Dr. Ahmed Budran, a professor of ancient Egyptian antiquities at Cairo University, said that the ancient Egyptians did not worship animals, but they revered certain qualities in animals such as courage, intelligence, strength and tenderness.
Badran said that ancient Egyptians did not sanctify all kinds of animals, but the choice was made on specific species through a group of scientists and priests, and when the conditions are met in that animal, the choice of that sacred animal is announced, and great celebrations are held in it’s temple.
He revealed the existence of about 16 sacred animals in ancient Egypt, including cow, crocodile, ibis (abo-erdan), monkey, lioness, cat, scorpion, bull, frog, eagle, falcon, hippo, ram, calf, dog (jackal) and cobra, pointing out that the embalming of animals in ancient Egypt began in the eighth century, which ended with the entry of the Romans into Egypt.
He explained that the ancient Egyptians devoted cemeteries to the burial of sacred animals, including the cemetery of Saqqara, which has graves for cats, dogs and falcons, and a cemetery in the mountain tuna in Menia, especially for the god (Thoth) buried by millions of monkeys (baboons), and Abu Mengel (Abu Qardan), as well as the cemetery of Tel Basta.
Badran noted that King Ramesses II domesticated a small lion that accompanied him in all his steps and followed him throughout his battles, as King Amenhotep III was proud to have killed 102 lions during the first ten years of his rule.
Badran explained that the kings in ancient Egypt were wearing leopard skin as a priestly dress. The 18th century in Qurna, west of Luxor, where the scene shows the receipt of tribute from the African people.
He confirmed that elephants undoubtedly visited the Nile Valley in the prehistoric era, but disappeared in ancient Egypt; Egyptians knew the elephants, and used its image in the era of the ancient empire to write the name of the island of Elephantine. An officer once boasted that he captured 120 elephants on the banks of the Euphrates, and in the same area the capture of King Tuthmosis I elephants and presented its tusks to the temple (Amun) in Thebes.
He said that the Egyptians had given great prestige to the lioness, representing the goddess Sekhmet, meaning the “able”, the wife of the god of Memphis (Ptah).
She is a goddess of war, characterized by a strong, fierce and deadly ability, and was sanctified to prevent evil, and although it caused the spread of epidemics and diseases;it was also a patron who was aiding doctors.
He added that the ancients also sanctified the cat (goddess Bastet), the goddess of music, and she is portrayed as a woman with the head of a cat, and its main temple is located in Tel Basta in the east.
Badran pointed out that the jackal (the god Anubis), a kind of dog, was a god of cowardice and mummification.
Badran said that the ibis (Abu Qardan) was sanctified. At sunrise is considered a tribute to the god RA, the sun god, and there are small statues from the prehistoric era revealing the presence of the monkey at the dawn of ancient Egyptian civilization is likely that this animal was imported from Nubia and Sudan.
He continued that the ancients also sanctified the falcon, which is the god (Horus), the sun god.
He stressed that the cow was sacred in all of Egypt and is linked to the goddess (Hathor), a goddess with the body of a woman and the head of a cow and is a symbol of beauty, love and happiness; worship and sanctification of the cow in Egypt in particular widely spread because of the characteristics of tenderness and motherhood and care for her baby and saving milk.
As for the bull, Badran explained that he was represented by the god (Apis), the god of fertility, a symbol of fertility and power, and the king was depicted in the form of a bull or described as a bull, and was sanctified in Memphis; inscriptions attested to his existence since the first Dynasty about 3000 BC, confirming that the death of the bull Apis was an accident that entails extraordinary celebrations of a sacred animal and was buried as a human being and placed in his grave.
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