Behbeit el-Hagara Attractions
The ancient site of Behbeit el-Hagara, the lseum or lsidis Oppidum of classical times, lies near the provincial capital of El-Mansura in the northern part of the Nile Delta. The modern name derives from the ancient Egyptian Hebet or Per-Ehbet, the "house of the god of Hebet" (i.e. Horus).
Lying within the Saite nome, the place was much revered by the kings of the 30th Dynasty, who stemmed from the neighboring town of Sebennytus, as a center of the cult of Isis, her brother and husband Osiris and their son Horus.
Lying within the Saite nome, the place was much revered by the kings of the 30th Dynasty, who stemmed from the neighboring town of Sebennytus, as a center of the cult of Isis, her brother and husband Osiris and their son Horus.
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Abusir, Egypt
Five mi/8km farther south, on a by-road, is the village of Abusir, occupying the site of the ancient Djedu, chief town of a nome, later known as Per-Usir ("House of Osiris") and to the Greeks as Busiris. This was revered as the place of burial of Osiris, the scene of an annual pilgrimage. Nothing remains of the ancient town nor of the Temple of Osiris which is mentioned by Herodotus.
Sacred Lake
The Temple of Isis' sacred lake can still be identified in the village of Behbeit, northwest of the ruins.
Sebennytus
Some 7.5mi/12km southwest of Behbeit, to the west of the little town of Samannud (pop. 15,000), are the scanty remains of ancient Sebennytus, the place of origin of the 30th Dynasty kings and the home of Manetho (third C. B.C.), the historian to whom we owe much of our knowledge of the rulers of ancient Egypt. On a hill are some remains of a temple dedicated to the local deity Onuris-Shu, probably dating from the time of Nectanebo II to Ptolemy II Philadelphus.
