Bubastis

(place of Bast, or Bastet) (Ezek. 30:17) — a city of Lower Egypt, so called after the goddess Bastet, depicted with the head of a cat and with a crescent moon on her head. The city lay on the Pelusiac branch of the river Nile. It was famed for a magnificent temple of Diana, to which masses of people streamed each year from all of Egypt, with music, singing, and dancing. The Persians took possession of the city and demolished its walls, and the locality on which the city stood afterward fell under the power of the Romans.

The ruins of Bubastis are found at present 7 English miles from the Nile and are called Tell Basta. This city is mentioned in the Bible only once, namely in the citation given above. The twenty-second dynasty of Egyptian kings reigned at Bubastis. Under one of them, namely Shishak, Jerusalem was taken, the Temple was plundered, and the famous golden shields of Solomon were carried off by the enemy to adorn the altars of the pagan goddess Bastet. The ruins of the once-famous temple in honor of Bastet are still visible today, along with other remains of the ancient city. A description of them may be read in the accounts of foreign travelers, such as, for example, Wilkinson and others.