Bubastis: the Sacred City of the Cats
Bubastis, known today as Tell Basta, is one of the most ancient and significant archaeological sites of the Nile Delta, the city sacred to the cat goddess Bastet. Located at the eastern entrance of the Delta, near the present-day city of Zagazig, Bubastis was for centuries one of the most important religious centres of ancient Egypt, famous for its grandiose festivities in honour of the goddess of cats, of joy, of dance and of fertility. Herodotus, who visited the city in the 5th century BC, described the temple of Bastet as the most beautiful in all of Egypt and its annual festival as the most animated and well-attended of the country.
Today the ruins of Bubastis extend over a vast tell (artificial hill) in the heart of modern Zagazig, offering the visitor a glimpse into one of the most fascinating and least known pages of Egyptian civilisation: the cult of sacred animals and the veneration of the cat as a divine creature.
History of Bubastis
The Origins
The history of Bubastis goes back to the Old Kingdom, with traces of occupation dated to the 4th dynasty (around 2600 BC). The Egyptian name of the city, Per-Bastet ("the House of Bastet"), reveals its sacred vocation from its very origins. The cult of the cat goddess Bastet was rooted in the city from the most remote times, and her main temple was the focus of local religious life.
During the Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom, the city grew in importance, benefiting from its strategic position at the crossroads of the commercial routes that connected the eastern Delta to Sinai and the Levant. The pharaohs of the 18th and 19th dynasties contributed to the enlargement of the temple, and several blocks with the cartouches of Ramesses II have been found at the site.
Capital of the 22nd Dynasty
The period of maximum splendour of Bubastis coincided with the 22nd dynasty (945-715 BC), when the city became the capital of Egypt under the pharaoh Shoshenq I. This sovereign of Libyan origin, identified with the biblical Shishak who sacked the temple of Jerusalem, transformed Bubastis into a centre of political and religious power of the first rank. The temple of Bastet was enlarged and embellished with new halls, colonnades and decorations, reaching dimensions and splendour never seen before.
The successors of Shoshenq continued to embellish the city, building halls for the royal jubilee (heb-sed), adding monumental gateways and dedicating statues and obelisks to the goddess Bastet. The city also became an important commercial centre, thanks to its position on the canals that connected the Nile to the Red Sea.
The Decline
With the end of the 22nd dynasty and the subsequent Assyrian, Persian and Ptolemaic dominations, Bubastis gradually lost its political importance. The cult of Bastet, however, continued to flourish and indeed intensified during the late and Graeco-Roman period, when the veneration of the sacred cats reached its apex. The site was finally abandoned in the Roman era and its ruins were gradually covered by the dust of the Delta.
The Cult of Bastet
The Cat Goddess
Bastet was originally a fierce lioness goddess, associated with war and the protection of the pharaoh. Over the course of the centuries, her iconography was progressively transformed from the lioness to the domestic cat, and her character became gentler, associated with joy, music, dance, fertility and the protection of the home. This evolution probably reflected the growing domestication of the cat in Egypt and its importance in daily life as a protector of the granaries from rodents.
The representations of Bastet show her as a woman with the head of a cat, often with a sistrum (musical instrument) in one hand and an aegis (ceremonial shield) in the other. Her votive statuettes in bronze, thousands of which have been found at Bubastis and at other sites, depict her as an elegant seated cat, sometimes with kittens at her feet or with gold earrings.
The Great Festival of Bastet
Herodotus left a vivid and fascinating description of the great annual festival of Bastet, which was held in the month of April or May. According to the Greek historian, up to 700,000 people converged on Bubastis for the celebration, travelling along the Nile on decorated boats. During the journey, the women played sistrums, the men flutes, and everyone sang and clapped their hands. Along the banks of the river, the boats stopped near the cities and the women provoked the inhabitants with jesting gestures and words.
Once they had arrived at Bubastis, the festivities included sacrifices, banquets, dances and the consumption of great quantities of wine. Herodotus noted that during this festival more wine was drunk than in all the rest of the year. The celebration was an explosion of joy and vitality that reflected the festive character of the goddess, and represented one of the most important moments of the Egyptian religious calendar.
The Cat Necropolis
One of the most peculiar aspects of the cult of Bastet was the veneration of cats as living incarnations of the goddess. The sacred cats were raised in the enclosures of the temple, cared for and venerated by the priests. At their death, they were mummified with great care and buried in special necropolises. The excavations at Bubastis and at other sites have brought to light thousands of cat mummies, a testimony to the diffusion and the intensity of this cult.
The cat necropolis of Bubastis, discovered in the 19th century, contained hundreds of thousands of feline mummies, many of which unfortunately destroyed or dispersed before they could be studied scientifically. The mummified cats were often accompanied by votive offerings and small decorated bronze sarcophagi.
The Archaeological Site Today
The Ruins of the Temple
The site of Tell Basta extends over a vast tell, today partly surrounded by the houses of modern Zagazig. The main ruins include the remains of the great temple of Bastet, identifiable thanks to the enormous blocks of pink granite scattered over a wide area. Among these blocks one can still distinguish reliefs with ritual scenes, royal cartouches and representations of the goddess.
The original layout of the temple, as described by Herodotus, provided for a sacred enclosure surrounded by artificial canals, with an access avenue flanked by trees that led to the central sanctuary. Today the foundations and architectural fragments remain which, with the help of an expert guide, allow one to imagine the original grandeur of the structure.
The Recent Discoveries
The excavations conducted by the Egyptian archaeological mission and by international teams have brought to light in recent decades new sectors of the site, among them parts of the jubilee hall of Osorkon II, one of the best-preserved structures of the complex. This hall, decorated with polychrome reliefs of notable artistic quality, shows scenes of the pharaoh celebrating his royal jubilee before the gods.
Practical Tips for the Visit
How to Get There
Bubastis (Tell Basta) is located on the south-eastern periphery of Zagazig, a city reachable from Cairo in about an hour and a half by car or train. The railway station of Zagazig is served by frequent trains from the central station of Cairo. From the centre of Zagazig, the site is reachable by taxi in a few minutes.
The Visit
The site is relatively extensive but flat. A thorough visit requires one or two hours. It is strongly advised to be accompanied by a local guide or to inform oneself beforehand about the layout of the site, since the ruins, without explanations, can prove difficult to read. There are no refreshment facilities at the site itself, but the cafés and restaurants of Zagazig are nearby.
What to Bring
Bring water, sun protection and a hat, since the site is exposed to the sun. Comfortable shoes are sufficient, since the terrain is relatively flat. An archaeological guide to Egypt is useful to contextualise the ruins.
Combining with Other Sites
The visit to Bubastis can be combined with Tanis (about 70 kilometres away) for a day dedicated to the archaeology of the Delta. The most important finds coming from Bubastis, including statues of Bastet and cat mummies, are exhibited at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo.
Bubastis is a site that deserves to be rediscovered, a place where the thousand-year history of Egypt intertwines with the most fascinating cult of antiquity: that of the cat, sacred creature, protector and companion of man since the dawn of civilisation. To visit Tell Basta means to immerse oneself in a world where the divine took on the elegant and mysterious form of the most beloved of domestic animals.
