Well, perhaps that should be in the past tense:

Pre-Islamic Middle Eastern regions were home to mysterious snake cults, according to two papers published in this month’s Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy journal.

From at least 1250 B.C. until around 550 A.D., residents of what is now the Persian Gulf worshipped snakes in elaborate temple complexes that appear to have been built for this purpose, the studies reveal. [...]

Most of the snakes were depicted with triangular heads and scales, which Benoist said suggests “a viper species, which is striking, as they are venomous and therefore dangerous.”

Indeed.