| 1 | Egyptian cobra |
Maximum length: 259cm.
The top defender of Egypt against tomb raiders, mercenaries, and Greek armies pouring over the northern border. Egyptian cobras (Naja haje) regularly surpass 2 metres in length, and are fast-moving and alert. They avoid true deserts, instead appearing in dry grasslands, semi-deserts, barren steppes, canyons and savannahs.
Many superstitions surround this species, such as lording over kingly valleys and dealing out the fate of life or death to all who enter. Rather than calm and docile, Egyptian cobras are paranoid in personality, staying in a rigid defensive stance until you wisely decide to walk away.
With an LD50 rating of 0.19mg, Egyptian cobra venom slightly outstrips the Indian cobra (0.28mg) for raw toxicity. The venom yield is a high 150-300mg, and is able to deplete all antioxidants in the human body, including superoxide dismutase and glutathione (which alcohol also decreases).
The Egyptian cobra’s venom contains less neurotoxins that some, which interfere with brain signals and cause paralysis. However, the venom physically attacks brain cells, leading to neuronal death. Egyptian cobra venom particularly attacks the liver, causing severe inflammation and the destruction of hepatic cells. It causes a sharp increase in C-reactive protein, a biomarker for inflammation across the entire body.
There’s only one redeeming feature with this species – the iconic cobra silhouette, which makes them extremely easy to recognise (and then run away from).
| 2 | Black desert cobra |
Maximum length: 132cm.
Not a real cobra, but part of an isolated snake genus called Walterinnesia, which has only 2 members. This dangerous snake is not only jet black, but nocturnal, becoming more active under the suffocating darkness of midnight.
Black desert cobras are most common in rocky mountain ranges and bone dry deserts. They cannot spread a hood, instead enlarging themselves by inflating and deflating their lungs. They have a loud, piercing hiss, and strike at the enemy from a sideways angle, tilting their head towards the ground.
This species has a neurotoxic venom, triggering paralysis while leaving very little trace around the bite wound. However, black desert cobras can also cause spontaneous haemorrhaging. Like the Egyptian cobra, the venom is extremely damaging to liver tissue; rats which pulled through and survived still had lesions covering their liver. Bites are rare, but a girl in Israel died after accidentally sitting on one. Without access to medical care, she succumbed 20 hours later.
According to laboratory analysis, the venom potency of this Egyptian species exceeds the timber rattlesnake and cottonmouth, which score 1.64mg and 2.04mg on the LD50 scale respectively. Black desert cobras score just 0.4mg, requiring much lower quantities to kill a man, mouse, or maybe cactus. Combined with their black scales, and the inability to see them at night (when they’re most active), the black desert cobra becomes one of Egypt’s most dangerous snakes.
| 3 | Saharan horned viper |
Maximum length: 85cm.
The truest desert dweller of all Egyptian snakes. Saharan horned vipers (Cerastes cerastes) are common across North Africa, and have the ability to live in the rolling sands of the Sahara desert, effortlessly surfing up sand dunes using a sideways method of motion. This 50-70cm species is easily recognisable by soft horns above its eyes, which are theorised to block out glaring sunlight. Its scales are beige and jagged, in a perfect mimic of its sandy environment.
Saharan horned vipers are unable to hiss, as this would mean sucking in large quantities of sand and choking. However, they still warn their foes, by sidewinding on the spot, rubbing their jagged scales together, and creating a menacing rasp.
This species has a nasty venom which is capable of taking down the Montpellier snake, a species three times larger than itself. According to a Jordanian study, 3% of bites are fatal, with children being more vulnerable.
The usual cause of death with Cerastes cerastes is kidney failure, and other symptoms include spontaneous bleeding. The signature sensation is an unusual one: a feeling as though your heart is being squeezed in a fist. The Saharan horned viper is your number 1 obstacle if your helicopter crashes in the sand deserts of Egypt.
| 4 | Saharan sand viper |
Maximum length: 50cm.
This venomous snake belongs to the same Cerastes genus as the Saharan horned viper, but with one obvious feature missing – the horns themselves. Saharan sand vipers are also smaller than their cousin, maxing out at 50cm instead of 85cm. Finally, they have eyes oriented upwards instead of forwards, but in most ways, this killer is very similar. Saharan sand vipers (Cerastes vipera) have the same craggy desert colour as their cousin, looking as though their scales are composed of thousands of sand particles.
This species also lives in deserts, and also buries itself in order to pounce on prey sneaking past. Its venom is similar as well, triggering spontaneous bleeding from the bite wound, and other recent wounds which haven’t fully healed yet. The venom has strong protease powers, cleaving amino acid bonds and destroying skin tissue. There’s also a rare toxin called CV-PL-F, a necrotic myotoxin which destroys muscle tissue.
This venomous species is found across most of North Africa, with Egypt having an abundance of sightings. Remember to keep your multivitamin jar on hand if you’re lost in the desert – a 2017 study found that vitamin E could protect against Saharan sand viper toxins.
| 5 | Pyramid viper |
Maximum length: 85cm.
Part of the same Echis genus as the notorious saw-scaled viper, which kills hundreds of Indians per year. Pyramid vipers (Echis pyramidum) are particularly widespread in northeast Africa, including Ethiopia and Sudan as well as parts of Egypt. They share many characteristics with their cousin, including a deadly venom which is easily capable of killing unfortunate victims. Pyramid vipers avoid sand dunes, but gravitate towards parched spots such as dry savannah, rocky canyons and semi-deserts.
This is a nervous and irritable species, which rarely backs down from a fight. When confronted, pyramid vipers grind their scales together to produce a rhythmical rasp, before launching into a ferocious strike, which mainly aims for the lower limbs.
This species produces almost no neurotoxins. Instead, a Saudi Arabian study covering hundreds of bite victims found the following symptoms: vomiting (26.53% of victims), swelling (24.49%), falling blood pressure (14.29%), pain at the bite site (10.20%) and sweating (10.20%). The swelling can travel far beyond the fang marks themselves.
Pyramid vipers are fairly short, averaging at 30-60cm. You’re most likely to find this venomous snake on rocky surfaces, as that’s where they’re fastest and most agile.
| 6 | Field’s horned viper |
Maximum length: 89cm.
This potentially lethal species inhabits northeast Egypt, or the Sinai peninsular, as well as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel. This is a very similar-looking snake to the Saharan horned viper, with beige, craggy scales which blend perfectly with sand. Despite this, the two species have no close relationship.
Field’s horned vipers (Pseudocerastes fieldi) have a neurotoxic venom, which acts presynaptically, disabling brain signals before they’ve been issued. Paralysis can be the result, with the only saving grace being a warning they provide – Field’s horned vipers usually hiss loudly before lunging into a bite.
Field’s horned vipers vary significantly in colour, allowing them to blend with most habitats. In the black lava deserts of Jordan, they’re significantly darker, while in barren Egyptian grassland, they’re much lighter, sometimes as pale as pristine beach sand (see above). This species has some of the best camouflage in Egypt overall. If you tumbled off a ledge and into a pile of dry rubble, it would be extremely difficult to see a Field’s horned viper lurking.
In Saharan horned vipers, the horns are composed of a single sharpened scale. Meanwhile, Field’s horned viper has horns composed of several smaller scales fused together. Despite their superficial similarity, these species likely diverged tens of millions of years ago.
| 7 | Palestinian burrowing asp |
Maximum length: 75cm.
One of Egypt’s less common venomous snakes, but still a lethal threat to be aware of in northeast Egypt, AKA the Sinai peninsular. The Palestinian burrowing snake is a fossorial (underground) species, which doesn’t look impressive at all. It’s a fully black snake, with fully black irises that barely contrast against its completely black pupils, making its eyes almost invisible. Its head is barely distinguishable from its neck, and it rarely exceeds 70cm.
This species is slower and less adventurous than a cobra, but even deadlier in some ways. Palestinian burrowing asps have surprisingly long fangs, which point from their mouth sideways, while curving backwards jaggedly. Worse, their fangs can shift position inside their mouth. This snake is able to envenomate a victim with one fang sticking outwards while keeping the rest of its mouth closed.
The venom itself is no joke either. Palestinian burrowing asps are capable of severe swelling, which may spiral to gangrene and necrotic skin cell death. Abdominal pain, heavy sweating, heart trouble, and nausea have also been reported.
Experiments in mice reveal that the venom specifically targets heart function, using three rare cardiotoxins called S6a1, S6b, and S6c. No deaths are confirmed from this species, but a closed related Saudi species (Atractaspis andersonii) once caused the death of a two year old girl.
| 8 | Painted saw-scaled viper |
Maximum length: 90cm.
The second member of the saw-scaled viper clan (Echis) to live in Egypt. This species is mainly Arabian in territory, but strays into a large chunk of eastern Egypt, causing great fear in local villagers. Painted saw-scaled vipers (Echis coloratus) possess a nasty venom, and favour dry, rocky environments.
Despite close similarities to their pyramid viper cousin, the two Echis species in Egypt diverged an estimated 19.4 million years ago. The creation of the Red Sea is believed to have split them into islands, with the Arabian continental plate ripping from Africa and gradually grinding northeastwards into Eurasia. Over many eons, the two species diverged, with Echis coloratus being forced eastwards into Arabia, before eventually recolonising Egypt by slithering northwards.
The two species have different patterns, as painted saw-scaled vipers have grey-red markings down their spine like a tapestry, while pyramid vipers tend to have giraffe shades. Painted saw-scaled vipers lack the arrow-shaped head marking possessed by most Echis vipers. They’re also slightly longer, maxing out at 90cm, versus 85cm for the pyramid viper.
Painted saw-scaled vipers are slightly milder, as only one death has been recorded since 1919, an Israeli man who succumbed to kidney failure. The effects are similar though – mainly swelling and spontaneous haemorrhaging.
| 9 | Hissing sand snake |
Maximum length: 175cm.
A 100cm serpent which differs to our other venomous snakes. Rather than glands connected to front fangs allowing for instant venom injection, this species has a Duvernoy’s gland, which produces venom from enlarged rear fangs. This venom must be chewed repeatedly into an open bite wound.
Hissing sand snakes (Psammophis sibilans) are found in a swathe of Egypt, as well as Ethiopia and Sudan. They live in dry semi-deserts, but also cultivated areas, and well vegetated shores along the River Nile. This is a fast-moving species, which is very difficult to catch in your hands. If you do succeed, then there’s a strong chance that you’ll end up with venom flowing through your body.
Generally, rear-fanged snakes aren’t too dangerous, causing painful swelling at worst (the red-necked keelback is an exception). However, autopsies reveal that the hissing sand snake has particularly large glands. No deaths are confirmed, but the history books of Egypt contain many blank pages.
Hissing sand snakes chase their prey down, hold them in coils, and chew for approximately 1 minute to subdue them. This species is variable in personality, as some will calm down after a few weeks of captivity, while others will never lose their irritable and aggressive nature. Hissing sand snakes also have unusual nasal glands which produce a lipid-rich secretion, which they rub onto their scales for reasons unknown.
| 10 | Nubian spitting cobra |
Maximum length: 151cm.
The second true cobra found on Egyptian soil (or sand). The Nubian spitting cobra only became an official species in 2003, as it was originally assigned to the black-necked spitting cobra species. It was then assigned to the red spitting cobra, before finally being recognised as independent 20 years ago.
Nubian spitting cobras (Naja nubiae) live in southern central Egypt, crossing the southern border into Sudan. They have the same tear drop marking below the eye as the red spitting cobra, but their body is a rustier brown.
Compared to other Egyptian killers, Nubian spitting cobras prefer moister habitats rather than barren deserts. They average at 1.2 metres, making them shorter than the Egyptian cobra they overlap with. They also have a rounded head, which is more separated from the neck.
That said, Nubian spitting cobras have one advantage over their neighbour – the ability to spit venom in your eye. Like other spitting cobras, their brains are adapted to pick up two round objects side by side, by which we mean eyes. This has been proven by studies which drew fake eyes onto objects, which shortly afterwards were dripping with venom.
The main venom of this species is also deadly. Spitting cobras generally have a cytotoxic venom which causes massive tissue destruction surrounding the bite wound, and according to a 2015 study, Nubian spitting cobras are no exception. Necrosis and amputations are possible symptoms. More positively, the venom was easily neutralised by 4 antivenoms from around the world, showing that its toxins weren’t particularly unique. Meanwhile, the painted saw-scaled viper was only partly neutralised.