Crocodile Museum, Kom Ombo

The Crocodile Museum sits beside Kom Ombo Temple, about 40 km north of Aswan, and displays 22 mummified crocodiles sacred to the god Sobek. Entry is included in the Kom Ombo Temple ticket, and it is open 7 am to 4 pm.

Next to the riverside temple of Kom Ombo, an odd one because it is shared by two gods, Horus and the crocodile-headed Sobek, the Crocodile Museum opened in 2012. It was built to show a remarkable local find: a hoard of crocodile mummies. The long, dimly lit gallery gives the temple's most distinctive offerings a space of their own.

The main draw is the line of 22 mummified crocodiles, from 2 m juveniles to 5 m adults, in glass cases lit from below. Some still have gilded plates over their eyes and resin-soaked linen wrappings. Around them are crocodile eggs, bronze figures of Sobek, papyrus offerings, a wooden Sobek-shaped coffin made for a small crocodile, and the amulets and stelae pilgrims left at the temple asking for the god's protection.

Panels also explain the Greco-Roman crocodile cult that linked Faiyum and Kom Ombo. Sobek's priests fed and cared for live temple crocodiles, then prepared them for careful burial when they died.

What to see

• 22 mummified crocodiles in glass cases
• The wooden Sobek mummy case
• Gilded eye plates and amulets
• Crocodile eggs and bronze statuettes of Sobek

Visiting

• Opening hours: 7 am – 4 pm, the same as Kom Ombo Temple
• Tickets: included in the Kom Ombo Temple ticket
• Best time: late afternoon, when the temple glows in the setting sun
• Nearby: Kom Ombo Temple, Gebel el-Silsila, Aswan