Ancient Twin Cities

The royal city of Heliopolis on the Nile was called “Iunu” (iunu) which means "place of pillars." In the book of Genesis this city is called On. Joseph married the daughter of the priest of On. Here is the hieroglyph for the shrine city of On/iunu on the Nile:

Alice C. Linsley

Many of the cities of the ancient world were royal cities with shrines, temples, palaces, and treasuries. These edifices of stone were characterized by many columns or pillars. The glyph for pillar looks like the letter i.

Some of the ancient shrine cities were iunu (biblical On) on the Nile River, io (Meroe of the North) on the Orontes River, and Sargon's iana/ianna at Ur, at the southern tip of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley.

This map shows where modern Antioch/Hatay is located on the Orontes River.

The shrine cities were built along the ancient waterways and the cargo that moved along the rivers was taxed. To insure that no ships passed the royal cities without paying the required tribute, the rulers built twin cities on opposite sides of the river.

On the Nile there were the twin cities of Nekhen and Nekheb (Elkab). These were built on the opposite sides of the river. The tomb of Horemkhawef in Nekhen and the tomb of Sobeknakht in Elkab were painted by the same artist. Hormose, the chief priest of Nekhen, requested material goods from the temple at Nekheb for use at the temple at Nekhen. The Greeks called the shrine of Nekhen "Hierakonpolis," which means "city of priests."

Twin cities were established along major rivers such the Nile, the Orontes, and the Tigris. The Nilotic cities of Nekhen and Nekheb, and the twin cities of Pe and Dep are examples. Pe and Dep merged into the city that the Greeks later called "Buto". Antioch had a twin city on the opposite side of the Orontes. It was called IO, the designation for a Sun City.

Related reading: Twin Cities of the Ancient World