The Temple of Kom-Ombo
Second stop on
our cruise was The temple of Kom-Ombo , thirty
miles from Aswan. Situated on a dune over
looking the Nile it's a walking distance from
where the boats are berthed. It is one of the
most picturesque temples and I feel the best
time to visit it is in the evening when the
evening sun lights the monument in warm colours.
The cloud formations and the sun set are often
spectacular as you will see in the pictures.
The temple was located in the ancient city of
Pa-Sebek, "the Domain of Sobek", the crocodile
god. It is actually two temples, dedicated to
Sobek and Haroeris, 'divided' by a row of
columns (picture 11).
The crocodile-headed Sobek was god of fertility
and creator of the world, and Haroeris or the
ancient falcon-headed Horus, the solar war god.
This was why the temple was called both "House
of the Crocodile" and "Castle of the Falcon". In
ancient times, sacred crocodiles basked in the
sun on the river bank near here. A small chamber
has two mummies of the sacred crocodiles.
The temple was started by Ptolemy VI Philometor
in the early second century BC and finished
during the Roman period & 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.
