Page:Ancient Egypt Her Testimony to the Truth.pdf/33

16 the first colonisation of Egypt as well as of all other ancient kingdoms. These we now proceed to consider.

The monumental indications of the fact, that Egypt was first colonised from the north east, are very apparent.

The city of Heliopolis, stood near the apex of the Delta, and in the place where most probably the first spot of habitable ground would have been met with on the banks of the Nile, by travellers from the north east; for at first, the arid sands of the desert were bounded by the pestilential swamps formed by the branches of the Nile, along the entire eastern boundary of the Delta. This city was accounted the most ancient in Egypt: it had been long deserted in the times of Diodorus and Strabo, which nearly coincide with the Christian era. The obelisks with which Rome was decorated by the Caesars, were all brought from the ruins of Heliopolis. Singularly enough, the tutelary deity of Heliopolis was (as its name imports) Athom the setting sun. The great sin of the builders of Babel would appear to have consisted in the dedication of their vast edifice to the worship of Baal or the sun; and nothing is more probable