Temple of Kom Ombo
— — two gods, one wall, the river still bright.
Not only on a wall.
“A Ptolemaic temple raised on a low rise above the Nile, dedicated equally to the crocodile-god Sobek and the falcon-god Horus the Elder. Begun under Ptolemy VI in the second century BC and finished under the Roman emperors, it is the only ancient Egyptian temple built with a perfectly mirrored double axis. The river below still carries the felucca traffic the temple was placed to bless.
Temple of Kom Ombo, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Kom Ombo sits on the east bank of the Nile in Aswan Governorate, Upper Egypt, about 48 kilometres north of Aswan and 168 km south of Luxor. Construction began under Ptolemy VI Philometor around 180 BC and continued through the reigns of later Ptolemies and Roman emperors into the third century AD. The temple is unusual for being doubled: two parallel sanctuaries, two hypostyle halls, two sets of reliefs, dedicated to Sobek and Horus the Elder respectively. The neighbouring Crocodile Museum, opened in 2012, displays mummified Nile crocodiles excavated nearby.
The temple is built of local Nubian sandstone, the same material used at Edfu and Philae. The Nile has cut into the bluff over two millennia and taken most of the original forecourt with it; what remains is the inner temple, the columned halls, and the twin sanctuaries. A relief on the inner passage wall depicts a set of surgical instruments, forceps, scalpels, and bone-saws among them, which are among the earliest such depictions known. The cartouches identify the emperors Trajan and Domitian among the donors.
Open daily, roughly 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., with longer hours in peak winter season. Entry is ticketed through the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities; the same ticket covers the Crocodile Museum next door. Most visitors arrive by Nile cruise between Luxor and Aswan and walk up directly from the riverbank; the temple is the only major site reached on foot from the boat. Light is best in the first hour after sunrise; midday is fierce from October through April.