The Temple
of Kom Ombo is built on a high dune overlooking the Nile and when
our ship docked at the small harbour of Kom Ombo late in the evening,
the time honoured temple welcomed us towering the city with bright
floodlight - a marvellous sight!
It is a double
temple, which was probably begun by Ptolemy VI Philometor (180-164
BC). Other Ptolemies and even Romans also contributed to various
parts of it.
The unique feature of this temple is the unification
of two adjacent, symmetrical temples, each dedicated to a distinct
divinity - the northern to Horus the Elder, the falcon
headed god of the Egyptian Mythology, and the southern temple
to the crocodile headed god Sobek.
That's why it is
called a "double
temple".According to the legend in ancient
times sacred crocodiles basked in the sun on the river bank near
here. A few of the three-hundred crocodile mummies, discovered in
the vicinity, are displayed in the chapel of Hathor.
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