Poole, Reginald S.: The cities of Egypt (London, 1882)

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bird, and represented the mystical phcenix. This creature
cannot have been the same as the bird of legend, for the
inscriptions speak of the phcenix as living in a temple or
shrine of his own at Heliopolis, and yet as the phcenix
who creates himself. Here was also a sacred tree, the
persea, on the fruits of which the gods are portrayed
writing the name of the king. This accumulation of
revered objects is peculiarly characteristic of the City of
the Sun, and seems to show that it was a centre of
Egyptian religion, representing far more than the local
worship of other and greater cities.

In the story of the triumphal progress of Pianchi, the
Ethiopian priest-king, who conquered Egypt about b.c.
750, there is a curious narrative of the royal visit to the
shrines of Heliopolis. Coming towards the city, Pianchi
reached Merti, the modern Matareeyeh, and purified
himself in the basin of the cold spring, the famous Foun-
tain of the Sun. He made a great offering to the Sun,
at his rising, of white bulls, milk, perfume, incense, and
all kinds of sweet-scented woods. He next went to the
temple of Ra, and entered it, making two adorations.
The priest invoked the divinity as the king's protectoi
against his enemies. The king then fulfilled the rites of