Bubastis

Underfoot, the ground is uneven. Low mounds of reddish earth rise and dip, and pale granite blocks lie scattered across them. Some lie on their sides. Some are broken clean across. A breeze comes off the surrounding farmland, and somewhere nearby a car horn sounds from the streets of Zagazig. This quiet field of stone was once one of the busiest religious cities in ancient Egypt.

You are standing at Bubastis, known today as Tell Basta. The word tell means a mound built up by centuries of human settlement, layer upon layer. The ancient Egyptians called this place Per-Bastet, the House of Bastet. The Greeks shortened that name to Bubastis. It sits in the eastern Nile Delta, the wide, flat, fertile fan of land where the river spreads out before it reaches the Mediterranean.

Bastet is the key to everything here. She was a goddess the Egyptians first pictured with the fierce head of a lioness. Over time, her image grew gentler. By later periods, she most often appeared as a cat, or as a woman with a cat's head. She was linked with protection, with the home, and with joy. This city was her main centre of worship, and her temple stood at its heart.

Here is the first surprise. We have an eyewitness description of this temple from about two and a half thousand years ago. The Greek traveller Herodotus visited Egypt in the fifth century BCE. He wrote that the temple of Bubastis was the most pleasing to look at of any he saw. He described it on lower ground than the city around it, so that people could look down into it from the streets.

Herodotus also said that water channels from the Nile ran around the sacred precinct, almost making it an island. Tall trees shaded the channels. Archaeologists working here have found evidence that matches his picture in broad terms. A sunken temple, surrounded by water and greenery, set below the houses of a crowded city... Try to imagine that scene as you look across the open ground today.

Herodotus left an even livelier account of the festival of Bastet. According to his report, pilgrims arrived by boat along the Nile. Men and women sailed together, singing, clapping, and playing flutes. When they passed towns on the riverbank, they called out to the people on shore. Once at Bubastis, they made great sacrifices, and he claimed more wine was drunk here in those days than in the rest of the year.

He even gave a number. He wrote that around seven hundred thousand people gathered, not counting children. Historians treat that figure with caution. It was likely what local people told him, not a careful count. But the point is clear. For a few days each year, this quiet field was full of music, food, and very large crowds. The festival was famous across Egypt.

The city is far older than Herodotus. Remains here reach back to the Old Kingdom, the era of the great pyramid builders more than four thousand years ago. Among the oldest structures is a small temple connected to King Pepi the First. Later rulers kept building. Blocks with the names of the pharaoh Ramesses the Second appear on site, although some of these stones were reused or moved here from other places.

The second surprise is about power. Around three thousand years ago, a family of pharaohs with Libyan ancestry rose to rule Egypt. Egyptologists call them the Twenty-Second Dynasty, and they are closely tied to Bubastis. One of them, Shoshenq the First, is often identified with the king Shishak in the Hebrew Bible. For a time, this Delta city stood close to the centre of Egyptian royal life.

One of these rulers, Osorkon the Second, built a grand festival hall at the temple. Carved scenes from it show royal ceremonies, and pieces of those reliefs now sit in museums around the world. In the late nineteenth century, the Swiss archaeologist Édouard Naville excavated the temple area. He recorded much of what remained before more stone was lost. Many of the granite fragments you see today come from that great temple complex.

The cats deserve their own moment. Because Bastet took the form of a cat, people brought mummified cats here as offerings. Archaeologists have found large cat cemeteries at Bubastis. Some cats were wrapped carefully in linen. Small bronze cat figures were also given to the goddess. Many of those figures are now in collections abroad. Here, on this ground, they were once gifts left by ordinary people asking for protection.

In the early twentieth century, workers building a railway line near the site uncovered a buried hoard of gold and silver vessels and jewellery. It became known as the Bubastis treasure. That find is a useful reminder about this place. Much of what happened here still lies under the soil, beneath the farmland and the modern city. The open-air area you walk through today shows only part of the ancient city.

Before you leave, stand still for a moment. Look at the nearest block of granite and notice the polished face, the tool marks, the places where the edge has chipped away. Then lift your eyes to the apartment buildings of Zagazig at the edge of the site. Pilgrims once came here by boat with music and wine. Today the ground is quiet, and the stones of Bastet's temple remain where they fell.