are cats from egypt
No, cats are not “from” Egypt in the sense of having only Egyptian origins, but Egypt is one of the two main early centers where wildcats became domestic cats.
Are Cats From Egypt?
Quick Scoop
If you’re wondering “are cats from Egypt?” the answer is:
Domestic cats come from wildcats that lived across North Africa and
Southwest Asia , including ancient Egypt but also the wider Near East.
Scientists trace today’s house cats back to the African/Near Eastern wildcat, Felis silvestris lybica (often called the African wildcat). These wildcats lived in areas like the Fertile Crescent (the Near East) and North Africa, which includes Egyptian territory.
How Cats Actually Became “House Cats”
Researchers now think cat domestication happened in two main waves :
- Early Near Eastern phase (Fertile Crescent)
- Around early farming times (Neolithic period), wildcats started hanging around human settlements to hunt rodents raiding grain stores.
* Humans tolerated them because they were useful pest control, and over time a loose partnership formed.
- Later Egyptian phase (Pharaonic Egypt)
- In ancient Egypt (Classical/Pharaonic period), cats became more fully integrated into households, art, and religion.
* Egyptians famously depicted cats in tomb art, associated them with deities, and even mummified large numbers of them.
Both lines trace back to the same wild ancestor, so all modern domestic cats share that deeper origin, not a separate “Egypt-only” origin.
So Why Do People Say “Cats Are From Egypt”?
There are a few reasons this idea is so popular:
- Striking ancient art and religion
- Cats are all over Egyptian wall paintings, statues, and religious imagery, so it looks like Egypt “invented” them.
- Historical assumption
- For a long time, scholars believed Egypt was the first and only place that domesticated cats, about 3,600 years ago.
* Later genetic and archaeological studies showed cats were living with humans in the Near East much earlier, around the rise of agriculture.
- Cultural stories and modern media
- Popular books, shows, and online forums love the visual of “mystical Egyptian cats,” so that version spreads more than the more complex scientific story.
What Do Studies Say Today?
Modern genetic and archaeological work paints a more nuanced picture:
- All domestic cats descend from North African / Southwest Asian wildcats (Felis silvestris lybica).
- Evidence points to two domestication centers :
- Neolithic Levant / Fertile Crescent (~9,500–10,000 years ago).
* Pharaonic / Classical Egypt (~3,500 years ago).
- A recent study on how cats spread into Europe confirms a North African origin and shows cats dispersing from North Africa (including Egypt) to Europe around 2,000 years ago.
In other words, Egypt is a major chapter in the cat story, but not the whole book.
Simple Takeaway (TL;DR)
- Domestic cats are not exclusively from Egypt , but Egypt is one of the key early places where they were beloved, protected, and spread widely.
- Their deeper roots go back to wildcats in the Near East and North Africa , which includes, but is not limited to, ancient Egypt.
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.