15 Reasons Why The Ancient Egypians Loved Cats More Than You

We all learned about the pyramids. Some might have heard that the Ancient Egyptians loved cats. But, their love went far beyond funny pictures on the papyrus. Also, their word for cat was "Mau."

1. They mummified their cats to hang out with them in the afterlife.

Via indykids.net

Come Mr. Bigglesworth.

2. They made sculptures of them too.

The cats preferred the box it came in though.

3. The Ancient Egyptians put their innards into jars, which the cat protected.

Unknown: why cat was not in the jar.

4. They believed a cat killed the serpent that ate their most powerful deity, the sun god, Ra.

5. Speaking of which, the sun god's daughter and personal guard, Sakhmet, was half lion and half human.

She was also the most ferocious god.

6. In remembrance of when Sakhmet punished humanity, but was stopped when humans got her drunk, the Ancient Egyptians would get raucously and violently drunk with their cats at the multiple god cat temple in Bubastis.

When's the last time you partied with your cat?

7. The prophet Ezekiel warned about the debauchery at the party saying, "The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth (Bubastis) shall fall by the sword: and these cities shall go into captivity."

It was entirely too much fun.

8. After a while, people realized that their human/lion god was too violent. So, they started worshipping a new cat god, Bast, who was a short-hair.

9. This turned into a cult of the cat.

But, the good kind of cult that doesn't exist anymore.

10. However, the temple's cat population was so large and respected that they would occasionally have sacrificial offerings of kittens, which were then sold as mummified relics.

Kittens. So many kittens.

11. More than 300,000 mummified cats were discovered when Bast's temple at Per-Bast

12. When Bast was most popular, killing a cat, even if done accidentally, could result in a death penalty.

You could still be mummified with your cat though.

13. At times, it was illegal to ship cats to foreign countries, which meant that people had to buy cats on the black market.

The cats didn't care.

14. A Pharaoh had this to say about his cat, "You are the Great Cat, the avenger of the gods, and the judge of words, and the president of the sovereign chiefs and the governor of the holy Circle; you are indeed the Great Cat."

Even a Pharaoh enjoyed saying "Who's a good Mr. Kitty?"

15. Finally, because of their love of cats Egypt was conquered by the Persians when the Persians painted cats on their shields and threw cats at the Egyptians. This caused the Egyptians to flee as they did not want to attack one of their gods.

I would run too.