Bubastis (Bohairic Coptic: Poubasti; Greek: Boubastis or Boubastos), also known in Arabic as Tell-Basta or in Egyptian as Per-Bast, was an ancient Egyptian city. Bubastis is often identified with the biblical Pi-Beseth ( py-bst, Ezekiel 30:17). It was the capital of its own nome, located along the River Nile in the Delta region of Lower Egypt, and notable as a center of worship for the feline goddess Bastet, and therefore the principal depository in Egypt of mummies of cats.
Its ruins are located in the suburbs of the modern city of Zagazig.
The name of Bubastis in Egyptian is , conventionally pronounced Per-Bast but its Earlier Egyptian pronunciation can be reconstructed as /ÃÂpaþu-buÃÂÃÂistit/. It is a compound of Egyptian (âÂÂhouse") and the name of the goddess Bastet; thus the phrase means "House of Bast". In later forms of Egyptian, sound shifts had altered the pronunciation. In Bohairic Coptic, the name is rendered , or .
Bubastis was centered on the Temple of Bastet (Pr-Bast; House of Bastet).
The Cult of Bastet worshipping the feline goddess Bastet developed and the city was sometimes called Bubastis after the city, who the Greeks identified with Artemis. Prior to the 1st millennium BCE, Bastet was alway depicted as a lioness (cf. lioness goddesses such as Sekhmet and Shesmetet), later she became associated with the cat.http://www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/tell-basta-bubastis/ The cat was the sacred and peculiar animal of Bast, who is represented with the head of a cat or a lioness and frequently accompanies the deity Ptah 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 considered the most joyous and gorgeous of all in the Egyptian calendar as described by Herodotus:
Bubastis served as the capital of the nome of Am-Khent, the 18th nome of Lower Egypt. Bubastis was situated southwest of Tanis, upon the eastern side of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile.
Situated on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile and near the entrance to the Wadi Tumilat, the city was a vital hub for trade and military expeditions heading toward the Sinai Peninsula and the Levant. The area was a dynamic riverine landscape with constantly changing hydrography. The water canals around the Temple of Bastet were part of the sacred landscape.https://www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/tell-basta-bubastis/sites-projects/project-geoarchaeology-landscape-reconstruction/
The settlement began at the end of the 4th millennium BCE.https://www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/tell-basta-bubastis/
In the 2nd Dynasty, the Cult of Bastet is known from the reign of Hotepsekhemwy (2850 BCE).https://www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/tell-basta-bubastis/ In a later account by the Greek historian Manetho, it's stated that a "chasm opened near Bubastis and many perished" during the reign of Hotepsekhemwy in the Second Dynasty.
During the 4th Dynasty (2670âÂÂ2500 BCE), the Western Kom remained the centre of the settlement and a governor's palace was built there.https://www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/tell-basta-bubastis/sites-projects/#:~:text=In%20the%20Middle%20Kingdom%2C%20a,the%20east%20of%20the%20palace. The governor's palace seem to have been abandoned during the 5th dynasty.
There were two temples for the worship of the royal Ka of the rulers Teti and Pepi I in the 6th Dynasty (2350âÂÂ2198 BCE).https://www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/tell-basta-bubastis/sites-projects/#:~:text=In%20the%20Middle%20Kingdom%2C%20a,the%20east%20of%20the%20palace.
The great Temple of Bastet seen today is largely from later periods, but reused blocks and archaeological strata indicate that Middle Kingdom pharaohs (including Amenemhat I and Senusret III) contributed to or renovated the existing sanctuary.
In the 12th Dynsaty, a large palace for the governors of Bubastis (16,000 sqm) was built on the northern part of the Northern Kom. There was a cemetery to the east of the palace.https://www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/tell-basta-bubastis/sites-projects/#:~:text=In%20the%20Middle%20Kingdom%2C%20a,the%20east%20of%20the%20palace. It has been thought to be a residence of Amenemhat III. A limestone lintel shows the king during his Heb Sed Festival.
In the Second Intermediate Period, the transitional phase between the Middle Kingdom (MBA) and New Kingdom (LBA), Bubastis was still active. At Bubastis, a red granite architrave belonged to Sekhemre Khutawy Khabaw. In another monument found at Tanis, he is mentioned along with Hor.
During the New Kingdom, Bubastis served as the capital of the 18th Lower Egyptian nome (Am-Khent), acting as a vital military and trade gateway between the Nile Delta and the Sinai Peninsula.
It became a royal residence after Shoshenq I, the first ruler and founder of the 22nd Dynasty, became pharaoh in 943 BC. Bubastis was its height during this dynasty and the 23rd. It declined after the conquest by Cambyses II in 525 BC, which heralded the end of the Saite 26th Dynasty and the start of the Achaemenid Empire.
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 Psamtik I rewarded the services of his Ionian and Carian mercenaries; and on the northern side of the city commenced the Canal of the Pharaohs, which Pharaoh Necho II began (but never finished) to go between the Nile and the Red Sea.
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 sees of the province Augustamnica Secunda. Bubastite coins of the age of Hadrian exist. The following is the description which Herodotus 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:
The nome and city of Bubastis were allotted to the Calasirian division of the Egyptian war-caste.
Extant documents mention the names of three Christian bishops of Bubastis of the 4th and 5th centuries:
The tomb of the late New Kingdom vizier Iuty was discovered in December 1964 in the "Cemetery of the Nobles" of Bubastis by the Egyptian archaeologist Shafik Farid.
Since 2008, the German-Egyptian "Tell Basta Project" has been conducting excavations at Bubastis. Previously, in March 2004, a well preserved copy of the Decree of Canopus was discovered in the city.