The High Priest of Ra or of Re was known in Egyptian as the wr-mꜢw, which translates as Greatest of Seers.[1]
The main cult of
Ra was in ancient
Heliopolis, northeast of present-day
Cairo. The high priests of Ra are not as well documented as the high priests of other deities such as
Amun and
Ptah.
The Al-Masalla area of the
Al-Matariyyah district, the site of Heliopolis, contains the underground tombs of High Priests of Re of the
Sixth Dynasty (2345 BCE—2181 BCE), which were found in the southeast corner of the great Temple of
Re—
Atum archaeological site. [3] The ancient Masalla
Obelisk, or El-Misalla (
Arabic: المسلة, trans. obelisk), in Al-Matariyyah is the only surviving element standing of the Re—Atum Temple, constructed by Pharaoh
Senusret I (1971 BCE—1926 BCE) of the
Twelfth Dynasty. [4][5]