DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14564#0164
ON
H7
interesting relic in the neighbourhood, a very ancient
sycamore, gnarled and crooked with age, the survivor of
the gardens of the city. To it clings the tradition that
the Holy Family rested beneath its shade when they fled
into Egypt. There was indeed a large Hebrew popula-
tion in the country in those days ; and the famous settle-
ment of Onias around the temple built for the worship of
his countrymen, was not far from Heliopolis. And near
the City of the Sun grew the Judaean balsam-trees, which
may have been tended by Hebrew gardeners. The
tradition is no more than a legend, yet there is no place
in Egypt to which the visit of the Holy Family would be
more fit than to the almost deserted seat of learning,
when it was already the parent of the great university
under whose wide-spreading shadow grew and flourished
those Hebrew and Christian schools which had so mighty
an influence in the annals of the early Church. Thus
Heliopolis then represented that which was passing away,
not without hope of that which was to come. The least
monumental of all the famous sites of Egypt, without
temple or tomb, nor any record but the obelisk, which,
splendid as it is, bears a barren official inscription, is yet
eloquent of greater things than the solemn pyramids of
L 2
H7
interesting relic in the neighbourhood, a very ancient
sycamore, gnarled and crooked with age, the survivor of
the gardens of the city. To it clings the tradition that
the Holy Family rested beneath its shade when they fled
into Egypt. There was indeed a large Hebrew popula-
tion in the country in those days ; and the famous settle-
ment of Onias around the temple built for the worship of
his countrymen, was not far from Heliopolis. And near
the City of the Sun grew the Judaean balsam-trees, which
may have been tended by Hebrew gardeners. The
tradition is no more than a legend, yet there is no place
in Egypt to which the visit of the Holy Family would be
more fit than to the almost deserted seat of learning,
when it was already the parent of the great university
under whose wide-spreading shadow grew and flourished
those Hebrew and Christian schools which had so mighty
an influence in the annals of the early Church. Thus
Heliopolis then represented that which was passing away,
not without hope of that which was to come. The least
monumental of all the famous sites of Egypt, without
temple or tomb, nor any record but the obelisk, which,
splendid as it is, bears a barren official inscription, is yet
eloquent of greater things than the solemn pyramids of
L 2