Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/295

 lose HELIOPOLISL belongied to the Jl/aflio Angnstnmiiica. Its popoktion probablj oontjuiied a coiiMdenJ>le Ambian demeot. (/%'«. TL 34.) HeliopolM, boiTBTer, the On, BaineRM, or Beth-Schemeach of the Hebrew Scriptures, — ^for it has claims to be regarded as anjone of the three, — was long anterior even to the Pharaonic poctka of this canal| and was, indeed, one of the moat ancient of Egyptian cities. Its obeUsks were probablj seen bj Abraham when he fint migrated from Sjrria to the Delta, 1600 jean n. c; and here the fiUher-in- law of Joseph filled the office of high priest It may be regarded as the UniTendtj of the Uuid of Misraam : its priests, from the most remote epochs, were the great depontaries of theological and historical learn- ing; and it was of sufficient political importance to furnish ten depaties, or one< third of the whole num- ber, to the great council which assisted the Pharadis in the administration of justice. At Heliopolis M«es probablj acquired the learning of the Egyp- tians, and the prophet Jeremiah wxute his Lamen- tations over the decline of the Hebrew people. From Ichonuphys, who was lecturing there in b. c. 308, and who numbered Eudozns among his pupils, the Greek mathematidan learned the tme lei^gth of the year and month, upon which he formed his '^ octae- tend,** or period of eight years or ninety-nioe months. Solon, Thales, and Plato, were reputed each to have visited its schools, — the haUs, indeed, in which the latter studied were pointed out to Strabo : while in the reign of the second Ptolemy, Manethon, the chief priest of Heliopolis, collected from its archives his history of the ancient kings of Egypt Alex- ander the Great, on his march from Pelusiura to Memphis, halted at tliis city (Arrian, iii. 1); and, according to Macrobius {Saturn, i. 23), Baalbek, or the Syrian City of the Sun, was a priest-oolony from its Egyptian namesake. The Heliopolite nome, of which tliis city was the capital, contained, after the decline and dispersion of the kingdoms of Isrscl and Judab, a Hebrew popu- lation almost equal in numbers to that of the native Egyptians. (Joseph. AnHq. Jud, xiii. 3) But, even so early as the invasion of Gambyses, b. c. 525, He- liopolis had much declined; and in the time of Strabo, who visited it during the prefecture of Aelins Gallus, B. c. 24, its ruins had nearly vanished. The sun, as the name of the city proves, was the principal object of worship at Heliopolis ; and the legends of the Phoenix, the emblem of Uie sobtr year, centred around its temples. It was also the seat of the worship of the bull Mnevis, the riral of Apis in this region of Aegypt In all respects, indeed, it merited the distinction ascribed to it by Diodorus of Sicily, who calls Heliopolis w6is hri^tCTdrji. The ruins of Heliopolis occupy a quadrangular area of nearly 3 miles in extent, and were described by Abd-AUatif, an Arabian physician, who wrote his account of Egypt about the close of the 12th century a. d. He speaks of its surprising colossal figures cut in stone more than 30 cubits high,of which some were standing on pedestals and othera were in sitting postures. He saw the two famous obelisks called Pharaoh's Needles, one standing and the other fallen and broken in two by its own enormous weight The name of Osirtesen I., king of Thebes, of the ziith dynasty, who was lord of both the Upper and Lower country, was inscribed on them. The stand- ng obelisk is still erect, and is even now studied as the earliest known specimen of Egyptian architec- ture. (Plin. xxxvi. 9.) Zoega (de ObeUtcii, p. 642) auppoaea that the obelisk which was trRnsjiorted to HEUOPOLISl Rome and set ap m the Campos Marritw, Vj erier of Angostns, came also from Heliopofia. (Coop. Ammian, xtiL 4.) The obelisks of OsirtaeB wen each 60 feet high, and fwmiitfd of a qnadraogakr oolmmi or cone, risii^ out of a aqoare base 10 feet high. The pointed tup of the oohuiui was aes covered with a copper cap, shaped like a fomid, md. 3 cubits in loigth. These stnictnrea Ibraaed the most ooospicooos figures in the centre of cuuveigiuj avenues of smaller obelisks. The hamlet of MaUtriek, aboat 6 miks NE. ef Cairo, coven a portion of the ancient site of Hc&o- poUs, and is still distinguished by its aolitary obe&k of red granite, and contains — no oomaMB privikfs in Egypt — a spring of sweet and fresh water. Some ranains of sphinxes, with fragme u ta of a cokml statue, indicate the ancient approaches to the Taaple of the Son. Heliopolis, irom its positioD on the vexge of the desert, must have been oontigooos to, and mar have overlooked, the pastures of Goshen, where the Children of Israel were allowed to settle bj the priest-kings of Memj^is; and earlier sliU, the dly, if no| indeed Abaris itself, was probablj ooe of the last fortresses held by the Shepherd Kings beise their final evacuation of E^pt [W. BwD.] HELICyPOLIS SYRIAE ('HXio^oXii, Sciab. xvi. p. 753; Ptol. T. 15. § 22; Steph. B. slil; MaUUi, Chronic, xi. p. 119; Ckr 1' SO'' N. and long. 36^ 1 1' E. (RenneB, Compar. Gtogr. of Western Atioy toL i. p. 75.) Baalbec, which in the Syrian language means City of the Sun, was probably the original aj^llatioo ^ this celebrated place. Its Hellenic equivakot — Heliopolis — was imposed by the Seleucid sovm e i^ ai of Syria, and continued by the Bomans. After the cxmquest of Syria by the Arabs in the serenth ccs- tury A, D. the city regained its Semitic, or at least its Aramean name. (See Ammian. MarcelL xiv. 8.) Heliopolis was seated upon a gentle elevation at the NE. extremity of the plain of Bohtk or Bebak, which stretches from the western slope of Ami- Libanus nearly to the shores of the Meditemmean. Three rivers — the Litanfe, the Bardouni, and ti)e Asfe (Orontes?) — fiow through tliis phun, which ia the spring season is also watered by nnmeroiis liUs formed by the melting of the snows of Antilibamis. Heliopolis itself is supplied with water from a icon- tain cloee to the NE. angle of its walk, — i2aa-el-.4ta, or the Spring Head. The whole region of Bokek was in ancient times (Mie of singular fertility, and even now, under Mohammedan oppression, is reinaik- able for the number and beauty of its orrharda. At what epoch or by whom Heiiopolb was foonded is unknown. According to Macit^bius {Saturn, i 23), it was a priest-colony from Egypt, or rather from Assyria. Thu sun, the Osiris of the Egyptians, was in all ages the principal object of worship there: the Greeks, however, indi£krently attributed its temple to Zens and Apollo. As a sacerdotiU city Heliopolis may have found room for a plurality «f deities. Atergattf or Astart^, the Syrian Aphrodite, had certainly a temple thne. The city, however, was probably indebted for 'ts greatness to the advantages it aflMcd as an cia- porium of the trade between Tyre, Palmyra, and Western India. It was 18^ geograf^ical miles froi Palmyra, and ll| from Tyre. (Rennell, I c.) . was made a Roman oolonia by Julius Caesar, an<i veterans from the 5th and 8th L^ons were