Tell el-Faraun Attractions
Between the villages of lbtu and Shaba are the large rubble mounds of Tell el-Faraun ("Pharaoh's Hill"), which mark the site of ancient Buto (from Per Uto, "House of the Goddess Uto"), capital of Lower Egypt, which was discovered and identified by Flinders Petrie in 1886.
Before the unification of the two kingdoms Buto seems to have been the political center of Lower Egypt, but later lost this position to Abydos.
Before the unification of the two kingdoms Buto seems to have been the political center of Lower Egypt, but later lost this position to Abydos.
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However it remained the chief town of the sixth nome of Lower Egypt and the principal center of the cult of the Lower Egyptian cobra goddess Uto (or Buto), whose counterpart in Upper Egypt was the vulture goddess Nekhbet of El- Kab and who was venerated along with Nekhbet as the protective goddess of the kingdom. The falcon headed "souls of Pe" which are associated with Uto may possibly be symbolic representations of Lower Egyptian territorial units of a very early period.
According to tradition the city of Buto originally consisted of two parts, Pe and Dep. Excavations have so far identified three areas of occupation (two settlements and a temple precinct), but no material has yet been found dating from the earliest period, when for many centuries the town was a major cult center. What has been found so far dates from the time of Ramesses II and later. Excavations are still in progress, but there is little to interest the ordinary visitor.
According to tradition the city of Buto originally consisted of two parts, Pe and Dep. Excavations have so far identified three areas of occupation (two settlements and a temple precinct), but no material has yet been found dating from the earliest period, when for many centuries the town was a major cult center. What has been found so far dates from the time of Ramesses II and later. Excavations are still in progress, but there is little to interest the ordinary visitor.
Related Attractions
Desuq, Egypt
7mi/12km southwest of Tell el-Faraun, on the right bank of the Rosetta arm of the Nile (here spanned by a railroad bridge), is the little town of Desuq, to which there is a great pilgrimage on the birthday of a local holy man, Ibrahim el-Desuqi, founder of the Burhamiya Dervish Order. The mosque which he founded (rebuilt 1885), with a medrese built by Sultan Qait Bey, is now an Islamic university.
