This temple has been described as standing in an area which measured a mile in length and half a mile in width. The approach to it was by an avenue lined with colossal sphinxes.
The ride to Heliopolis will take us through a growing suburb where a large number of beautiful houses have quite recently been erected. The road then emerges into a highly cultivated plain. This was once barren sand, but is now nourished and fertilized by the waters of the Nile, which have been carried to it.
We pass at intervals extensive buildings, a military school, numbers of old tombs, an astronomical observatory where the calculations are made for the yearly Mohammedan almanac, the palace of Zafforan, built by the late khedive for his mother, and also the palace occupied by the present khedive. This is situated in the midst of a fine plantation.
Just before reaching Heliopolis we dismount to step aside into a garden where stands an ancient sycamore tree, under whose shade the Holy Family is said to have rested on their flight into Egypt. This tree, which is crooked and gnarled, has its trunk and limbs covered with names, which travelers have cut in the bark.
So zealous have thoughtless travelers been to secure mementoes, that the owner of the tree has been obliged to fence it in, so that it might not be carried away in chips by the desecrating hands of would-be worshippers.
The obelisk at Heliopolis is the only object of interest. It is built of red granite, and stands sixty-six and one-half feet above the pavement on which it rests. Its base is rather more than six feet square. The inscription, which is alike on all four sides, is in large hieroglyphics. The lines are as sharply defined as if cut but yesterday. The pavement upon which the obelisk stands is about six feet below the level of the surrounding plain.
Strabo described the city as standing on a raised site; hence it is apparent that both the river and the alluvial plain have been raised to a considerable extent during the last two thousand years.
Very few of the Egyptian obelisks are to be found on their original sites. Some have been removed to Rome and Alexandria, others transported to places at still greater distances. Cleopatra's Needle, in Central Park, New York City, was brought to America in 1885, at great expense and with much difficulty, from its site under Egyptian skies. It was a gift to the United States from the Khedive of Egypt.
Its counterpart, a gift to England, lay prostrate in the sands of Alexandria for many years, but was finally taken to London and placed on the banks of the Thames. Curious hieroglyphics upon it prove that it was originally in the Temple of the Sun, at Heliopolis.
Heliopolis was renowned for its fine literature, its beautiful temples, and its great priesthood. It was the University City, and was to Egypt what Cambridge is to England.