to Bubastis, “where they
hold festival celebrating
sacrifices, and more wine is
consumed upon that festival
than during the whole of the
rest of the year.”
After the Muslim con-
quest in the seventh centu-
ry, Bubastis was abandoned,
and the memory of its loca-
tion was lost for centuries.
To the French scholars who
accompanied Napoleon on
his 1798 expedition to Egypt,
Herodotus’s account served
as an inspiration to locate it.
One of these scholars,
Étienne-Louis Malus, spot-
ted features in the Nile Del-
ta mentioned by Herodo-
tus, and found ruins near-
by that he declared to be
Bubastis. Lying northeast
of Cairo, this site, known
as Tell Basta, became
the accepted spot where
Bastet’s city once stood.
As the discipline of Egyp-
tology expanded in the 19th
century, so did interest in
the site. During an 1843 visit
there, the English archaeolo-
gist John Gardner Wilkinson
lamented that Bubastis was
being damaged and that the
temple ruins had been quar-
ried for stone. Eventually, an
excavation was undertak-
en by Swiss Egyptologist
Édouard-Henri Naville in
1887, centered on studying
the Temple of Bastet.
In London the press av-
idly followed the latest dis-
coveries in Egypt. In 1887
the St. James’s Gazette re-
ported on a lecture given by
Édouard Naville on Bubas-
tis: “[He] ascertained that
the temple,which for a long
time had been considered as
hopelessly lost, not only ex-
isted in ruins but had already
yielded most interesting in-
scriptions... and believed
very valuable discoveries
would be made there.”
(Continued on page 94)BRIDGEMAN/ACITHE CAT GODDESS
Bastet is depicted
here with four
kittens at her feet,
symbolizing fertility.
She holds a festive
sistrum or rattle. This
bronze statue, which
dates from 900 to
600 B.C., was found at
Bubastis and is now
held at the British
Museum, London.
BRITISH MUSEUM/SCALA, FLORENCE“In [Bubastis] there is a temple very
well worthy of mention... none more
than this is a pleasure to the eyes.”
—Herodotus
THE SITE OF TELL BASTA IN A
DRAWING IN THE ILLUSTRATED
LONDON NEWS, 1887