Unusual Double Temple Of Kom Ombo Dedicated To Crocodile God Sobek And Falcon-Headed God Horus

Ellen Lloyd – AncientPages.com – There are not many ancient Egyptian temples dedicated to two gods. Temple Of Kom Ombo is unusual in that sense that it honors both the ancient Egyptian crocodile god Sobek and the falcon-headed god Horus.

Located in the small town of Kom Ombo situated on the East side of the Nile, 45 kilometers to the North of the city of Aswan, about 800 kilometers to the South of Cairo, the capital of Egypt, the double temple was constructed by Ptolemy VI Philometor (180-145 BC) at the beginning of his reign and added to by other Ptolemys, most notably Ptolemy XIII (51-47 BC), who built the inner and outer hypostyle halls. It was built on the ruins of a much older temple which was called “Ber Sobek” or the house of the god Sobek.

Temple of Kom Ombo
Temple of Kom Ombo. Image credit: Wikipedia

This older temple was erected during the reign of King Tuthmosis III and then during the ruling period of Queen Hatshepsut.

The word “Kom” in Arabic means the small hill and the word “Ombo”, in the Hieroglyphic ancient Egyptian language, means the gold. Therefore, the word Kom Ombo, as a whole, means the “hill of the gold”.

The southern half of the temple was dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, god of fertility and creator of the world with Hathor, the ancient Egyptian goddess of joy, feminine love, and motherhood and Khonsu, the ancient Egyptian god of the moon.  The northern part of the temple was dedicated to the falcon god Horus, whose winged disk that protects from all evils is depicted over all the entrance portals. Horus was one of the most significant gods of ancient Egypt.

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