The “Nile crocodile” is a symbol of both good and evil. The ancient sanctified him and hunted him at the same time.

Crocodiles are the largest living reptiles on the surface of the earth. The ancient Egyptians installed them as goddesses, and they made sacred statues and pottery vessels that they covered in the form of a crocodile’s head due to its strength and danger to fishers in the Nile River.

The word crocodile in the ancient Egyptian language is msh and developed into a crocodile in the Arabic language. In ancient Egyptian writings, we find that crocodiles play a contradictory role, so we find that the crocodile is worshipped in the name of the god “Sobek”, especially in Kom Ombo and Fayoum. However, the mummified mummies of crocodiles that appeared About the crocodile worship in all parts of Egypt, and also we find that it can be hunted and chased. We also find that the crocodile sometimes can express the good god “Osiris” and at the same time it expresses his evil brother “Set”. Also, the god “Ra” and the god “love” can be represented.

While the ancient Egyptians showed their desire to turn into crocodiles after death, we find that the crocodile representing Satan devours or annihilates the souls of the dead who did not lead a pure or virtuous life. Therefore they need an amulet or talisman that protects them from crocodiles in the afterlife and the story of King Khufu And the Magi, we find a man taking revenge on another cheating man who was associated with a sinful relationship with his wife by making a small magic amulet of wax in the shape of a crocodile, which turns into the normal size of the crocodile, where it breaks down and kills this cheating man.

The Greek historian Herodotus points out that some ancient Egyptians consider the crocodile sacred. Others attack it … and sometimes they treat it with extra honour, offer it valuable fish and food, decorate its head with earrings, and its feet with golden bracelets and earrings inlaid with precious stones, and tame its young very gently. After its death, they flavour it with precious spices. In other areas, they deal with him with a certain disgust, so they do not leave any opportunity to destroy him.

The crocodile worship centre is considered “the god Sobek” in Kom Ombo, where there is a double temple for the idol Sobek and Horus, and also in the Fayoum governorate, where there was a city called the city of the crocodile with the oldest known remaining building belonging to the “god Sobek”. It was built in the time of the Twelfth Dynasty and was restored. During the reign of King Ramses II. This building flourished very much in the late Middle Kingdom when many rulers of the Thirteenth Dynasty adopted their names associated with the god Sobek, such as “Sobek Hetep” (which is the birth name of eight of the kings of the Thirteenth Dynasty) and “Sobek Nefer” (which is the name of the last king of the Twelfth Dynasty). The cult of Sobek (the crocodile) in the Middle Kingdom became similar in its greatness to the worship of the god Amun. And also, Abd al-Tasamah, in the form of “Sobek Ra”, is one of the sun god manifestations.

Most of the remains of antiquities in this place (and it contains another temple, a sacred lake, and some baths) date back to the Greco-Roman period, where the association of Sobek with the god Ra became an expression of the god “Heli ” in Greece. However, this area has now shrunk due to the city’s urban expansion from the south and west sides.

The crocodile has been taken as a logo for six of the provinces of Upper Egypt, and it depicts the “deity Sobek”, either in the form of a complete crocodile standing on its four legs or its two hind legs or in the body of a human with the head of a crocodile.

The ancient Egyptians depicted the crocodile in ancient Egyptian tombs in Nile scenes that combine other amphibian animals and plants, and it was photographed laying its eggs. Hunters preying or was photographed lying while waiting to devour the small “hippopotamus”.

And Herodotus states that among the ways the ancient Egyptians used to catch a crocodile was to put a piece of pork on a hook, throw it on the water, then bring a live pig on the beach and beat it until it shouted. Then he comes to the sound of his screaming towards the shore to grab him, and when he finds a piece of meat to swallow it, they pull him with a hook towards the shore, and the first thing they do with it is to fill his eyes with mud so that they can control it.

Some fishermen used to dig some holes on the beach and cover them with a stick, and as the crocodile fell in one of them, it could not get out of it. They leave him for several days without food, and then they tie his jaw to a rope around him and then pull it.