What You Don't Know About Popastes: The Sacred City of Cats in Ancient Egypt
The ancient Egyptians respected the animals that shared their world, but went far in respect to the extent of sanctification and worship, they linked many of them to the gods and positive human characteristics, however, no animal in ancient Egypt had a holy place as the old Egyptian cat, as cats in ancient Egypt were closely associated with the gods .
Why did the Egyptians worship cats?
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Cat worship in ancient Egypt originated from the fact that Egypt was primarily an agricultural society, where the ancient Egyptians faced a clear problem with rats, rats and snakes, which threatened grain and crop shops. They knew that wild cats could eliminate these animal pests, and soon they had to forgo those cats. She lived near human settlements in ancient Egypt, and these cats actually helped them avoid predators and others in exchange for feeding and caring for the population.Due to this symbiotic relationship, cats were welcome at home and became friendly to ancient Egyptians.
During the New Kingdom in Pharaonic Egypt, cats often appeared in the tombs of the human families with whom they lived, and people in ancient Egypt were filming hunting trips with their cats on the walls.These rosomes did not necessarily depict a normal hunting scene. The viewer points to the idea of (the regime's victory over chaos) where cats are portrayed as the ones who restrain or control a wild bird, act as the leader of the system, and also provide protection for family members.
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Of particular interest is the inscriptions that show the status of cats in ancient Egypt in the tomb of the tomb of Nab Amun in the cemetery of Thebes, located on the west bank of the Nile in ancient Thebes in Upper Egypt, where there are decorations of a cat's eye studded with gold (stuffed with pure gold) - It is the only part of the cemetery that has this effect - making the cat's eye as vibrant and reinforcing the sacred value of cats in ancient Egypt.
The ancient Egyptians did not distinguish between a domestic cat and a domesticated cat, so they identified all cats as "miut" - which translates to "meow".
The most famous cat gods of the ancient Egyptians were Bast or Bastet.
The city of Popastes
Evidence from ancient Egyptian texts made by European archaeologists during their long search for Popastes - the sacred city of Bastet in ancient Egypt -
In the southeast of the Egyptian city of Zagazig in modern times, red granite ruins lie in an ancient holy city that was once the goddess of the Bastet cat that was worshiped thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt, and reached its peak during the 22nd Dynasty, and the pharaohs built a wonderful temple in the city.
This city is referred to in some Scriptures such as the Gospel and is known by its Hebrew name Pi-beseth, but it is described as a pagan shrine that will be destroyed by God's wrath, while the city of cats is known by its Greek name Popastis to this day.
For thousands of years, this mysterious city captured the imagination of European archaeologists, especially in the nineteenth century, who flocked to the Nile Delta in Egypt in search of it.
These scholars were guided by interesting hints from ancient novels and legends. They wanted to find the city of Bastet, discover its great temple, and try to understand how sacred cats played an important role throughout the long history of ancient Egypt.
Found Babustat (Holy City of Cats)
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- One of the most important sources talking about the holy city of cats in ancient Egypt lies in one of the works of the well-known historian "Herodotus".
In the 5th century BC, during his tour in Egypt, the Greek historian Herod visited Popastes and Bastet, describing it as "a very good temple worth mentioning, because although there are other larger and more expensive temples in construction, nothing is pleasing. Eyes like this temple. "
Herod described the beauty of the Holy City and the hustle and bustle that accompanied travelers to the city by boat to hold festivals, where they held celebrations and made offerings, and people consumed more wine in those festivals than they consumed wine throughout the year.
In the 18th century, European researchers began to search for places mentioned in ancient texts. For French scientists who accompanied Napoleon on an expedition to Egypt in 1798, Herodotus' novel was an inspiration for its location.
One of the French scientists, "Etienne Louis Malos," monitored some of the characteristics of the city in the Nile Delta as mentioned by Herodotus, and found the rubble consistent with these old accounts, and declared that these ruins belong to Bobastes, which is located northeast of Cairo, and then this site Known as Tel Basta, a place that was once thought to be the city of Bastet.
With the expansion of Egyptology in the nineteenth century, interest in the site of the Holy City increased, and during a visit there in 1843, English archaeologist John Gardner Wilkinson regretted that Popastes had been damaged and that the ruins of the temple had been excavated from the stones. Excavation was carried out by Swiss Egyptologist Edouard Henry Naville in 1887, and the excavations focused on the study of the Bastet Temple.
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