Bubastis

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Bubastis

Bubastis or Egyptian

Egyptian language

Egyptian is a branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages language family along with the Chadic languages, Berber languages, Semitic languages, Cushitic languages and possibly Omotic languages languages....
Per-Bast was an Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
ian city, the capital of its own nome

Nome (Egypt)

A nome was a subnational administrative division of ancient Egypt. Today's use of the Greek nome rather than the Egyptian language term sepat came about during the Ptolemaic Egypt period....
, located along the River Nile

Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the List of rivers by length in the world.The Nile has two major tributary, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and silt, but the former being the longer of the two....
in the Delta

Nile Delta

The Nile Delta is the River delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas?from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline?and is a rich agricultural region....
region of Lower Egypt

Lower Egypt

Lower Egypt is the northern-most section of Egypt. It refers to the Fertile Crescent Nile Delta region, which stretches from the area between El-Aiyat and Zawyet Dahshur, south of modern-day Cairo, and the Mediterranean Sea....
. Bubastis is often identified with Phibeseth ("house of Bastet") of the Bible

Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
.

History
Bubastis served as the capital of the nome
Nome (Egypt)

A nome was a subnational administrative division of ancient Egypt. Today's use of the Greek nome rather than the Egyptian language term sepat came about during the Ptolemaic Egypt period....
of Am-Khent, the Bubastite nome, the 18th nome of Lower Egypt

Lower Egypt

Tanis

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Encyclopedia

Bubastis or Egyptian

Egyptian language

Ancient Egypt

Nome (Egypt)

Nile

Nile Delta

Lower Egypt

Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
.

History

Bubastis served as the capital of the nome
Nome (Egypt)

A nome was a subnational administrative division of ancient Egypt. Today's use of the Greek nome rather than the Egyptian language term sepat came about during the Ptolemaic Egypt period....
of Am-Khent, the Bubastite nome, the 18th nome of Lower Egypt

Lower Egypt

Tanis

The word Tanis has a number of meanings:* Tanis - An alternative metal group from Baton Rouge, Louisiana* Tanis Diena - A Latvian pig festival...
, upon the eastern side of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile. The nome and city of Bubastis were allotted to the Calasirian division of the Egyptian war-caste.

It became a royal residence after Shoshenq I

Shoshenq I

Hedjkheperre Setepenre Shoshenq I , also known as Shishak, Sheshonk or Sheshonq I , was a Meshwesh Pharaoh of History of Ancient Egypt--of Ancient Libya ancestry--and the founder of the Twenty-second dynasty of Egypt....
, the first ruler of the 22nd dynasty

Twenty-second dynasty of Egypt

The Twenty-First, Twenty-Second, Twenty-Third, Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Third Intermediate Period....
, became pharaoh

Pharaoh

Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt, only during the New Kingdom, specifically, during the middle of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt....
in 943 BC. Bubastis was at its height during this dynasty and the 23rd

Twenty-third dynasty of Egypt

The Twenty-third Dynasty of ancient Egypt was a separate regime of Meshwesh Berber people Pharaoh, who ruled ancient Egypt. This dynasty is often considered part of the Third Intermediate Period....
. It declined after the Persian

Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
conquest by Cambyses II in 525 BC, which heralded the end of the Saite 26th dynasty

Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt

The Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt was the last native dynasty to rule Ancient Egypt before the History of Persian Egypt in 525 BC Before Christ ....
and the start of the Achaemenid dynasty.

The Twenty Second Dynasty of Egyptian monarchs consisted of nine, or, according to Eusebius of three Bubastite kings, and during their reigns the city was one of the most considerable places in the Delta. Immediately to the south of Bubastis were the allotments of land with which Psammetichus

Psammetichus

Psammetichus or Psamtik was the name of three Ancient Egypt pharaohs of the 26th Saite Dynasty.Psamtik was also a fictional name of one of the GTVA capital warships in the computer game FreeSpace 2....
rewarded the services of his Ionian

Ionians

The Ionians were one of the three populations into which the ancient Greeks considered the population of Hellenes to have been divided."Ionian" with reference to populations had two senses in Classical Greece....
and Carian mercenaries; and on the northern side of the city commenced the Great Canal which Pharaoh Necho II

Necho II

Necho II was a king of the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt , and the son of Psammetichus I by his Great Royal Wife Mehtenweskhet. His prenomen or royal name Wahemibre means "Carrying out the Wish of Ra Forever." Necho played a significant role in the histories of the Assyrian Empire, Babylonia and the Kingdom of Judah....
constructed between the Nile and the Red Sea

Red Sea

The Red Sea is a salt water inlet of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb sound and the Gulf of Aden....
. After Bubastis was taken by the Persians, its walls were dismantled. From this period it gradually declined, although it appears in ecclesiastical annals among the episcopal see

Episcopal See

An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral....
s of the province Augustamnica Secunda. Bubastite coins of the age of Hadrian

Hadrian

Publius Aelius Hadrianus , as emperor Imperator Caesar Divi Traiani filius Traianus Hadrianus Augustus, and Divus Hadrianus after his apotheosis, known as Hadrian in English language, was Roman Emperor of Roman Empire from AD 117 to 138, as well as a Stoicism and Epicureanism philosopher....
exist.

The following is the description which Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
gives of Bubastis, as it appeared shortly after the period of the Persian invasion, 525 BC, and Hamilton remarks that the plan of the ruins remarkably warrants the accuracy of this historical eye-witness.

"Temples there are more spacious and costlier than that of Bubastis, but none so pleasant to behold. It is after the following fashion. Except at the entrance, it is surrounded by water: for two canals branch off from the river, and run as far as the entrance to the temple: yet neither canal mingles with the other, but one runs on this side, and the other on that. Each canal is a hundred feet wide, and its banks are lined with trees. The propylaea are sixty feet in height, and are adorned with sculptures (probably intaglios in relief) nine feet high, and of excellent workmanship. The Temple being in the middle of the city is looked down upon from all sides as you walk around; and this comes from the city having been raised, whereas the temple itself has not been moved, but remains in its original place. Quite round the temple there goes a wall, adorned with sculptures. Within the inclosure is a grove of fair tall trees, planted around a large building in which is the effigy (of Bast). The form of that temple is square, each side being a stadium in length. In a line with the entrance is a road built of stone about three stadia long, leading eastwards through the public market. The road is about broad, and is flanked by exceeding tall trees. It leads to the temple of Hermes."

Religion

Bubastis was a center of worship for the feline goddess Bast

Bast (goddess)

In Ancient Egyptian religion, Bast is an ancient solar and war goddess, worshipped at least since the Second dynasty of Egypt. In the late dynasties, the priests of Amun began to call her Bastet, a repetitive and diminutive form after her role in the pantheon became diminished as Sekhmet, a similar lioness war deity, became more domin...
(also called Bastet (emphasising the feminine ending t), or even Bubastis (after the city)), which the ancient Greeks identified with Artemis

Artemis

In Greek mythology, Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the Hellenic goddess of forests and hills, child birth/virginity/fertility, the hunt and was often depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows.....
. The cat

Cat

The cat , also known as the Domestication cat or house cat to distinguish it from other Felinae and Felidae, is a small predationy carnivore species of crepuscular mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and its ability to hunt vermin, snakes, scorpions, and other unwanted household pests....
was the sacred

Cats in ancient Egypt

Cats , known in Ancient Egypt as the miw, played a large role in ancient Egyptian society. Beginning as a wild, feral cat, cats were useful for keeping down vermin populations in the Egyptians' Agriculture#Ancient_origins; through exposure to humans, the cat population became domestication over time and learned to coexist with the...
and peculiar animal of Bast, who is represented with the head of a cat or a lion

Lion

The lion is a member of the family Felidae and one of four big cats in the genus Panthera. With exceptionally large males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger....
ess and frequently accompanies the deity Ptah

Ptah

In Egyptian mythology, Ptah was the deification of the primordial mound in the Ennead cosmogony, which was more literally referred to as Ta-tenen , meaning risen land, or as Tanen, meaning submerged land....
in monumental inscriptions. The tombs at Bubastis were accordingly the principal depository in Egypt of the mummies of the cat.

The most distinguished features of the city and nome of Bubastis were its oracle of Bast, the splendid temple of that goddess and the annual procession in honor of her. The oracle gained in popularity and importance after the influx of Greek settlers into the Delta, since the identification of Bast with Artemis attracted to her shrine both native Egyptians and foreigners.

The festival of Bubastis was the most joyous and gorgeous of all in the Egyptian calendar as described by Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
:

Barges and river craft of every description, filled with men and women, floated leisurely down the Nile. The men played on pipes of lotus. the women on cymbals and tambourines, and such as had no instruments accompanied the music with clapping of hands and dances, and other joyous gestures. Thus did they while on the river: but when they came to a town on its banks, the barges were made fast, and the pilgrims disembarked, and the women sang, playfully mocked the women of that town and threw their clothes over their head. When they reached Bubastis, then held they a wondrously solemn feast: and more wine of the grape was drank in those days than in all the rest of the year. Such was the manner of this festival: and, it is said, that as many as seven hundred thousand pilgrims have been known to celebrate the Feast of Bast at the same time.

Ruins

Its ruins are near the modern city of Zagazig

Zagazig

Zagazig , is a town of Lower Egypt, in the eastern part of the Nile delta, and is the capital of the province of Sharqia Governorate.As of 1999, its population was approximately 279,000....
. There were archaeological expeditions to the ruins in 1886, 1887, and 1906, the last of which uncovered a 6th dynasty

Sixth dynasty of Egypt

The Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Dynasties of History of Egypt are often combined under the title "Old Kingdom"....
chapel and an 8th century BC temple.

The ruins attest the original magnificence of the city. The entire circuit of the walls is, according to Hamilton (p. 367) not less than three miles (5 km) in extent. Within the principal inclosure, where there has been the greatest accumulation of the ruins of successive edifices, is a large pile of granite-blocks which appear, from their forms and sculptures, to have belonged to numerous obelisks and gigantic propyla. The mounds which encompassed the ancient city were originally begun by Sesostris

Sesostris

Sesostris was the name of a legendary king of ancient Egypt who led a military expedition into parts of Europe, as related by Herodotus....
and completed by the Ethiopian invader Sabakos, who employed criminals upon these and similar works. The mounds were intended to redeem and rescue the site of the city, and possibly its gardens and groves, from the inundations of the Nile. From the general aspect of the ruins, and from the description given of it by Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
(ii. 138), they appear to have been raised concentrically around the temples of Bast and Hermes

Hermes

Hermes is the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology. An Twelve Olympians, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of thieves and road travelers, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures, of invention, of general commerce, and of the cunni...
, so that the whole place resembled the interior of an inverted cone. The only permanent buildings in Bubastis seem to have been the temples and the granite walls and corridors.

Traditions/Symbols

The people of the Bubastis tribe would often wear gold earrings, copying their feline deity who was known for said act. The symbols of the Bubastis are cats, crescent moons, music, dance, and baskets.

In popular culture

The Egyptian-themed superhero Ozymandias
Ozymandias (comics)

Ozymandias is a fictional character appearing in the comic book limited series Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, published by DC Comics....
from the graphic novel Watchmen
Watchmen

Watchmen is a twelve-issue comic book limited series created by writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colorist John Higgins . The series was published by DC Comics during 1986 and 1987, and has been subsequently reprinted in collected form....
has a genetically engineered lynx companion named Bubastis.