Place · city

Bubastis

Also known as Tell Basta, Per-Bast

Bubastis was a city in the eastern Nile Delta, at Tell Basta near modern Zagazig, and the cult centre of the cat goddess Bastet. Libyan chiefs of the Meshwesh settled there, and their descendant Shoshenq I founded the Twenty-second Dynasty, whose kings enlarged its temple. Herodotus described its festival of Bastet as the most popular in Egypt, and many mummified cats were buried in its cemeteries.

Bubastis
Image: Einsamer Schütze · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 state history

Twenty-second Dynasty of Egypt

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Bubastis. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/bubastis
MLA
“Bubastis.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/bubastis. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Bubastis.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/bubastis.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Bubastis’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/bubastis (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻