Kom Ombo Temple
The city of Kom Ombo is located on the eastern bank of the Nile between Edfu and Aswan, 45 km north of Aswan and 137 km south of Luxor. Also, on the road leading to the oases and Sudan…
Kom Ombo, one of the important cities in the first region of Upper Egypt, was known in the ancient Egyptian language as “Nebit”, which means golden due to the presence of gold mines near it. It was mentioned in the Greek language as “Ambos”, and then in the Coptic “Ambo”, The word kom was added to it in Arabic, which means hill or plateau so that the meaning becomes the hill of gold.
Most historical studies indicate that “Kom Ombo” was one of the sacred provinces of the ancient Egyptians since prehistoric times. The main fame of Kom Ombo is due to the presence of one of the rarest temples in it, whether Egyptian or Ptolemaic temples, dedicated to the god “Hore Ra” and the idol Sobek and the city of Kom Ombo was mythically associated with the story of the conflict between the two gods, Horus and Sobek…
This legend tells that Horus, the good, the great, was expelled by his evil brother Sobek from the town, and all the townspeople followed him into exile. Gold and money in the land instead of cultivating grain, until the land dried up and became a barren desert with no plants or water, and the city went to its sudden end, according to legend. Still, the strange thing is the presence of the ruins of an ancient city, which indicates that it had perished due to a fire Huge, and this could be just a coincidence or accident…….
Kom Ombo Temple
It is a temple founded to worship the god Sobek, who symbolizes him with the head of a crocodile, and the worship of the god Horus, who symbolizes him with the head of a falcon. 205-180 before the birth of Christ, and the construction of the temple evolved in the era of “Ptolemy VI” to the era of “Ptolemy VIII”, which completed its construction until the hall of columns, except for the inscriptions that were completed during the era of the Roman Emperor “Tipurius”, and Emperor “Domitian” added some additions to it. His name was recorded there, and the temple’s construction continued during the reigns of the Roman emperors “Caracalla, Geta, Macrinus” until 218 AD to take its construction about 400 years. Sobek, meaning the house of Sobek, dates back to the era of King Thutmose III.
The Kom Ombo Temple is distinguished by its historical landmarks that highlight the ancient Roman civilization, which is evident in its design and decoration, in addition to decorating the temple with Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions that are characterized by accuracy and harmony that illustrate their lifestyle and high living, in addition to the presence of a “doctor” panel that shows the surgical tools used at that time. For the treatment of patients, in which scissors, scalpels, cups, hooks and other tools used by the ancient Egyptian appear, there is also a painting in the temple that shows the completion of one of the surgical operations performed in the past…
The Temple of Kom Ombo is characterized by the presence of the many columns in it, as it was designed to consist of an external pillared hall, followed by a smaller pillared hall, which extends to the inner courtyards that end with the two compartments designated for the worship of the gods Horus and Sobek. This temple was dedicated to the worship of two deities, which was strange at the time, as it was famous for the worship of good and evil in the same place. He killed her and mummified her to prove the defeat of the evil forces represented in Sobek, where mummified crocodiles were found next to the temple.