Saturday, May 6, 2023

Ancient Buddha statue found in Egypt

Ancient Egypt is the home of many stone statues and sculptures, now including the Buddha


It's a long way from home. Since the first pharaohs ruled Egypt at the end of the 4th millennium BC, the country has worshipped a wide pantheon of gods and goddesses, but it has never, as far as we're aware, embraced Buddhism.

It raised a lot of eyebrows, then, when archeologists recently unearthed a two-foot (60 cm) tall Buddha statue while excavating a temple to the Egyptian Goddess Isis in the ancient port city of Berenike -- reportedly the first such statue ever found west of Afghanistan [where the Buddha was likely born, not Nepal as popularly thought, west of proto-India, because "India" did not come into existence until the Buddhist Emperor Asoka united disparate kingdoms and territories two centuries or more after the passing of the Buddha, circa 600 BC].

Founded in the third century BC and an important Red Sea hub, Berenike became particularly prominent after the Roman invasion of Egypt in 30 BC, and a steady stream of artifacts have been discovered there in recent decades.

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