of archaeologists.

Although difficult to imagine today, the temple once stood on a mound that rose above the surrounding flood plain. The Egyptians called the mound I͗wnw (Ono)—which means ‘the pillars’—after the many obelisks erected at the site. According to the book of Genesis, Joseph married a daughter of a high priest of On named Asenath. Their two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, would become the progenitors of two of the twelve tribes of Israel.

The Obelisk

The earliest evidence for an obelisk at Heliopolis dates to the Old Kingdom period. Rather than a tall slender needle, the earliest obelisks took the form of a short, squat pillar capped with a pyramid, known as a benben stone. The name probably comes from the Egyptian word wbn which means ‘to shine’.¹Hoffmeier 2014, 10 A pyramidion formed the point of the obelisk. Gilded with gold and silver, it must have shone brightly when struck by the first gleam of dawn.

During the Middle Kingdom period obelisks began to assume the shape of a long, slender needle. Its base was often inscribed with baboons since these creatures make a howling racket during the early morning hours (like roosters) and were therefore associated with the rising sun.

ARC / Neues Museum

Senusret I (1971–1926 BC) was the first Middle Kingdom pharaoh to erect an obelisk at Heliopolis. A great many more obelisks would be erected but only Senusret’s obelisk remains standing today. It is remarkable to think that this tall pillar has been standing in the same spot for nearly 4000 years!

The obelisks were made from red granite quarried at Aswan in Upper Egypt and then transported down the river on huge barges. One can still see a roughly hewn obelisk lying in the quarry at Aswan commissioned by Queen Hatsheput (1479-1458 BC) but never completed due to a defect in the rock. It would have stood 137′ (47 m) tall making it the tallest in Egypt. Instead, the record for the tallest obelisk goes to Thutmose III (1479–1426 BC), the son of Hatsheput, whose obelisk stands 105 feet (32 m) tall. The obelisk of Sesostris I at Heliopolis rises to a more modest height of 68′ (20.7 m).

It has been suggested that these granite obelisks were quarried from the rock using hard dolorite pounders. I cannot think of a more unenviable job than this one. The evidence for this method of quarrying comes from shallow, cup-like indentations that can be seen on the unfinished obelisk. These appear to have been formed by a round blunt object. It is difficult to conceive of how an army of men with round stones could create such a finely worked, slender, granite needle of such monumental proportions. One must look for another explanation for how the Egyptians cut the hieroglyphs into the surface of the obelisk.

The Heliopolitan Cosmogony

If you were to ask a priest at Heliopolis how the world began, he would begin his account with a mound of sand emerging from Nun, the primordial sea, in the place now occupied by the temple at Heliopolis. Re-Atum, the patron god of Heliopolis, was the next to emerge from the primordial sea. The Egyptians called Atum the “All” or the “One” since everything that exists is but an extension of Atum. According to one ancient text, Atum begot himself by “joining his seed with his body to create his egg within his secret self”.²Romer 2001, 143 Having created himself, Atum spat forth Shu and Tefnut (dry air and moist humidity) who gave birth to Geb and Nut (earth and sky), who gave birth to two more divine couples: Osiris and Isis, Seth and Nephthys. These nine gods formed the Ennead—the Nine. The material world was considered to be a manifestation of these nine gods. Later we will see how this understanding of the cosmos led to a more philosophical system of “emanations” which lay at the heart of gnostic thought during the first centuries AD and is still with us in one form or another until today.

The End of Heliopolis

What happened to Heliopolis? According to the Roman geographer, Strabo (64 BC – 24 AD), Heliopolis was demolished by Cambyses, king of Persia. But this assertion should be treated with caution. Cambyses had such a bad reputation with later historians that they tended to attribute every destructive act to him. The prophet Jeremiah prophesied that the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, would destroy Heliopolis.

It is quite likely that Nebuchadnezzar did indeed destroy the temple at Heliopolis. The city lay directly in the path of the Babylonian army that invaded Egypt in 568 BC, just 20 years after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.

Heliopolis was eventually rebuilt and would remain the most important religious center in Egypt until Alexandria gradually took its place during the Hellenistic period. Many of the obelisks of Heliopolis were removed to Alexandria, and from there, were carried to Rome as booty. Rome today has more obelisks than Egypt, while several others have been erected in Paris, London, and New York.