Pi-beseth, a city of Egypt, named with several others in . The name was derived from the goddess Bubastis, whom the Greeks identified with their Artemis. A great festive pilgrimage was yearly made to her temple in this place by great numbers of people. Bubastus was taken by the Persians, who destroyed the walls; but it was still a place of some consideration under the Romans. It was near Bubastus that the canal leading to Arsinoe (Suez) opened to the Nile; and although the mouth was afterwards often changed and taken more southward, it has now returned to its first locality, as the present canal of Tel-el-Wadee commences in the vicinity of Tel Basta. This Tel Basta, which undoubtedly represents Bubastus, is in N. lat. 30° 30′; E. long. 31° 33′. The site is occupied by mounds of great extent, which consist of the crude brick houses of the town, with the usual heaps of broken pottery. The temple, of which Herodotus states that, although others in Egypt were larger and more magnificent, none were more beautiful, is entirely destroyed; but the remaining stones, being of the finest red granite, confirm the historian's testimony.
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John Kitto was an English biblical scholar of Cornish descent.Born in Plymouth, John Kitto was a sickly child, son of a Cornish stonemason. The drunkenness of his father and the poverty of his family meant that much of his childhood was spent in the workhouse. He had no more than three years of erratic and interrupted education. At the age of twelve John Kitto fell on his head from a rooftop, and became totally and permanently deaf. As a young man he suffered further tragedies, disappointments and much loneliness. His height was 4 ft 8 in, and his accident left him with an impaired sense of balance. He found consolation in browsing at bookstalls and reading any books that came his way.
From these hardships he was rescued by friends who became aware of his mental abilities and encouraged him to write topical articles for local newspapers, arranging eventually for him to work as an assistant in a local library. Here he continued to educate himself.
One of his benefactors was the Exeter dentist Anthony Norris Groves, who in 1824 offered him employment as a dental assistant. Living with the Groves family, Kitto was profoundly influenced by the practical Christian faith of his employer. In 1829 he accompanied Groves on his pioneering mission to Baghdad and served as tutor to Groves's two sons. In 1833 Kitto returned to England via Constantinople, accompanied by another member of the Groves mission, Francis William Newman. Shortly afterwards he married, and in due course had several children.
A London publisher asked Kitto to write up his travel journals for a series of articles in the Penny Magazine, a publication read at that time by a million people in Britain, reprinted in America and translated into French, German and Dutch. Other writing projects followed as readers enquired about his experiences in the East amidst people living in circumstances closely resembling those of Bible times.
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