2Q2                NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.

xlin. 13, and "Eye or Fountain of the Sun" by the Arabs.
Heliopolis was about twelve miles from the fortress of
Babylon, and stood on the eastern side of the Pelusiac
arm of the Nile, near the right bank of the great canal
which passed through the Bitter Lakes and connected
the Nile with the sea. Its ruins cover an area three miles
square. The greatest and oldest Egyptian College or
University for the education of the priesthood and the laity
stood here, and it was here that Ptolemy IL, Philadelphus,
sent for Egyptian manuscripts when he wished to augment
the library w^hich his father had founded.

The obelisk is sixty-six feet high, and was set up by
Usertsen I. ( O ^ U | about b.c 2433 ; a companion obehsk
remained standing in its place until the seventh century of
our era, and both were covered with caps of smu (probably
copper) metal. During the XXth dynasty the temple of
Heliopolis was one of the largest and wealthiest in all Egypt,
and its staff was numbered by thousands. When Cambyses
visited Egypt the glory of Heliopolis was well on the wane,
and after the removal of the priesthood and sages of the
temple to Alexandria by Ptolemy II. its downfall was well
assured. When Strabo visited it (b.c. 24), the greater part
of it was in ruins; but we know from Arab writers that
many of the statues remained in situ at the end of the
twelfth century. Heliopolis had a large population of Jews,
and it will be remembered that Joseph married the daughter
of Pa-ta-pa-Ra (Potiphar) a priest of On (Annu), or Heliopolis.
It lay either in or very near the Goshen of the Bible. The
Mnevis bull, sacred to Ra, was worshipped at Heliopolis, and
it was here that the phoenix or palm-bird brought its ashes
after having raised itself to life at the end of each period of
fi^e hundred years. Alexander the Great halted here on
his way from Pelusium to Memphis. Macrobius says that
the Heliopolis of Syria, or Baalbek, was founded by a body
of priests who left the ancient city of Heliopolis of Egypt.