On

ON (sun, light), a celebrated city of Lower Egypt, Gen 41:45, 1 Chr 6:50; called Bethshemesh, or "house of the sun," Jer 43:13, and known to the Greeks as Heliopolis, or "city of the sun." Eze 30:17, margin. Some suppose it to be referred to as the "city of destruction" in Isa 19:18-18. The Arabs call it, Ain Shems, or the "fountain of the sun." On was situated upon the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, about 20 miles northeast of ancient Memphis, and 6 miles north from Cairo. History. - On was one of the oldest cities in the world. Its origin and founder are unknown, but it has an obelisk which has been standing about 4000 years. It has been considered the Rome and the Athens of ancient Egypt, the centre of its religion and learning. In it stood the great temple of Ra, with one exception the most famous ancient shrine in Egypt. Ra, next to Ptah, was the greatest Egyptian deity, bearing seventy-five different forms, and regarded as a king of gods and men, and as the sun who illumines the world with the light of his eyes, and is the awakener of life. Every Pharaoh was also regarded as a human embodiment of Ra, and hence one of his titles was "Lord of Heliopolis." To the chief shrine of the god Ra each king presented special offerings, making it one of the richest temples of ancient times. The immense wealth of this shrine is mentioned in various papyri, particularly the "Harris Papyrus," in London, which gives a list of the gifts of Rameses III. Its companies of priests and attendants are reputed to have numbered over 12,000. The legend of the wonder-bird Phoenix, early used to illustrate the doctrine of the resurrection, arose here; to this city Joseph, delivered from prison, came with royal honors to marry the daughter of Potipherah, ("dedicated to Ra"). Josephus reports that On was the home of Jacob on his arrival in Egypt. In its grandeur it was the resort of men of learning from all countries. In its schools and universities Moses, according to Manetho, was instructed in all the learning of the Egyptians, and hither

came Plato, Eudoxus, and the wisest of the Greeks to be initiated into the majestic lore of its priests. From the teachers of its ancient schools Herodotus gained his knowledge of the country and its history. In the time of Strabo, b.c. 60, this famous seat of learning had ceased to exist, though he was shown the houses of the priests and the dwelling occupied by Plato. He states that its teachers were admirably imbued with the knowledge of heavenly things, and that they could be persuaded only by patience and politeness to communicate some of their doctrines, which they concealed from barbarians. Josephus speaks of a temple built at Heliopolis by order of Ptolemy Philometor for the Jews when Onias was high priest, and which lasted for Obelisk at On, or Heliopolis. 220 years, when it was destroyed by Vespasian. The city, however, is said to have been devastated by Cambyses at an earlier date. Present Condition. - The site of this once famous city is now marked with a few ruins of massive walls, fragments of sphinxes, a noted obelisk of red granite of Sycne (one of the two which stood before the temple of the Sun), and some low mounds enclosing a space about three-quarters of a mile long by half a mile wide. The obelisk, rising amid the desolation, is 66 feet high, and, except a small one found by Lepsius in Memphis, is the oldest one yet discovered, having been erected by Usertesen, the second king of the twelfth dynasty. Each of the four sides is covered with hieroglyphics, rendered illegible on two sides by the mud-cells of bees. The inscriptions are, however, the same on each of its faces, and simply record when, why, and by whom it was erected. It is partly buried in the sand. "There," says Schaff, "it has been standing for nearly 4000 years, and there it still stands in solitary grandeur and unbroken silence. Had it a mouth to speak, it could tell of the visit of Abraham and Sarah, of the wisdom and purity of Joseph, the inquisitiveness of Herodotus, the sublime speculations of Plato, the mysteries of Egyptian learning and idolatry, the rise and fall of ancient empires." It appears to the traveller as the only important survivor of the avenues of spinxes, the temples, palaces, colleges, and obelisks beheld or described by the Grecian historians. Formerly the two obelisks of Alexandria called the "Needles of Cleopatra" or the "Obelisks of Pharaoh" stood at On, but they were removed in the reign of Tiberius, and one of them now stands on the bank of the Thames, in London (since 1879); the other has been presented to the city of New York, whither it was transported in 1880, and now stands in the Central Park. Tradition indicates On as the place to which Joseph and Mary and the child Jesus came to escape from the cruelty of Herod, and a sycamore tree is shown, under which they are reputed to have rested in their flight.