God Bes

http://www.algomhuria.net.eg/gazette/5/
More from Zahi Hawass on the Bahariya Oasis in the Egyptian Western Desert:

"During the Graeco-Roman Period, Bahariya Oasis prospered as a military outpost and a centre of wine production. Wine making and its consumption were central to life in the Oasis, and was an activity associated with the god Bes, and there is evidence that he was worshipped in several locations in Bahariya in addition to El-Bawiti. In 1939, Ahmed Fakhry uncovered four ruined chapels at Ain el-Mufttells near El Qasr. In the third chapel oversized figures of Bes were carved into each wall.

In 1988 a resident of El-Bawiti came into the Antiquities Inspectorate in Bahariya and handed over a piece of basalt containing the cartouche of Akhenaton. This is the only artifact that has been found at Bahariya belonging to the "heretic king." Egyptian law requires that ancient artifacts be preserved, not sold, and anyone who can guide us to them is rewarded. The man who brought us the stone, led us to a small mound, among the houses of El-Bawiti, and he told us that inscribed stones like this one had just been lying in the sand. The next month, Ashry Shaker began an excavation and uncovered a unique temple. It was a temple to Bes, the god of pleasure, sexuality, dancing, wine, music, and the protector of mothers and children.

The architecture of this temple is similar to other Graeco-Roman temples in Egypt, which used the Egyptian style rather than the Roman style. The interior is made of mud bricks on a foundation of limestone blocks, measuring 60 X 40 feet. It lies on a north-south axis with a causeway or ramp leading to the entrance. Sphinxes most likely lined this ramp at one time. Inside there is a long, horizontal hall with a stucco floor and lying in three pieces, in front of its base was a statue of Bes. Strewn around the statue were many copper vessels, used to present offerings to the god. A small door off the main hallway led down the short ramp to a rock-cut water shaft. Here the ancient apparently used the water to cure illnesses."