Behbeit el-Hagara

Behbeit el-Hagara is an archaeological site in Egypt's Nile Delta, southwest of al-Mansura in the Daqahliyya Governorate, and was home to one of ancient Egypt's most important sanctuaries dedicated to the goddess Isis. The site's origins trace back to Pharaoh Amasis in the 6th century BC, but it was Nektanebos II in the 4th century BC who commissioned a grand Iseum temple here, intended as a counterpart to the Isis temple at Koptos. The project was left unfinished following the Persian invasion, and what survives today is a field of scattered granite blocks, column drums, and carved architraves — the dismembered remnants of what would have been a monumental late-period temple complex. The site draws Egyptologists and history enthusiasts interested in the twilight of pharaonic temple construction and the cult of Isis.