The Temple Of KomOmbo
The small town of KomOmbo is situated on the East side of the Nile, 45 kilometers to the north of the city of Aswan and about 800 kilometers to the south of Cairo, the capital of Egypt.
Surrounded by fields of sugarcane and corn, KomOmbo is a pleasant agriculture town that now hosts many Nubians
displaced when the Nile flooded their hometowns after the construction of the Nasser Lake.
The imposing Greco Roman Temple of KomOmbo directly overlooked the Nile. This is why virtually every Nile cruise that sails near the area includes a visit to this temple.
The Name KomOmbo
The word “Kom” in Arabic means the small hill and the word “Ombo”, in the Hieroglyphic ancient Egyptian language, means “the gold”. Therefore, the word KomOmbo means the hill of the gold.
During the Coptic period, the word was slightly changed to become Enbo, and when the Arabic language became common in Egypt, the word became “OmbThe Temple of KomOmbo was constructed on the ruins of a much older temple called “BerSobek”, or the house of the god Sobek.
The temple of KomOmbo was built during the period from 205 till 180 BC in the ruling period of King Ptolemy V, The construction process of the temple went on for many years afterward from 180 till 169 BC with each king having his addition to the complex.
A large part of the Temple of KomOmbo, including the hypostyle hall, was built during the reign of Emperor Tiberius, from the year 81 till 96 BC. Work on the temple went afterward for more than 400 years during the ruling period of Emperors Caracalla and Macrinus until the middle of the 3rd century AD.
The Ptolemies have constructed the Temple of KomOmbo for the worship of two gods, Sobek; the crocodile god, and Horus, the falcon god,That is why the complex mainly consists of two parallel temples that include all the traditional components of such ancient Egyptian religious structures are present in the two temples
The Temple of KomOmbo was constructed mainly with limestone in the shape of a rectangle, The design of the Temple of KomOmbo starts with a front courtyard, a hypostyle hall following that, afterward there are three inner halls, and then two sanctuaries; one dedicated to Sobek and the other to Horus
To the sides of the inner halls, there are seven chambers; three of them situated in the eastern section of the temple while the others are located in the western part.
The Temple of KomOmbo features two sanctuaries dedicated to the two gods of the temple; Sobek and Horus. They consist of two similar rectangular halls which are thought to be among the most ancient sections built in the temple, as they were constructed during the reign of Ptolemy VI.
The birthplace of the Temple of KomOmbo is located in the South Eastern section of the complex and it was constructed during the period of Ptolemy VII. This structure consists of an outer courtyard that leads into a front hypostyle hall that leads in turn to another two halls where rituals of the birth of the son of the gods were carried out.
The Chapel of Hathor is located in the North Eastern section of the Temple of KomOmbo and it consists of a rectangle shaped chapel constructed higher than the ground and reached through climbing some steps. The chapel is 5 meters long and 3 meters wide.
Inside the chapel of Hathor are three glass galleries displaying three mummies of crocodiles representing the god Sobek. The facade of the chapel has a portrait displaying Hathor sittingin front of the entrance.
The Nilometer:
In the North Western section of the complex is a circular well that was used as a Nilometer, a tool that the ancient Egyptians used to measure the level of the water of the Nile, it is connected to a smaller water well.
On the inside of the temple’s back wall is a truly remarkable scene! It shows the first illustration of medical and surgical tools, which are being presented to a seated god. Here you will find 2,000-year-old depictions of scalpels, suction caps, bone saws, and dental tools!
