city
Leontopolis (Tell el-Yahudiyeh): Temple of Onias
Tell el-Yahudiyeh, Egypt · Wider Abrahamic world
30.292, 31.331
Attested. The temple is attested by Josephus (who gives two versions). The site identification is the scholarly consensus, though debated.
Leontopolis (Tell el-Yahudiyeh): Temple of Onias
Tell el-Yahudiyeh
The exiled priest Onias IV, son of the Jerusalem high priest Onias III, built a Jewish temple here with Ptolemy VI's permission. A military colony grew around it, and Rome closed the temple in 73 CE (Josephus). Petrie's 1906 identification of the mound is widely but not universally accepted.
Source stance: neutral.
People and groups named here
- Onias IV
- Ptolemy VI
- Cleopatra III (Jewish generals Chelkias and Ananias)
Sources
- "Temple Of Onias", Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
Jewish Encyclopedia / Funk & Wagnalls (public domain). Accessed 2026-11-11.
- Leontopolis (Heliopolis) (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0). Accessed 2026-11-11.
- Tell el-Yahudiya (Pleiades place 727147)
Pleiades Gazetteer (CC BY 3.0). Accessed 2026-11-11.
Further reading
Councils here
None in this list.