Egyptian Cobra

• GeneralIt is identified with the asp of ancient Egypt and with the death of Cleopatra.
• It is the uraeus of Ancient Egypt: the rearing cobra that crowns the foreheads of the pharaohs, symbol of the goddess Wadjet and of the protection of royalty, present on funerary masks and crowns for three millennia.
• Tradition attributes the death of Cleopatra to an Egyptian cobra, although modern historians dispute both the method and the species: an asp two and a half metres long would be hard to smuggle in hidden in a basket of figs.
• It is one of the snakes routinely used by charmers in North Africa, who take advantage of its tendency to rear up and spread its hood in response to movement.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (reptile)

Habitat and environment

Dry savannah, semi-desert, farmland, oases and ruins of northern and eastern Africa and Arabia

Sexual maturity

3 years

Gestation / incubation

60 days of incubation

Litter / clutch size

18 eggs

Sources consulted: https://www.iucnredlist.org/ | https://animaldiversity.org/ | https://es.wikipedia.org/