One of the most popular cults to arise in Late Period Egypt was of the cat goddess Bast. At this time many thousands of Cats were mummified for sale to pilgrims, who presented them to the goddess as an offering.
X-rays show that the cats were often killed by having their necks broken. The bodies were then dried out using Natron salt, this process was similar to that used for human mummification.
They were then elaborately wrapped with the forelegs lying down the front and the hind legs drawn up beside the pelvis.


The example shown here is from the collection of the British Museum. It illustrated well the elaborate standard of wrapping which was used on these sacred offerings.


Vast cemeteries have been discovered containing many thousands of these cat burials and it is likely that the animals were specially bred for this purpose. The main center for the cult of bast was at the town of Tell Basta.

Akhet Egyptology

I saw a whole section in Cairo museum that had mummified animals large and small, including cats.

But the cats seem to have a special place in their lives. There seem to be plenty of cats around in Egypt now days too, but I'm not sure if Egyptian people are into pets like the Brits are.

__________________
CrescentHomes real estate, TurkishLiving & EgyptianLiving forums.

They are said to be the first to tame the cat - and the cats were useful for stopping rodents from getting to their crops and their foodstuffs in their houses.

Alexandria was like a cat city, cats everywhere - and though you do see ppl throwing away leftovers to cats sometimes, its not really common to bring them in ur house. One of my friends said they are seen like how rats are to london, although im not sure thats totally true :P

They must have thought I was weird to have 2 cats from the street at my apartment and feeding them slices of turkey and relativley expensive food :S