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Sebek
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Ombos: column with a carving of Sebek Sebek, wearing horns, solar disk with uraeus, and plumes, bronze figurine, c. 600–300 bce; in the British Museum.
At a Glance
Al-Jizah. Giza Necropolis, Giza Plateau, Cairo, Egypt. Side view of Sphinx with the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) rising in the background. The sides of all three of the Giza pyramids are astronomically oriented to be north-south, east-west (see notes)
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Quick Facts
Also spelled:
Sobek
Greek:
Suchos
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Ombos: column with a carving of Sebek
Ombos: column with a carving of Sebek Column with a carving of the crocodile god Sebek at Ombos, Egypt.

Sebek

Egyptian god
Also known as: Sebeq, Sobek, Sobk, Suchos
Written and fact-checked by
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History

Sebek, in ancient Egyptian religion, crocodile god whose chief sanctuary in Fayyūm province included a live sacred crocodile, Petsuchos (Greek: “He Who Belongs to Suchos”), in whom the god was believed to be incarnate.

Sebek may have been an early fertility god or associated with death and burial before becoming a major deity and patron of kings in the Middle Kingdom (c.1938–c. 1630 bce). He was merged with Re, the sun god, to constitute a crocodile form of that God known as Sebek-Re. The worship of Sebek continued into Ptolemaic and Roman times in the Fayyūm, at Kawm Umbū (Kom Ombo) in Upper Egypt, and elsewhere. Cemeteries of mummified crocodiles have been found in the Fayyūm and at Kawm Umbū.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Chelsey Parrott-Sheffer.