Granite depiction of cow-shaped deity returns to Egypt

Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

After 11 years of absence from the Behbit El-Hegara temple in El-Gharbiya governorate, the engraving featuring the cow-shaped ancient Egyptian deity Akht will soon be back in its original position. The engraving is part of a larger one at Behbit El-Hegara temple which was built during the reign of the 30th dynasty king Nakhtanebo.

Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud, general supervisor of the office of the minister of state for antiquities, said that the engravings and reliefs that decorated the temple were archaeologically documented by French Egyptologist Chrsitian Farfard Mix in 1977 and, in 1989, they were registered in the official documents of the Egyptian Antiquities Organisation. In 1990, Abdel Maqsoud relates, theives broke into the temple and cut the engraving from the wall, along with other parts of the temple’s decoration.