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 because it honors both the ancient Egyptian crocodile god Sobek and the falcon-headed god Horus.

Left: Falcon-headed god Horus. Image credit: Jeff Dahl - CC BY-SA 4.0; Middle: Temple Kom Ombo. Image credit: Dennis G. Jarvis - CC BY-SA 2.0; Right: Sovk (Suchus, Cronos, Satrune); by Jean-François Champollion; 1823–1825; Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois - Brooklyn Museum, New York City - Public Domain

Located in the small town of Kom Ombo, situated on the East side of the Nile, 45 kilometers north of the city of Aswan, about 800 kilometers 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 Ptolemies, 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 called "Ber Sobek" or the house of the god Sobek.