Hapi The god of the inundation of the Nile. He was usually depicted as a fat man with pendulous breasts, a sign of abundance and fertility. On his head are usually a number of water plants, his body is sometimes painted blue and sometimes has depictions of water lines. The most important cult areas for Hapi were in Aswan and Silsila, near the 1st cataract. It has been proved that although the inundation waters were very important for Egypt, Hapi played a relatively minor role in the religion. This is explained by the fact that Osiris was also regarded as the lord of the inundation and the Nile water; the rising of the waters was linked with the resurrection of the god. The crocodile god Sobek, too, whose domain was the waters of the Nile, was worshipped as the bringer of the inundation. From the Old Kingdom down to the Graeco-Roman Period, the lowest registers of many temple walls depict a procession of personified nome gods, in the form of Hapi, usually with the emblem plants of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt on their heads. They are bearing the rich offerings of the whole land. A completely different god, whose name is pronounced by us in the same way (but was written differently), is Hepi, one of the four Sons of Horus. Nile The River Nile is over 6,700 kilimeters in length, and the longest river in the world. It is fed by various rivers, the most important of which are the Blue Nile and the White Nile. For a dry country like Egypt, the water of the river has always been vital. The annual inundation of the Nile spread fertile mud over the banks which together with the water made agriculture possible. Calling Egypt 'the gift of the Nile' is extremely apt. The ancient Egyptians thought that the waters of the Nile came from Nun, the primeval water under the earth. At Elephantine it came up through a hole in the earth. There are several Nilometers here, one of which is linked to the sacred lake of the temple of Khnum, one of the gods of Elephantine. This god's particular task was to ensure the inundation, which was itself personified as the god Hapi. In the eyes of the Egyptians, at least from the New Kingdom on, the creator god had not only taken care of Egypt by creating the Nile, but also other countries; they may not have had the Nile itself, but vegetation was nevertheless made possible thanks to rainwater, which came from a Nile in the sky .