Heliopolis

Heliopolis ('city of the sun'), the Greek name of the city called by the Egyptians On, An, stood on the east side of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, near the apex of the Delta, and was one of the most ancient and important of Egyptian cities. It was the chief seat of the wisdom of the Egyptians, and Thales, Plato, and Solon are reported to have learnt from its priests. Manetho, the historiographer of Egypt, was chief-priest here, an office filled centuries earlier by the father-in-law of the Hebrew Joseph. One of the red granite obelisks long famous as Pharaoh's Needles is still standing near the hamlet of Matarcieh, 8 miles N. of Cairo. It is 70 feet high, and bears the name of Usurtesen I., the second king of the twelfth dynasty. The obelisk called 'Cleopatra's needle,' brought in 1878 to England, and that taken to New York in 1880, were originally brought to Alexandria from this city. For the Syrian Heliopolis, see BALBEK.