Kom
Ombo is an agricultural town in Egypt
famous for its temple. It was originally
a Greek settlement called Ombos, from
the Egyptian 'nubt', meaning City of Gold.
The town's location on the Nile 50 km
north of Aswan gave it some control over
trade routes from Nubia to the Nile Valley,
but its main rise to prominence came with
the erection of the temple in the 2nd
century BC. Today, irrigated sugar cane
and corn account for most of the agricultural
industry. Most of the 60,000 villagers
are native Egyptians although there is
a large population of Nubians who were
displaced from their land upon the creation
of Lake Nasser. The Temple of Kom Ombo
is an unusual double temple built during
the Ptolemaic Period in the Egyptian town
of Kom Ombo.
One
side of the temple is dedicated to the
crocodile god Sobek, god of fertility
and creator of the world. The other side
is dedicated to the falcon god Haroeris,
also known as Horus the Elder. The temple
was started by Ptolemy VI Philometor (180-145
B.C) at the beginning of his reign and
added to by other Ptolemys, most notably
Ptolemy XIII (47-44 B.C.), who built the
inner and outer hypostyle halls. Much
of the temple has been destroyed by the
Nile, earthquakes, and later builders
who used the stones for other projects.
Some of the reliefs inside were defaced
by Copts who once used the temple as a
church. A few of the three-hundred crocodile
mummies discovered in the vicinity are
displayed inside the temple.
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