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.
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.