Buto
archaeological site in Egypt
Buto (Ancient Greek: Βουτώ, Arabic: بوتو, Butu), Bouto, Butus (Ancient Greek: Βοῦτος, Boutos) or Butosus was a city that the Ancient Egyptians called Per-Wadjet. It was located 95 km east of Alexandria in the Nile Delta of Egypt. What in classical times the Greeks called Buto, stood about midway between the Taly (Bolbitine) and Thermuthiac (Sebennytic) branches of the Nile, a few kilometers north of the east-west Butic River, and on the southern shore of the Butic Lake (Greek: Βουτικὴ λίμνη, Boutikē limnē).
Today, it is called Tell El Fara'in ("Hill of the Pharaohs"), near the villages of Ibtu (or Abtu), Kom Butu, and the city of Desouk (Arabic: دسوق).
History
Buto was a sacred site in dedication to the goddess Wadjet. It was an important cultural site during prehistoric Egypt (before 3100 BCE).
The Buto-Maadi culture was the most important Lower Egyptian prehistoric culture, dating from 4000–3500 BC, and contemporary with Naqada I and II phases in Upper Egypt. The culture was best known from the site Maadi near Cairo, but was also attested in many other places in the Delta to the Faiyum region. This culture was marked by development in architecture and technology.
The culture of Buto was strongly marked by Levantine influences, in particular in the area of ceramics.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Buto” as archaeological site in Egypt. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q739278. Authority coordinates are 31.196, 30.745. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Buto” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.