Ok,
So when they said that we were going to visit a "crocodile mummy museum," what I heard was a "crocodile and also in addition to crocodiles, a museum about mummies." I mean that makes sense, right?
So here they are, the crocodiles, so lifelike I can just HEAR the flesh being torn off of some poor, unsuspecting aminal who just went down to the Nile for a drink of cool, refreshing water.
So when they said that we were going to visit a "crocodile mummy museum," what I heard was a "crocodile and also in addition to crocodiles, a museum about mummies." I mean that makes sense, right?
So here they are, the crocodiles, so lifelike I can just HEAR the flesh being torn off of some poor, unsuspecting aminal who just went down to the Nile for a drink of cool, refreshing water.
Notice anything odd about these stiff, limbless, wrinkled crocodiles? No, they're not a PETA poster child.
They're mummies. That's right. The crocodiles ARE the mummies! See ya later alligator, you're now a salt-n-spice packed mummy destined for a thousands-year-slumber beneath Egypt's arid desert sands. If that don't preserve you for your discovery in 1965, then nothing will!
Croc pizza oven? Wrong again. This is an embalming table and tomb for the much-revered-much-feared crocodile. The ancient egyptians created a god out of this fella, depicted alternately as a crocodile-headed god, and an actual crocodile.
What's this? Icon worship of Lacoste, the popular leisure-wear outfitter? Mais, non! It's an icon to much more than a clothing mascot, it's the god Sobek in animal form.
So by now, you won't be tricked anymore. Below is not a picture of a Faberge egg, it's a mummified Sobek/crocodile egg. They were used as offerings at altars and were highly prized. 'But what about the impact on crocodile eggs and the surival of the species,' you might ask. Don't worry, lady crocodiles lay about 80 at a time, the pharoahs could take a LOT of eggs and still leave the Nile full of man-and-animal eating crocs.
So why did they worship the crocodile? Same reason we worship Jon Cena and The Rock! They're fast, strong, powerful. What's not to worship?
My mother remembered "See you later alligator. After a while crocodile" when she was old and had forgotten almost everything else. What you saw of crocodiles was after a long, long while. How old where they actually? Maybe several thousand years? I think it would be great to see them and what's left of that ancient civilization.
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