Heliopolis is the Egyptian city on which at present has been absorbed by Cairo. Its last underground vestiges under the Cairo International Airport house a whole community of magicians and the main headquarters of the House of Life in the First Nome.
History[]
Known by the ancient Egyptians as Iunu, it dates from 3000 BC. During the second dynasty it was an important astronomical center. The high priest had the title of Chief Observer. The Solar Temple of Heliopolis around the year 2400 BC. established the cult of Ra as the main cult, which led the Greeks to call it Heliopolis (Helio: Sun, Polis: city). Remains of constructions raised by almost all pharaohs dynasties have been found. Around the middle of the second millennium BC, the city reached its peak. In the 1300 BC. reached its maximum extension; the decline begins during the first millennium. The temple of Ra is said to be a repository for the royal records (that is, a House of Life in its original definition outside of Rick Riordan's world), and Herodotus claimed that the priests of Heliopolis were better informed in terms of history than all Egyptians. Heliopolis also flourished as a place of learning during the Greek period; the schools of philosophy and astronomy are said to have been frequented by Pythagoras, Plato, Solon and other Greek philosophers. Heliopolis was destroyed during the Persian invasion of 525 BC. C. and later in 343 a. After the founding of Alexandria, the city was marginalized and slowly depopulated. In the 1st century BC. it was already a practically uninhabited city. In the next century, most of the monuments were transferred to Alexandria and Rome. The rest served as a quarry for materials, used to build buildings in Cairo during the Middle Ages.[1]
The remainder of the city disappeared under Egypt's cities and now the majority of lies beneath the Cairo airport. Currently it is home to the House of Life and is guarded by the ba of deceased magicians. After its discovery by mortal archaeologists in the 80s, the tunnel under the Great Sphinx of Giza was sealed to prevent them from discovering the entrance to the remains of Heliopolis.
Description[]
Today, Heliopolis is an underground city, mostly under the Cairo International Airport. It houses most, if not all, First Nome magicians, and like initiates under the age of 10, it is where they are trained. The ceilings of the halls and chambers vary between 5 and 10 meters, the buildings have classic and colorful Egyptian palmeriform pillars in perfect condition, giving the appearance of a petrified forest. Magical copper braces illuminate the rooms, producing flames without releasing smoke, but giving the fragance of various local spices to the air. Among the places to highlight we can mention a room with a jackal statue, an "open air" market with tools and magic merchandise, a river populated by nile tiger fish crossed by rocky paths, a room made of black rock with statues of pharaohs where initiates practice divination and act as switchboard operators among the various nomes of the world, communal dormitories for initiates divided by genders, the Purification Room, in the form of a huge well with a statue of the god Thoth on which falls a waterfall, the library, similar to that of the Brooklyn House, but much larger, the Hall of Ages, among others. During the events of the Red Pyramid, the city is inhabited mostly by local adults and minor children who, unlike other places in the world, openly wield their magic.
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