Heliopolis (Ancient Egypt)
The Al-Masalla obelisk, the largest surviving monument from Heliopolis
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 Shown within Egypt
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| Location | Egypt |
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| Region | Cairo Governorate |
| Coordinates | 30°07′46″N 31°18′27″E / 30.129333°N 31.307528°E |
Heliopolis was a major city of ancient Egypt. It was the capital of the 13th or Heliopolite Nome of Lower Egypt and a major religious center. It is now located in Ayn Shams, a northeastern suburb of Cairo.
Heliopolis was one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, occupied since the Predynastic Period. It greatly expanded under the Old and Middle Kingdoms but is today mostly destroyed, its temples and other buildings having been scavenged for the construction of medieval Cairo. Most information about the ancient city comes from surviving records.
The major surviving remnant of Heliopolis is the obelisk of the Temple of Ra-Atum erected by Senusret I of Dynasty XII. It still stands in its original position, now within Al-Masalla in Al-Matariyyah, Cairo. The 21 m (69 ft) high red granite obelisk weighs 120 tons (240,000 lbs).
Heliopolis is the latinized form of the Ptolemaic Greek name Hēlioúpolis (Ἡλιούπολις), meaning "City of the Sun". Helios, the personified and deified form of the sun, was identified by the Greeks with the native Egyptian gods Ra and Atum, whose principal cult was located in the city.
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