The Temple of Kom-Ombo
Egypt Tours and Travel
About halfway between Luxor and Aswan lies the temple of Kom Ombo. This temple is unusual as it consists of two adjacent temples, each dedicated to a different god. One half is dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, and the other to Horus.
The temple, built by the Ptolemys, is in a fairly good state of preservation, with an unusually large amount of the original color still visible on the stonework.
The temples’ reliefs show the usual mixture of gods and rulers. In this case, Sobek, Hathor, and Horus share the space with Ptolemaic rulers such as Ptolemy XII and Roman emperors Tiberius and Domitian.
One of the most striking reliefs in the temple shows an offering of medical equipment to the deified Imhotep, the architect of the step pyramid at Saqqara.
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This relief dates to the end of the second century AD, and shows a remarkably high level of medical technology, with tweezers, forceps and various other modern-looking utensils clearly visible.
The temple of Kom Ombo was built quite late in Ancient Egyptian history. This relief shows that the Cartouches were cut, but no rulers’ name was ever inserted.
