The Egyptian Crocodile Museum, the first ever museum in Africa devoted exclusively to crocodiles, has marked the 12th year anniversary of its existence since its inauguration in 2012.
While marking the anniversary on Thursday, Egypt’s Antiquities Minister, Mohamed Ibrahim, said the celebration will include a scientific symposium organised to introduce the museum and its collection.
The Crocodile Museum, located next to the Kom Ombo temple, north of Aswan, highlights the crocodile-headed god, Sobek, with its main exhibition hall displaying the mummified mummies of the Nile crocodiles, dating back many centuries.
Some of the mummified crocodiles, according to museum records, measure up to 4.30 meters, while the smallest are 2 meters, while the museum also display a collection of fetuses, eyes, and golden and ivory teeth of mummified crocodiles.
“The museum also shows statues of different sizes of the god Sobek and a tomb model that simulates what was discovered in the Shutb cemetery,” the Minister said.
“The Crocodile Museum displays 22 mummified crocodiles of various sizes out of forty to have been unearthed in Aswan.
“The crocodiles are arrayed on a sand hill inside a large glass showcase, allowing visitors to see how crocodiles passed their days in ancient Egypt.
“A collection of crocodile coffins and wooden sarcophagi, along with crocodile foetuses and eggs, are also on display, in addition to stelae and statues depicting the crocodile-god Sobek, bearing a human body and the head of a crocodile. Replicas of Sobek’s original tombs and niches are also on display,” he added.
Abdel Hamid Maarouf, head of the ministry’s ancient Egypt department, noted that the crocodile museum was the third museum to be inaugurated in Egypt recently, after the Imhotep Museum at the Saqqara Necropolis and the Meneptah Museum on Luxor’s west bank.
He explained that Sobek had been worshiped in ancient Upper Egypt, especially in Kom Ombo, where a great temple was built in his honour.
“Following a crocodile’s death, it was treated like a god, mummified and buried like a pharaoh, replete with funerary items,” he said.