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Statuette of Sebek 7th-1st centuries B.C. Cast bronze Height: 10.5 cm Sebek was depicted as a crocodile or a man with a crocodile's head. The crocodile was one of the most powerful animals in Egypt and so it is not surprising that a crocodile god was venerated across the country from earliest times. He acquired particular significance in the Middle Kingdom (20th-18th centuries B.C.), when the capital was located in the Fayum oasis, an important centre of his cult. Sebek was primarily a god of places inhabited by crocodiles - rivers, swamps and sandbanks, a deity who ensured their fertility. Nevertheless he could be identified with certain solar deities, such as Ra or Amun, and therefore the Greeks equated him with their Helios. The temples of various gods could include special ponds inhabited by sacred crocodiles.
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