The primordial mound that emerged from the waters of Nun was the Benben. In the Heliopolitan creation tradition, Nun was the limitless primordial watery abyss, and Benben was the first solid rise of land to appear from it. The creator god Atum settled upon the mound and began the process that brought the ordered cosmos into existence.
Benben was both a mythic landscape and a sacred religious symbol. At Heliopolis, the Benben stone was associated with the place where the first rays of the sun fell. Its pointed form is commonly linked to the pyramidion, the capstone placed on Egyptian pyramids, and to the later shape of obelisks.
The Benben is often confused with an obelisk, an ankh, or a djed, but those are different objects and symbols. An obelisk could represent solar religion and may have inherited the Benben’s pointed imagery, while the ankh symbolized life and the djed represented stability. In some traditions, the solar bird Bennu was also connected with the Benben at Heliopolis.