The bride of the Nil

An ancient Egyptian legend. This legend that is still widely believed by Egyptians, says that in Pharaonic times an important festival was celebrated in Egypt, where a young virgin was chosen from among the most beautiful women in the land and was thrown into the Nile as a sacrifice to the river god Hapi in order to ensure that the waters of the Nile would continue to flow and flood abundantly.

She was known by Egyptians as the Bride of the Nile. In later times, the human sacrifice was replaced by a clay effigy in the form of a girl, which was thrown into the Nile yearly to appease the god. This festival and the custom of choosing a young virgin to represent the Bride of the Nile was mentioned by Egyptian Historian Al Maqrizi (1364-1422) who wrote that the custom was practiced in Egypt until the arrival of Islam, when the Caliph Omar Ibn El Kattab banned the pagan ritual. Tourists in Egypt reported seeing the ritual of throwing the clay effigies into the Nile as late as the 1700s and 1800's.