Even during the first dynasty of the pharaohs, he fell from the sky. This stone was of an unusual conical shape with rounded edges. The Egyptians found him in the Temple of the Phoenix. The Heavenly Stone became one of the main shrines of Ancient Egypt. They named him Benben. At first it was kept in the Temple of the Phoenix, it is assumed that it was in Heliopolis. Under the first pharaohs, benben was one of the main objects of worship. But then it was lost. In place of the stone, a column was erected, which was supposed to remind the Egyptians of the loss of Benben.
What's left of benben?
A few artifacts have survived to us, retaining the features of a Benben. The main ones were the pyramidions - pyramidal stones, which were placed on the tops of the pyramids. The Egyptians called them "benbenet"; this word was derived from the name of the sacred stone.
It is believed that it was the benben that served as the prototype for the pyramids. The Egyptians remembered one of the main relics and immortalized it by erecting majestic pyramids. After all, the benben had the shape of a cone or pyramid with rounded edges. When it was lost, the Egyptians began to create copies of it. Reduced copies - pyramidions, enlarged - pyramids.
Benben in legends
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In ancient Egyptian mythology, Benben is the hill from which the Sun first rose. In addition, it is he who is considered the first piece of land in the endless ocean. According to ancient Egyptian belief, he was in the area of Heliopolis. It was there that the benben fell. He was considered a gift from heaven, a symbol of the sun. Then he served as the personification of the Phoenix, who embodied the change of seasons, the beginning of something new.
In ancient Egyptian, ben means seed or egg. That is why the Egyptians, who took a stone that fell from the sky as an egg of a heavenly bird, called it benben. They believed that someday a new bird would appear from it, which would mark the beginning of a new era with its birth. That is why they worshiped him. Surprisingly, the legends about a conical stone that fell from the sky may have a real basis.
The real story of the mythical stone
Scientists have found that not all meteorites burn up in the atmosphere. Some iron meteorites begin to melt and take the shape of a cone with rounded edges. They remain so on earth. The Egyptians might well have found such a meteorite. If he just fell, they saw a fiery streak in the sky from a meteorite. It was these circumstances that "helped" the Egyptians to see the Phoenix egg in an ordinary meteorite.