In the Egyptian town of Kom Ombo, sits the wonderful Ptolemaic temple located close to the banks of the Nile. The temple is unusual in that it is a temple with a double dedication for two gods that are worshipped there. The Southern side is dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile headed man and the god of fertility. The Northern is devoted to the falcon god Horus. In ancient Egyptian creation myths, it was Sobek who first emerged from the waters of chaos and created the world, making the location of this temple vital in the history of the Nile and what the Egyptian myths portrayed.
The ancient Egyptians believed that the god would send physical indication of themselves to earth in the form of their familial animal and so at the temple of Kom Ombo, a live crocodile would contain part of Sobek. The crocodile would be cared for throughout its life by priests, and when it died, its spirit would move onto the next crocodile, while the first was mummified and ceremoniously buried.
A small number of the crocodile mummies discovered in Aswan are now displayed in The Crocodile Museum at Kom Ombo.
