A city of Egypt which is named with several others in Ezek. xxx :17. According to the Septu agint, which is followed by the Vulgate, it is the same with Bubastis, which was the principal town of the Nomos Bubastites (Min. Ilist. Nat. v. 9; Ptcl. iv. 5).
The name was derived from the goddess Bubastis (Copt. Pascht), whom the Greeks identi fied with their Artemis. A great festive pilgrim age was yearly made to her temple in this place by great numbers of people (Herod. ii .5-9). Bu bastis is described with unusual minuteness by Herodotus (ii. 137, 138) ; and Wilkinson assures us that the outlines of his account may still be verified. The city was taken by the Persians, who destroyed the walls (Diod. Sic. xvi. 51) ; but it was still a place of some consideration under the Romans. It was near Bubastis that the ca nal leading to Arsinoe (Suez) opened to the Nile (Herod. ii. 138) ; and although the mouth was afterwards often changed and taken more south ward, it has now returned to its first locality, as the present canal of Tel-el-Wadee commences in the vicinity of Tel Basta. This Tel Basta, which undoubtedly represents Bubastis, is in north lati tude 30° 36'; east longitude 31' 33'. The site is occupied by mounds of great extent, which con sist of the crude brick houses of the town, with the usual heaps of broken pottery. The temple, of which Herodotus states that, although others in Egypt were larger and more magnificent, none were more beautiful, is entirely destroyed; but the remaining stones, being of the finest red gran ite, confirm the historian's testimony. (Wilkin
son, Modern Egypt, i. 300, 427-429.) Dr. William G. Winslow says: "The most precious treasures revealed at Bubastis, when Naville's wand touched the mounds, arc the inscriptions of the XVlIIth dynasty and of the Hyksos monuments. Declared the proph et Ezekiel: The young men of Aven and of Pi-beseth (i. e., Bubastis) shall fall by the sword: and these cities shall go into captiv ity.' The name of Meneptah occurs several times upon the monuments: and the explorer also disinterred the first Hyksos statue ever found with the head-dress complete; and then another Hyksos statue. Near to the latter statue, now in the British Museum, was found the name that signifies his standard—Apepi—the last of the Hyksos kings, under whom Joseph entered Egypt. Bubastis adjoins what is now proved to have been 'the land of Goshen,' just where Jacob set tled; and Bubastis would be precisely where Jo seph's Pharaoh would reside, or, at least, often hold a court.
"Here is a remarkable coincidence: near to a statue that is in all probability that of Joseph's Pharaoh, is found one bearing the name Raian the name that Arah tradition assigns to that Pharaoh. From our scientific investigation, we can simply suppose that Dr. Naville has unearthed veritable statues of the renowned prime minister's sovereign; and we ask the significant question, Did Joseph's Pharaoh have the name Raian as well as Apepi, or did he flourish in his long life under two potentates? Every mound of Egypt is history in fragments, if not in complete form."