Dedicated to Bastet, the Egyptian goddess who took the shape of a cat, the temple was built by Queen Berenice II, wife of Ptolemy III, Egypt’s pharaoh from 246–222 B.C.
In 2010, Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities announced that archaeologists had discovered the remains of a 2,200-year-old temple under the streets of modern-day Alexandria. Dedicated to Bastet, the Egyptian goddess who took the shape of a cat, the temple was built by Queen Berenice II, wife of Ptolemy III, Egypt’s pharaoh from 246–222 B.C. Cats were revered animals (and common house pets) in ancient Egypt; some 600 cat statues were found inside the temple, suggesting their veneration continued even during the Greek-speaking Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled Egypt from the arrival of Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. to the suicide of Egypt’s last ruler, Cleopatra, in A.D. 30.