Although it is usually attributed to the Ptolemies, who restored this temple on the ancient trade routes from Nubia to the north and put it back into use after a long period of inactivity, it is much older and has been abandoned and rebuilt many times. For example, Ptolemy VI Philometor in the 2nd century BC only renovated and expanded the older Kom Ombo temple, which was from the 18th dynasty, and then French archaeologist Jacques de Morgan in 1893.
Dine has “discovered” and cleaned off the layers of sand.
The temple has suffered damage for millennia from soil erosion due to the flooding of the Nile, frequent earthquakes, and the use of stone blocks for the construction of other buildings in the vicinity. Some of the reliefs were also removed by the Copts, who used the temple as a church in the past.
The basic structure of the temple complex
Kom Ombo is divided into two equal parts along its longitudinal axis. The left side of the temple is dedicated to Horus the Elder or Haroeris, and the right side to Sobek-Ra. Underground tunnels and rooms connect the temple into a single entity.
From the satellite image, it is evident that the entire temple complex was once surrounded by a wall of baked bricks, dividing the sacred space from the profane. A road led from this wall to the Nile. The main entrance to the temple complex is now ruined, and behind the site where it once stood are the remains of an open courtyard with a colonnade from the Roman period, featuring sixteen painted columns, eight on each side of the main axis. In the center of the courtyard, at the point where the main axis passes through, there are the remains of a large altar. Today, the preserved base of the granite pedestal on which the holy ark was placed during the procession is still being lied about. Five columns in the shape of lotuses and a wall with two parallel entrances separate the inner courtyard from the first hypostyle hall. They are oriented towards the entrances to the sanctuaries of Horus the Elder and Sobek-Ra in the lower part of the temple complex.
Next is the first or outer hypostyle hall, whose two central columns lie on the axis and divide the space into two parts that are also directed towards the inner sanctuaries. A significant part of the ceiling decorated with spread wings and astronomical depictions is preserved in it.
Two separate entrances lead to the second inner hypostyle hall, and through the “Hall of Sacrificial Offerings,” which was accessible only to priests, and two additional small, now demolished rooms used for storing sacred texts and objects used during festivals, we come to the heart of the temple complex – the parallel sanctuaries of Sobek-Ra and Horus the Elder, with their corresponding chambers on both sides. Between the sanctuaries was a covered area where the priest would stay during certain ceremonies and pronounce prophecies through a niche in the false doors. This area was accessed from an underground crypt.
From the outer courtyard and the first hypostyle hall, magnificent walls continue, surrounding the entire temple and forming an outer and inner hallway. Between the outer hallway and the wall surrounding the entire complex are the remains of a sacred, circular, now dried-up spring with a nilometer, as well as the sanctuary of the goddess Hathor with the remains of mummified crocodiles and their clay coffins, excavated from an animal graveyard near the temple. Near the spring, there was a small pool for the sacred crocodiles, and in the northwest part of the temple complex, there are remains of the “House of Birth” of Ptolemy VII, which was destroyed in the 19th century during the flooding of the Nile.
The earthly and heavenly Kom Ombo
In accordance with the ancient Egyptian desire to harmoniously unite the earthly with the heavenly and thus open the soul. The door to the eternal and transcendent, and the temple complex in Kom Ombo is a reflection of a part of the sky. Its longitudinal axis is oriented in the direction northeast-southwest, and when the geographical map and the sky map overlap, we realize that the sanctuary of Sobek-Ra overlaps with the position of the Crocodile constellation. The sanctuary of Horus the Elder indicates the Sun at zenith during the summer solstice, according to more recent astronomical calculations, around eight thousand years before Christ, giving it an incredible pre-dynastic age. These theories of the great age of Kom Ombo are also confirmed by the temple reliefs depicting Egyptian deities in the manner described in the oldest Pyramid Texts, which will take on significantly different theological characteristics in later periods of Egyptian history.
Sekhmet, the goddess of fate and satisfied justice.
The depiction of a seated physician holding a staff or rod called uas, meaning “great peace”. Next to him, prescriptions for various medical preparations are inscribed, and on the side are images of medical procedures and the instruments used. surgeon’s equipment. In some of them, we can recognize similarities with today’s instruments.
A depiction of a Pharaoh between Horus and Thoth. Also known as the Initiation.
A plaque located at the entrance of the temple depicting Horus the Elder and Sobek-Ra.
Relief Depictions
The temple reliefs in Kom Ombo contain depictions from the lives of gods and pharaohs, calendar texts, and descriptions of sacred traditional knowledge. At the entrance itself, there is a plaque with the deities to whom the temple sanctuaries are dedicated: Horus the Elder and Sobek-Ra. Throughout the temple, these two gods and their celestial families share the same power, each on their respective side of the central axis. The right side is dedicated to Sobek, his celestial wife Hathor, and their son Khonsu-Hor. The left side is dedicated to Haroeris, the “Good Healer” or the Celestial Bird Horus the Elder. His feminine aspect is depicted as Ta-Sent-Nofret, the “Good Sister,” also a form of the goddess Hathor, and their celestial son Pa-Neb-Taui, the “Master of Both Lands.” Sobek’s symbol of power is a staff in the shape of a powder is transformed into a crocodile by Sobek, who is depicted as a miraculous knife with human legs. As the first deity in ancient Egyptian symbolism, Sobek emerges from the chaotic waters of Nuna to create the world. Due to his role as a creator, he is associated with the Sun and considered the messenger of the god Amon-Ra, the Spirit of the Sun, earning himself the title Sobek-Ra. In the cosmic world, Sobek-Ra corrects wrongdoing and heals illnesses. He is depicted as a crocodile or an anthropomorphic figure with a crocodile head and a solar disk. As the protector of pharaohs, he wears a royal ureus on his head. In one of his aspects, Sobek is identified with Seth, the twin brother of Horus, who transforms into a crocodile in the myth of Osiris. The myth of Osiris is a story of death, purification, and resurrection, told through the symbolic alchemical language of the Egyptians. In this myth, Seth dismembers Osiris’ body and scatters it throughout the entire universe. Devastated, Osiris’ virgin sister Isis gathers the scattered body parts and. The wife and sister of Isis, touched by the wing of the celestial Solar Bird, Horus the Elder, are enraptured in a miraculous way and give birth to Horus the Younger, who assists her in collecting the scattered parts of Osiris’ body. In the myth, they succeed in their endeavor and after three days, Osiris resurrects into his new celestial abode, the constellation Orion.
Haroeris or Horus the Elder is also one of the oldest solar Egyptian deities, who has held the title Father of the Gods since the XVIII dynasty. He was depicted as a winged solar disk, while Horus the Younger represented only the Sun, which is born every morning from the waters, carried on a lotus flower. In later periods, their symbolic meanings merge into one god, Horus.
The following suggestive relief is found only in the temples of Philae and Kom Ombu. It is usually dated to the Roman period and referred to as a relief of Ptolemy Neos Dionysus during the purification performed by Thoth and Horus. However, in older texts, this image is called “depiction of initiation” and describes a scene. in the hall where these two gods pour the water of birth and the water of life onto the candidate’s head. The water currents intersect and create an overhang of the keys of life or ankh.
On the inner wall of the same external hypostyle hall, the coronation of Neos Dionysus is depicted, attended by Horus the Elder, Sobek-Ra, and the goddesses of the north and south, Wadjet and Nekhbet, while in the next depiction in the same hall, the pharaoh offers sacrificial offerings to the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet, the goddess of destiny and satisfied justice.
The reliefs of Kom Ombo are also known for their lists of festivities. One of them states: …The list of celebrations in the order of events… and all their rituals…: 1. Akhet, day one: Appearance of Horus, Lord of Ombos,… Sobek, Lord of Ombos, Ta-Sent-Nofret, Hathor, Lord of Two Lands, and Mina. Mina’s appearance on every new moon… resting in the House of Birth… 2. Akhet, day ninth: public appearance of Horus in the temple of Ombos… 3. Akhet, day 23: festival dedicated to Khonsu…
We conclude our journey through the temple complex of Kom Ombo. With an interesting relief. It is a relief on the wall that surrounds the temple and depicts medical prescriptions and instruments: scalpels, forceps, bottles, scissors, scales, hooks, birettes, and various other equipment. The depiction of an instrument that many recognize as a precursor to today’s stethoscope is also interesting. This important medical aid was invented by the Frenchman René Laennec in the 19th century. On the left side of the instruments, there is a depiction of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius offering a pectoral to the goddess Ta-Sent-Nofret.
Although ruined and extensively modified, the ancient Kom Ombo still radiates the golden glow of its two masters, the Sun Gods Sobek-Ra and Horus the Elder. It is still the City of Gold.