Benben played a huge role in the religious outlook of the ancient Egyptians. This is a conical stone, as scientists suggest, of extraterrestrial origin.
The Benben stone was discovered in the Temple of the Phoenix. He was a symbol of this bird, which was capable of resurrection and rebirth, and also personified the cyclical nature of the seasons. Scientists suggest that he once stood on a sacred pillar.
Usually in ancient Egyptian art, the phoenix was depicted as a gray heron. This was probably due to the fact that she flies every year. once there was such a belief: if a phoenix appeared in Heliopolis, then a new cycle begins, or a new era. The Benben stone cult arose after the first appearance of the phoenix. The stone was probably considered by the Egyptians as the "seed" of the space bird, because the root "ben" means fertilization.
Modern Egyptologists adhere to the version that the stone had a conical shape. In the earliest depictions of the Benben stone, where Phoenix sits on it, it can be seen that the stone is not at all pyramidal in shape. The edges of the stone were rounded, so it looked more like a cone. Later the cone was replaced by a pyramidion.
Some of the iron meteorites do not rotate when entering the Earth's atmosphere, but retain their position. After falling, their front part melts and shifts back. Because of this, the meteorite takes on a conical shape. Examples include the Morito and Willamette meteorites. In the Middle East, the cult of meteorites was very widespread. Take, for example, the sacred Muslim stone Kaaba. The sanctuary of the god Ela-Gabala existed in Emesa.
The sacred relic of this sanctuary was a black conical stone. According to one of the chroniclers, the inhabitants of Emessa confirm that the stone literally fell from the sky. In the temple of Zeus-Hadad, not far from Emessa, there were several black conical stones at once. And in ancient Phrygia (now Turkey), the great goddess Cybele, the mother of all gods, was represented in a black stone in the temple. And here it was believed that the stone again fell from the sky.
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According to legend, there was a sacred hill in Heliopolis, from which the sun first rose. It was here that the ancient Egyptians erected a sacred column. This was the time before the era of the pyramids, at the beginning of which the column was replaced by an even more sacred relic - the conical Benben stone. It was he who was the main subject in the ancient Egyptian cult, which in turn led to the construction of the pyramids.
Until now, it remains a mystery what was at the very top of the Djoser pyramid. Scientists can only assume that it was a copy of the Benben stone. And it fits well with the symbolism of the era of the pyramids. With complete confidence, Egyptologists can only say that on the tops of the real, non-stepped pyramids there was a pyramidal stone - a pyramidion, which was called Benben.
Several of these pyramidions can be seen in the Cairo Museum. They may testify in favor of the theory that the pyramids played the role of more than just burials.