Poole, Reginald S.: The cities of Egypt (London, 1882)

CITIES OF EGYPT.

CHAPTER X.
PI-BESETH

On the eastern side of the Delta, more than half-way
from Memphis to Zoan, lay the great city of Pi-beseth,
or Bubastis. Vast mounds now mark the site and
preserve the name ; deep in their midst lie the shattered
fragments of the beautiful temple which Herodotus saw,
and to which in his days the Egyptians came annually in
vast numbers to keep the greatest festival of the year, the
assembly of Bast, the goddess of the place. Here after
the Empire had fallen, Shishak set up his throne, and for
a short space revived the imperial magnificence of Thebes.
A strange figure is this first king of Egypt mentioned by
name in Scripture, the enemy of Solomon, the ally of
Jeroboam, and the spoiler of Solomon's foolish son,—
Shishak, the sovereign of oriental origin known to us as
the head of a house of Babylonian or Assyrian lineage, who,
despite their foreign names, are yet Egyptian Pharaohs,