Ancient Egypt elevated cats to divine status unmatched in any other civilization. The goddess Bastet, originally depicted as a lioness and later as a domestic cat, represented protection, fertility, and motherhood. The Temple of Bastet in Bubastis became one of Egypt's most important religious centers, where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gathered annually to honor the feline goddess.

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The reverence for cats extended beyond religious symbolism to legal protection. Herodotus recorded that killing a cat, even accidentally, was punishable by death. This extreme protection created the world's first cat sanctuary civilization, where felines lived as honoured residents rather than mere pets. Modern cat cafes continue this tradition of providing safe, reverent spaces for human-cat interaction.

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Mummification practices for cats rivaled those for humans, with elaborate burial preparations including linen wrappings, painted masks, and burial goods. The cat necropolis at Beni Hasan contained over 300,000 cat mummies, demonstrating the scale of feline reverence.