Monday, February 15, 2010

Kom Ombo Temple

Upon disembarking our falucca, after three days of sailing, we got in a van and drove about 20 min to Kom Ombo Temple.

The Temple of Kom Ombo is an unusual double temple built during the Ptolemaic dynasty in the Egyptian town of Kom Ombo. Some additions to it were later made during the Roman period. The building is unique because its 'double' design meant that there were courts, halls, sanctuaries and rooms duplicated for two sets of gods. 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. Meanwhile, the northern part of the temple was dedicated to the falcon god Haroeris, also known as Horus the Elder, along "with Tasenetnofret (the Good Sister, a special form of Hathor) and Panebtawy (Lord of the Two Lands)." The temple is atypical because everything is perfectly symmetrical along the main axis. (Copied and pasted from Wikipedia).







These columbs, which stand outside the temples main entrance were cut by Muslim invader for use in building a mill of some sort.










A series of inscriptions are in the temple showing and naming many of the known theives of the day. This picture shows what is done to theives here: they are forced to allow a lion to eat off their hand.





This temple had some of the best preserved wall carvings of any of the temples or ruins I saw. The number of hours it would have taken to do this would be astonishing. The work on the walls stands in contrat with the temple of Ramses II in which most of the paint is still easily visible on the wall carvings. The style of wall sculpting can also be seen to bee much more detailed in Kom Ombo then in the temples erected earlier.





A view of Kom Ombo from the coartyard

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