Monday, September 7, 2015

Bastet , the ancient ruins of Egypt have been erected by the ancient Egyptians as their symbol of affection with the cat goddess identified as Bast or Bastet who was also represented as lion-headed lady. She was considered as the protective goddess and the goddess of enjoy and fertility for the ancient Egyptians. In the ancient Egyptian beliefs Bastet was recognized was one of Ra’ daughters, The god of the Sun and the most crucial god in ancient Egypt. The name (Bastet) means the warmth of the sun. Bastet was also linked by the Greeks with their Goddess Artemis.


Ruines_of_Bastet_Temple. Photographer : Mohammed Mamdoh ( Author )

Bastet , the ancient ruins of Egypt comprise of Bastet Temple which is located in the eastern Delta city identified as (Per-Bast) or (Per-Bastet) which implies the House of Bastet. Later the Greeks called it (Bubastis). Today it is a tourism archaeological site called (Tell-Basta) on the south-eastern edge of the contemporary city of Zagazig, which is situated about 80 Km north-east of Cairo. The constriction operates in the Bastet temple began in the reign of the 4th dynasty, exactly in the reign of Khufu, who built it to honor Bastet. Afterwards many Pharaohs like: Khafre, Ramses II, Pepi I, Osorkon, & Nkinbu amended it by adding their structures and contributed in expansion of the temple more than 1700 years. This remarkable temple was constructed with red granite which was brought specially from Aswan across the Nile.


Cat_goddess_Statue. Image : Wikipedia

In the 5th century, the Greek historian Herodotus visited Bubastis. He described the town as having a gorgeous temple on low ground in the center of the city and surrounded by tree-lined canals, giving it the look of becoming on an island. A stone paved road led from a Temple of Hermes to a massive carved gateway which dominated the entrance to the Temple of Bastet and inside was a shrine containing a statue of the goddess. Herodotus gave a vivid account of the annual festival of the goddess Bastet, when an estimated 700,000 Egyptian pilgrims would check out the internet site. Many information of Herodotus’s description have been confirmed by Edouard Naville’s investigation of Temple of Bastet for the Egypt Exploration Fund in the course of 1887-1889. In the course of the reign of the 22nd dynasty (945-715) BC, the capital of Egypt moved from Tanis to Bubastis, and the city of the cats became the capital of Egypt for 230 years.


destroyed_columns_Bastet_temple. Photographer : Mohammed Mamdoh

Bubastis was a quite important city & the capital of Nome ” Am-Khent “. This  Nome (Subnational administrative division of ancient Egypt, can be understood as a district ) was comprising of the locations of decrease Egypt along with the East Delta of the river, Nile. Bubastis was the Eastern gateway of Egypt which was linking amongst Asia and Memphis, and it was positioned on a really strategic geographic position, on Sizostrees canal or the Canal of the Pharaohs, the ancient Suez Canal which right now operates as a juncture amongst the Nile River and the Red sea.


Burials-of-Bubasts. Photograph by Author : Mohammed Mamdoh ( team )

Bubastis also is identified with the name of Phibeseth in the Christian Bible, book of Ezekiel 30-17.In 525 BC, the city and the temple was collapsed after the Persian conquest by Cambyses II, which heralded the finish of the Saite 26th dynasty and the commence of the Achaemenid dynasty.In 1906, a hoard of gold and silver vessels and jewellery was discovered by local workmen near the temple website, the earliest pieces dating to the Ramesside period. Some of these treasures had been taken illicitly out of Egypt and have been subsequently acquired by Berlin and the New York Metropolitan Museums.


Hieroglyphics_ carved_rock_ Bastet_temple. Photographer : Moahmmed Mamdoh ( Author )

A second similar hoard was found later in the same year from a spot just couple of meters away from the site of the first discovery and is now preserved in Cairo Museum. There are numerous other worth observed web sites in Bubastis or Bastet , the ancient ruins of Egypt like the Cat Necropolis, where many bronze statues of cats had been found in a series of rooms under the ground throughout its exploration. Also this site contains a destroyed palace dated back to the Middle Kingdom, the New Kingdom Burials, the Ruins of Bastet temple and many other magnificent monuments.

* This write-up is written after the study produced by Mohammed Mamdouh from Egypt as a symbol of dedication to this site.

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