CATS, THE ANIMAL THAT RULED THE LAND OF PHARAOHS

Throughout the history animals always played a crucial role in many aspects of human life, starting as a hunting partner, battling partner, farming partner, and sometimes ending like divine or royal creature. Egypt was no exception, like many other cultures, also in ancient Egypt many animals played important role in their life, as we got to see in hieroglyphs and in the ruins of ancient temples all over Egypt.

Many animals were valued because of their ability to contribute in the life of Egyptians, but cats were far more special, because of the belief that they were divine and magical creatures. As so, they were honored with dressing and feeding, like they were royalties,  and when cats died, Egyptians used to mummify them. An important fact for the mummification of cats is the city of Bubastis or Per-Bast, that represented the principal depository of mummified cats in the territory of ancient Egypt.

If we make a search into Egyptian mythology, we can find that Egyptians believed that god and goddesses had  the ability to transform themselves into different animals, and even there was a goddess named Bastet, that had the ability to transform into a cat.

Here are some pictures, showing the archeological findings and importance of cats in ancient Egypt: