Bubastis – Tell Basta (Cult of Bastet)
pr-bꜣst.t · Per-Bast · Bast · Tell Basta
Old Kingdom to Late Antiquity (4th Dyn – 4th c. CE)·Egyptian (Delta Libyan dynasties)·🇪🇬 Ash-Sharqiyah, Eastern Delta, Zagazig suburb, Egypt
About
About Bubastis – Tell Basta (Cult of Bastet)
Eastern Delta cult city of feline goddess Bastet, capital under 22nd (Libyan) Dynasty (Shoshenq I c.945 BCE). Herodotus 2.137 describes its festival as greatest in Egypt – 700,000 revelers, famed red granite Bastet temple on island with causeways, with extensive catacombs (cat cemeteries with 100k+ mummified cats). Later period Osorkon II festival hall with jubilee reliefs. Pillaged but tell remains 14 m high; modern Zagazig suburb encroaches. Red joins Avaris-Tanis-PiRamses Delta capital series.
Why it mattersPremier feline cult evidence; Osorkon jubilee iconography; cat mummy industry study; linked to biblical 'Pi-beseth' Ezekiel 30:17.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Exact Bastet statue cult image sanctuary locus on island
Theories
- 01Herodotus' 700k attendance hyperbole reflects multi-day pilgrimage census exaggeration
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- Early Dynastic; monumental Old Kingdom (Pepi I), Middle Kingdom, Osorkon II hall 872 BCE
- Period
- Old Kingdom to Late Antiquity (4th Dyn – 4th c. CE)
- Culture
- Egyptian (Delta Libyan dynasties)
- Purpose
- Bastet cult center, 22nd Dyn capital, festival and oracle town
- Abandoned
- c.300 BCE decline; 4th c. CE Christian closure of temple
- Rediscovered
- 1887–89 Édouard Naville Swiss excavations; 1960s– University of Zagazig
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
c.945 BCE
Shoshenq I makes Bubastis capital of Libyan 22nd Dyn
872 BCE
Osorkon II builds Festival Hall with Sed scenes
450 BCE
Herodotus visits and describes festival
1887
Naville clears Bastet temple and cat cemeteries
On the ground
Structures & features
30.5708° N · 31.5136° E · 12 m · 4 mapped features
Great Temple of Bastet (island)
templeRed granite columns and block pavement on artificial island
30.5710° N · 31.5140° EFestival Hall of Osorkon II
templeJubilee relief hall with dais
30.5705° N · 31.5130° ECat Catacombs (Bubasteion galleries)
catacombBurial galleries with 100k+ feline mummies
30.5700° N · 31.5120° ECemetery of Nobles (Middle Kingdom)
necropolisRock(?) pit graves and mastabas east of tell
30.5690° N · 31.5150° E
Gallery