IV 
140 HELIOPOLIS. 
CHAP. Land. The principal number of Christians who 
^ visit Matarea are pilgrims, attracted by the 
supposed sanctity of the spot, as connected 
with the history of our Saviour. The celebrated 
Fountain of the Sun\ whence the city itself seems 
(1) Called Ain Scheynps by the Arabs, which agrees with the name 
oi Heliopolis, as found in ^ftw^erfa, and cited by the learned iiTirc/ter; 
CEdip. ^gypt. tom.lU. ;>. 331. i?om. 1655. "Ain Schemps, sive 
Heliopolis, quam et Ociiluyn seu fontem Solis ajipellant, temporibus 
uostris desolata est, neque sunt in ea habitationes uUae ; et dicitur, 
quod fuerit civitas Pharaonis: sunt in ea insignia anliquitatis monu- 
menta, constructa ex lapidibus et saxis maximis ; inter caetera verb 
columna quadrata, qua? vocatur Acus Pharaoyiis (id est Oleliscus), 
longitudo ejus 30 cubitorum, estque k Ca>/70 ferS media mergala; est 
etiam ibidem villa dicta Matarea, sita ad latus sinistrum Orientalis 
Nili." 
It may be proper to notice here a very extraordinary doubt of the 
learned Lurcher concerning this city, as it is expressed in the Table 
Geographique, published in the Appendix to his Translation of jF/i?ro(fo<tf5. 
M. Larcher asserts, in opposition to every preceding writer, that 
Heliopolis was situated in the Delta, and that Matarea stands on the 
site of an itisignijicant town of the same name, which has been con- 
founded with the more renowned city. For this assertion M. Larcher 
offers no proof whatsoever ; but refers his reader to a separate disser- 
tation, which he intends to publish upon this subject. With the ut- 
most deference to that profound scholar, it may be surely urged, that 
what Kircher, Pococke, and Shaw, considered to be established, will 
not be hastily abandoned. In additioa to this it may be asked, do 
not the remains of Sphinxes, noticed by Pucocke, confirm the de-. 
scription given by Slrabo oi the ruins of Heliopolis? Do not the 
stupendous Obelisks, one of which is now standing, {two others were 
token to Ro7ne, Vid. Strahon. Geog. Ub.wW. p. 1142. Ed. Oxon.) indi- 
cate, beyond a possibility of contradiction, the vestiges of no iticon- 
siderable city ? The observations of Stralo concerning the situation 
of the 'Hkioi-oXiTn; yafics, and the rou 'HXiou •roXis, are given with re- 
markable precision ; and when these are compared with the observa- 
tions. 
