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51-479: Its ruins are located in the suburbs of the modern city of Zagazig . The name of Bubastis in Egyptian is Pr-Bȝst.t , conventionally pronounced Per-Bast but its Earlier Egyptian pronunciation can be reconstructed as /ˈpaɾu-buˈʀistit/. It is a compound of Egyptian pr (“house") and the name of the goddess Bastet ; thus the phrase means "House of Bast". In later forms of Egyptian, sound shifts had altered

102-569: A volcanic eruption in the 1st century CE, and its uncovered ruins are now preserved as a World Heritage Site . The city of Lisbon in Portugal was also completely destroyed in 1755 by a massive earthquake and tsunami ; and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake in the United States had left the city in almost complete ruin. Apart from acts of war, some important historic buildings have fallen victim to deliberate acts of destruction as

153-583: A consequence of social, political and economic factors. The spoliation of public monuments in Rome was under way during the fourth century, when it was covered in protective legislation in the Theodosian Code and in new legislation of Majorian . The dismantling increased once popes were free of imperial restrictions. Marble was still being burned for agricultural lime in the Roman Campagna into

204-458: A cultural elite, as examples for a consciously revived and purified architecture all' antica , and for a new aesthetic appreciation of their innate beauty as objects of venerable decay. The chance discovery of Nero's Domus Aurea at the turn of the sixteenth century, and the early excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii had marked effects on current architectural styles, in Raphael's Rooms at

255-536: A feminine ending but usually was not pronounced, and the aleph ꜣ ( [REDACTED] ) may have moved to a position before the accented syllable, ꜣbst . By the first millennium, then, bꜣstt would have been something like *Ubaste (< *Ubastat ) in Egyptian speech, later becoming Coptic Oubaste . The name is rendered in Phoenician as 𐤀𐤁𐤎𐤕, romanized: ’bst, or 𐤁𐤎𐤕, romanized: bst. What

306-555: A gentle cat, and settled in the temple. At the Bubastis temple, some cats were found to have been mummified and buried, many next to their owners. More than 300,000 mummified cats were discovered when Bastet's temple was excavated . Turner and Bateson suggest that the status of the cat was roughly equivalent to that of the cow in modern India . The death of a cat might leave a family in great mourning and those who could, would have them embalmed or buried in cat cemeteries—pointing to

357-674: A later account by the Greek historian Manetho , it's stated that a "chasm opened near Bubastis and many perished" during the reign of Hotepsekhemwy in the Second Dynasty . In the Middle Kingdom, Tell Basta was the site of a large mudbrick palace (16,000 sqm) dated to the Twelfth Dynasty. It has been thought to be a residence of Amenemhat III . A limestone lintel shows the king during his Heb Sed Festival . Following

408-461: A more direct result, such as the case of Beverston Castle , in which the English parliament ordered significant destruction of the castle to prevent it being used by opposition Royalists . Ireland has encouraged the ruin of grand Georgian houses, seen as symbols of Britain. As a rule, towers built of steel are dismantled, when not used any more, because their construction can be either rebuilt on

459-504: A new site or if the state of construction does not allow a direct reuse, the metal can be recycled economically. However, sometimes tower basements remain, because their removal can be expensive. One example of such a basement is the basement of the former radio mast of Deutschlandsender Herzberg/Elster . The basements of large wooden towers such as Transmitter Ismaning may also be left behind, because removing them would be difficult. The contemplation of " rust belt " post-industrial ruins

510-450: A number of lioness goddesses, who are said to represent one original goddess, Bastet, Mut , Tefnut , Hathor , and Sakhmet , and came to be associated with sun gods such as Horus and Ra as well as the Eye of Ra . Each of them had to be appeased by a specific set of rituals. One myth relates that a lioness, fiery and wrathful, was once cooled down by the water of the lake, transformed into

561-399: A number of major cities around the world – such as Beirut , Kabul , Sarajevo , Grozny , and Baghdad – have been partially or completely ruined in recent years as a result of more localized warfare. Entire cities have also been ruined, and some occasionally lost completely, to natural disasters . The ancient Roman city of Pompeii in modern-day Italy was completely destroyed during

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612-488: A wondrously solemn feast: and more wine of the grape was drank in those days than in all the rest of the year. Such was the manner of this festival: and, it is said, that as many as seven hundred thousand pilgrims have been known to celebrate the Feast of Bast at the same time. Extant documents mention the names of three Christian bishops of Bubastis of the 4th and 5th centuries: The tomb of the late New Kingdom vizier Iuty

663-502: Is after the following fashion. Except at the entrance, it is surrounded by water: for two canals branch off from the river, and run as far as the entrance to the temple: yet neither canal mingles with the other, but one runs on this side, and the other on that. Each canal is a hundred feet wide, and its banks are lined with trees. The propylaea are sixty feet in height, and are adorned with sculptures (probably intaglios in relief) nine feet high, and of excellent workmanship. The Temple being in

714-625: Is in its infancy. In the Middle Ages Roman ruins were inconvenient impediments to modern life, quarries for pre-shaped blocks for building projects, or marble to be burnt for agricultural lime, and subjects for satisfying commentaries on the triumph of Christianity and the general sense of the world's decay, in what was assumed to be its last age, before the Second Coming . With the Renaissance , ruins took on new roles among

765-584: Is known today as Zagazig . The town, known in Egyptian as pr-bꜣstt (also transliterated as Per-Bastet ), carries her name, literally meaning House of Bastet . It was known in Greek as Boubastis ( Βούβαστις ) and translated into Hebrew as Pî-beset , spelled without the initial t sound of the last syllable. In the biblical Book of Ezekiel 30:17, the town appears in the Hebrew form Pibeseth . Herodotus , an ancient Greek historian who traveled in Egypt in

816-401: Is most commonly adopted by Egyptologists today because of its use in later dynasties, is a modern convention offering one possible reconstruction. In early Egyptian hieroglyphs , her name appears to have been bꜣstt . James Peter Allen vocalizes the original form of the name as buʔístit or buʔístiat , with ʔ representing a glottal stop . In Middle Egyptian writing, the second t marks

867-406: Is square, each side being a stadium in length. In a line with the entrance is a road built of stone about three stadia long, leading eastwards through the public market. The road is about 400 feet (120 m) broad, and is flanked by exceeding tall trees. It leads to the temple of Hermes. Bubastis was a center of worship for the feline goddess Bastet , sometimes called Bubastis after the city, who

918-411: Is the concept that a building be designed such that if it eventually collapsed, it would leave behind aesthetically pleasing ruins that would last far longer without any maintenance at all. Joseph Michael Gandy completed for Sir John Soane in 1832 an atmospheric watercolor of the architect's vast Bank of England rotunda as a picturesquely overgrown ruin, that is an icon of Romanticism . Ruinenwert

969-468: The Greeks identified with Artemis . The cat was the sacred and peculiar animal of Bast, who is represented with the head of a cat or a lioness and frequently accompanies the deity Ptah in monumental inscriptions. The tombs at Bubastis were accordingly the principal depository in Egypt of the mummies of the cat . The most distinguished features of the city and nome of Bubastis were its oracle of Bast,

1020-576: The New Kingdom and later eras began referring to her with an additional feminine suffix , as Bastet . The name change is thought to have been added to emphasize pronunciation of the ending t sound, often left silent. Cats in ancient Egypt were highly revered, partly due to their ability to combat vermin such as mice, rats (which threatened key food supplies), and snakes—especially cobras . Cats of royalty were, in some instances, known to be dressed in golden jewelry and were allowed to eat from

1071-530: The Ptolemaic Dynasty that lasted almost 300 years. The Greeks sometimes equated Bastet with one of their goddesses, Artemis . Bastet was depicted by Egyptians with the head of a cat and the slender body of a woman. Sometimes, Bastet was venerated as just a cat head. Bastet was a local deity whose religious sect was centered in the city in the Nile Delta later named Bubastis . It lay near what

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1122-484: The goddess of protection against contagious diseases and evil spirits . Bastet first appears in the third millennium BCE, where she is depicted as either a fierce lioness or a woman with the head of a lioness. Two thousand years later, during the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt ( c.  1070 –712 BC), Bastet began to be depicted as a domestic cat or a cat-headed woman. Scribes of

1173-464: The 20th century, a number of European historic buildings fell into ruin as a result of taxation policies, which required all structures with roofs to pay substantial property tax . The owners of these buildings, like Fetteresso Castle (now restored) and Slains Castle in Scotland , deliberately destroyed their roofs in protest at, and defiance of, the new taxes. Other decrees of government have had

1224-525: The Nile. The men played on pipes of lotus. the women on cymbals and tambourines, and such as had no instruments accompanied the music with clapping of hands and dances, and other joyous gestures. Thus did they while on the river: but when they came to a town on its banks, the barges were made fast, and the pilgrims disembarked, and the women sang, playfully mocked the women of that town and threw their clothes over their head. When they reached Bubastis, then held they

1275-404: The Twelfth Dynasty, the Middle Kingdom faded out. At Bubastis, a red granite architrave belonged to Sekhemre Khutawy Khabaw . In another monument found at Tanis, he is mentioned along with Hor . It became a royal residence after Shoshenq I , the first ruler and founder of the 22nd Dynasty , became pharaoh in 943 BC. Bubastis was its height during this dynasty and the 23rd . It declined after

1326-824: The Vatican and in neoclassical interiors , respectively. The new sense of historicism that accompanied neoclassicism led some artists and designers to conceive of the modern classicising monuments of their own day as they would one day appear as ruins. In the period of Romanticism ruins (mostly of castles ) were frequent object for painters, place of meetings of romantic poets, nationalist students etc. (e.g. Bezděz Castle in Bohemia , Hambach Castle in Germany, Devin Castle in Slovakia). Ruin value ( German : Ruinenwert )

1377-583: The central focus of armed conflict and would be sacked and ruined in defeat. Delhi , the capital of India , has been destroyed and ransacked seven to ten times and subsequently rebuilt. Every ruler decided to build the city in their own way either overlapping the ruins or next to the ruins. Ruins of seven cities of Delhi can still be traced in the modern-day city. Although less central to modern conflict, vast areas of 20th-century cities such as Warsaw , Dresden , Coventry , Stalingrad , Königsberg , and Berlin were left in ruins following World War II , and

1428-416: The city's level has been raised, but that of the temple has been left as it was from the first, so that it can be seen into from without. A stone wall, carven with figures, runs round it; within is a grove of very tall trees growing round a great shrine, wherein is the image of the goddess; the temple is a square, each side measuring a furlong . A road, paved with stone, of about three furlongs' length leads to

1479-610: The conquest by Cambyses II in 525 BC, which heralded the end of the Saite 26th Dynasty and the start of the Achaemenid Empire . The Twenty Second Dynasty of Egyptian monarchs consisted of nine, or, according to Eusebius of three Bubastite kings, and during their reigns the city was one of the most considerable places in the Delta. Immediately to the south of Bubastis were the allotments of land with which Psamtik I rewarded

1530-448: The day of her festival, the town was said to have attracted some 700,000 visitors, both men and women (but not children), who arrived in numerous crowded ships. The women engaged in music, song, and dance on their way to the place. Great sacrifices were made and prodigious amounts of wine were drunk—more than was the case throughout the year. This accords well with Egyptian sources that prescribe that lioness goddesses are to be appeased with

1581-551: The entrance, running eastward through the market place, towards the temple of Hermes ; this road is about 400 feet wide, and bordered by trees reaching to heaven. This description by Herodotus and several Egyptian texts suggest that water surrounded the temple on three (out of four) sides, forming a type of lake known as isheru , not too dissimilar from that surrounding the temple of the mother goddess Mut in Karnak at Thebes . These lakes were typical components of temples devoted to

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1632-412: The fifth century BCE, describes Bastet's temple at some length: Save for the entrance, it stands on an island; two separate channels approach it from the Nile, and after coming up to the entry of the temple, they run round it on opposite sides; each of them a hundred feet wide, and overshadowed by trees. The temple is in the midst of the city, the whole circuit of which commands a view down into it; for

1683-548: The great prevalence of the cult of Bastet. Extensive burials of cat remains were found not only at Bubastis, but also at Beni Hasan and Saqqara . In 1888, a farmer uncovered a burial site of many hundreds of thousands of cats in Beni Hasan . Herodotus also relates that of the many solemn festivals held in Egypt, the most important and most popular one was that celebrated in Bubastis in honor of this goddess. Each year on

1734-416: The middle of the city is looked down upon from all sides as you walk around; and this comes from the city having been raised, whereas the temple itself has not been moved, but remains in its original place. Quite round the temple there goes a wall, adorned with sculptures. Within the inclosure is a grove of fair tall trees, planted around a large building in which is the effigy (of Bast). The form of that temple

1785-400: The moon". Bastet was also a goddess of pregnancy and childbirth, possibly because of the fertility of the domestic cat. Images of Bastet were often created from alabaster . The goddess was sometimes depicted holding a ceremonial sistrum in one hand and an aegis in the other—the aegis usually resembling a collar or gorget , embellished with a lioness head. Bastet was also depicted as

1836-447: The name as a nisba construction from a place name "Baset" ( bꜣst ) with the meaning "she of bꜣst ". Bastet was originally a fierce lioness warrior goddess of the sun , worshipped throughout most of ancient Egyptian history. Later she became the cat goddess that is familiar today. She was then depicted as the daughter of Ra and Isis , and the consort of Ptah , with whom she had a son, Maahes . As protector of Lower Egypt , she

1887-424: The name of the goddess means remains uncertain. Names of ancient Egyptian deities often were represented as references to associations or with euphemisms, being cult secrets. One recent suggestion by Stephen Quirke ( Ancient Egyptian Religion ) explains Bastet as meaning, "She of the ointment jar". This ties in with the observation that her name was written with the hieroglyph for ointment jar ( bꜣs ) and that she

1938-527: The nineteenth century. In Europe, many religious buildings suffered as a result of the politics of the day. In the 16th century, the English monarch Henry VIII set about confiscating the property of monastic institutions in a campaign which became known as the Dissolution of the Monasteries . Many abbeys and monasteries fell into ruin when their assets, including lead roofs, were stripped. In

1989-574: The plates of their owners. Dennis C. Turner and Patrick Bateson estimate that during the Twenty-second Dynasty ( c.  945–715 BC ), Bastet worship changed from being a lioness deity into being predominantly a major cat deity. Because domestic cats tend to be tender and protective of their offspring, Bastet was also regarded as a good mother and sometimes was depicted with numerous kittens . The native Egyptian rulers were replaced by Greeks during an occupation of Ancient Egypt in

2040-514: The pronunciation. In Bohairic Coptic, the name is rendered Ⲡⲟⲩⲃⲁⲥϯ , Ⲡⲟⲩⲁⲥϯ or Ⲃⲟⲩⲁⲥϯ . Bubastis served as the capital of the nome of Am-Khent , the 18th nome of Lower Egypt . Bubastis was situated southwest of Tanis , upon the eastern side of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile. The nome and city of Bubastis were allotted to the Calasirian division of the Egyptian war-caste. In

2091-499: The province Augustamnica Secunda . Bubastite coins of the age of Hadrian exist. The following is the description which Herodotus gives of Bubastis, as it appeared shortly after the period of the Persian invasion, 525 BC, and Hamilton remarks that the plan of the ruins remarkably warrants the accuracy of this historical eye-witness: Temples there are more spacious and costlier than that of Bubastis, but none so pleasant to behold. It

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2142-582: The remains of a civilization 's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate destruction by humans, or uncontrollable destruction by natural phenomena . The most common root causes that yield ruins in their wake are natural disasters , armed conflict , and population decline , with many structures becoming progressively derelict over time due to long-term weathering and scavenging . There are famous ruins all over

2193-488: The ruined Dunnottar Castle in Scotland was used for filming of Hamlet . Bastet Bastet ( Ancient Egyptian : bꜣstt ), also known as Ubasti , or Bubastis , is a goddess of ancient Egyptian religion possibly of Nubian origin, worshipped as early as the Second Dynasty (2890 BC). In ancient Greek religion , she was known as Ailuros ( Koinē Greek : αἴλουρος , lit.   'cat'). Bastet

2244-627: The services of his Ionian and Carian mercenaries; and on the northern side of the city commenced the Canal of the Pharaohs , which Pharaoh Necho II began (but never finished) to go between the Nile and the Red Sea . After Bubastis was taken by the Persians, its walls were dismantled. From this period it gradually declined, although it appears in ecclesiastical annals among the episcopal sees of

2295-513: The splendid temple of that goddess and the annual procession in honor of her. The oracle gained in popularity and importance after the influx of Greek settlers into the Delta, since the identification of Bast with Artemis attracted to her shrine both native Egyptians and foreigners. The festival of Bubastis was considered the most joyous and gorgeous of all in the Egyptian calendar as described by Herodotus : Barges and river craft of every description, filled with men and women, floated leisurely down

2346-1050: The world, with notable sites originating from ancient China , the Indus Valley and other regions of ancient India , ancient Iran , ancient Israel and Judea , ancient Iraq , ancient Greece , ancient Egypt , ancient Yemen , Roman , ancient India sites throughout the Mediterranean Basin , and Incan and Mayan sites in the Americas . Ruins are of great importance to historians, archaeologists and anthropologists , whether they were once individual fortifications , places of worship , ancient universities , houses and utility buildings, or entire villages, towns, and cities. Many ruins have become UNESCO World Heritage Sites in recent years, to identify and preserve them as areas of outstanding value to humanity. Ancient cities were often highly militarized and had fortified defensive settlements . In times of war, they were

2397-495: Was associated with protective ointments, among other things. The name of the material known as alabaster might, through Greek, come from the name of the goddess. This association would have come about much later than when the goddess was a protective lioness goddess, however, and is useful only in deciphering the origin of the term, alabaster. B C D F G H I K M N P Q R S T U W James P. Allen instead derives

2448-684: Was discovered in December 1964 in the "Cemetery of the Nobles" of Bubastis by the Egyptian archaeologist Shafik Farid. Since 2008, the German-Egyptian "Tell Basta Project" has been conducting excavations at Bubastis. Previously, in March 2004, a well preserved copy of the Decree of Canopus was discovered in the city. Ruins Ruins (from Latin ruina  'a collapse') are

2499-599: Was popularized in the 20th century by Albert Speer while planning for the 1936 Summer Olympics and published as Die Ruinenwerttheorie ("The Theory of Ruin Value"). Ruins remain a popular subject for painting and creative photography and are often romanticized in film and literature, providing scenic backdrops or used as metaphors for other forms of decline or decay. For example, the ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle in England inspired Turner to create several paintings; in 1989

2550-480: Was seen as defender of the king , and consequently of the sun god, Ra. Along with other deities such as Hathor , Sekhmet, and Isis, Bastet was associated with the Eye of Ra . She has been depicted as fighting the evil snake named Apep , an enemy of Ra. In addition to her solar connections, she was also related to Wadjet , one of the oldest Egyptian goddesses from the Southern Delta who was dubbed "eye of

2601-466: Was worshipped in Bubastis in Lower Egypt , originally as a lioness goddess, a role shared by other deities such as Sekhmet . Eventually Bastet and Sekhmet were characterized as two aspects of the same goddess, with Sekhmet representing the powerful warrior and protector aspect, and Bastet, who increasingly was depicted as a cat , representing a gentler aspect. Bastet, the form of the name that

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