Heliopolis and the solar cult in the third Millennium BC

The article reassesses and re-discusses the available archaeological and textual evidence of the city of Heliopolis, in the attempt to clarify its role in the historical evolution of the solar cult and religion in third millennium BC Old Kingdom Egypt. By connecting archaeological evidence with landscape phenomenology as well as private sources with royal texts and decorative material, the paper emphasises how certain Egyptological assumptions, usually taken for granted, are far from being proven. It eventually shows that the key of the discussion has to be searched for in the study of the relationship between Atum and Re.