Chichester International
Snake 'not guilty of killing Cleopatra'
It has been widely believed that Cleopatra, the ancient queen of Egypt, had killed herself with an asp, Egyptian cobra.
According to the legend, Cleopatra got bitten by this poisonous snake, which was hidden in a basket of figs, on her breast. Not only did this snake kill the queen, but also two of her maids.
Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley and Andrew Gray, curator of herpetology at Manchester Museum,
say the supposed culprit - a cobra - would have been too physically big to be concealed in the way that has been portrayed.
Cobras are typically 5-6ft long and can grow to 8ft (2.5m). It would be difficult to conceal them in the basket.
Even if such a snake had been smuggled in to Cleopatra, they say it would have been very unlikely that it could have killed Cleopatra and two of her servants in quick succession.
There is only 10 percent chance of dying from a cobra bite. Most of the bites are dry bites which don’t inject venoms. However, that's not to say they aren't dangerous: the venom causes necrosis and will certainly kill you, but quite slowly. So it would be impossible to kill three people one after another.
Do you think he is guilty of killing the queen?
If he was really innocent, he has been wrongly accused for such a long time!