In ancient Egyptian religion, crocodile god whose chief sanctuary in Fayyum province included a live sacred crocodile, Petsuchos. He was portrayed as crocodile or as a man with crocodile's head and 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 1850-1630 BC). Cemeteries of mummified crocodiles have been found in the Fayyum and at Kawm Umbu.