KOM OMBO TEMPLE

The Temple of Kom Ombo is an unusual double temple made for two sets of gods.. It was constructed during the Ptolemaic dynasty, 180–47 BC. Some additions to it were later made during the Roman period.

The southern half of the temple was dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, god of fertility and creator of the world with Hathor and Khonsu.

The northern part of the temple was dedicated to the falcon god Haroeris/Harwer ("Horus the Elder"), along "with Tasenetnofret (the Good Sister, a special form of Hathor or Tefnet/Tefnut ) and Panebtawy (Lord of the Two Lands)".

The temple is atypical because everything is perfectly symmetrical along the main axis

HAD UNTAMPERED LUNCH OUTWITTING THE DRIVER [So petty and mean of us!]

Our driver had opened our food bag and spilled the sandwich fillings, even fully finished our cashewnuts when we had left the bag in the car on 2 occasions.

Thankfully the other days we had to carry our bag because he was only dropping us. [he had another customer]

this time all our baggage was in the boot, I had kept the food bag inside one bag and only left the spare water in the car seat.

So we asked the driver to open the boot, collected our lunch, walked to the Nile bank and had the food.

YAY!! He had not opened it

There was a stray cat which needed shooing and a horde of kids trying to sell stuff.

after the lunch, we bought the ticket and walked to the temple

the relief sculpture is typical of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, with very deeply carved sunken reliefs on the exterior walls and columns, and fine quality bas-relief on the interior walls. Much of the relief is covered with a very thin layer of plaster, and the original color survives in many places

Roman emperors recognized how much the ancient Egyptian were passionate about their gods so they portrayed themselves with Egyptian god figures to win respect and loyalty of common Egyptians .

Roman emperor Domitian is seen on the entrance pylon with the divine triad Sobek, Hathor and Khonsu beside 52 long lines of hieroglyphic writings , emperor Tiberius is shown on the columns of the temple rendering homage and making offerings to the gods .

Sobek and Horus

Hypostyle hall

Pharoah making offerings to Sobek and Hathor

Sobek

Horus/Harwer

Pharoah making offerings to Sobek and Hathor

Sobek and Hathor

Surgical instruments

towards the left end of the rear wall, is the famous scene in which the king (Trajan) presents a group of ritual and/or surgical instruments. Some of these implements were certainly used in the practice of the cult, but other may very well be medically related.

pilgrims came to Haroeris, Horus the Elder, who was the healer, to be treated for their infirmities. They apparently waited in the temple's hallways where game boards were scratched into the stones of the floor.

HEARING EARS AND SEEING EYES

In the rear part of the temple is the false door at the center of the back, outside wall of the sanctuary area, which is modified and expanded to include a central niche flanked by hearing ears and seeing eyes and the figures of the two gods.

Sobek is on the left, with a lion-headed scepter or baton, and Haroeris, on the right, with a strange human-legged knife.

Between the two gods a double hymn extols them, and

above the niche, along with the figure of Nut who holds up the sky, the figures of the four winds are represented by a lion, a falcon, a bull and a many-headed serpent. This oddly echoes the later Christian use of the ancient images of lion, eagle, bull and man as symbols of the four Gospel writers.

Pharoah adoring Lion faced Goddess Sekmet and Hathor

Sobek

FESTIVAL CALENDARS

The well west of the temple is complex in design and, because of the temple's elevation above the river, very deep. Like other wells in temple enclosures, it allowed pure water, in theory from the primeval waters themselves, to be drawn within the sacred area, avoiding pollution from the outside world.

Near the well is also a small pond where live crocodiles are believed to have been raised.