Kom Ombo (
Egyptian Arabic: كوم أمبو;
Coptic: ⲙ̄ⲃⲱəmbō or ⲛ̄ⲃⲱənbō;[2]Ancient Greek: ὌμβοιOmboi[3][4][5] or ὌμβοςOmbos;[6] or
Latin: Ambo[7] and Ombi) is an agricultural town in
Egypt famous for the
Temple of Kom Ombo. It was originally an
Egyptian city called Nubt, meaning City of Gold (not to be confused with the city north of Naqada that was also called Nubt/Ombos). Nubt is also known as Nubet or Nubyt (Nbyt).[8] It became a Greek settlement during the Greco-Roman Period. The town's location on the
Nile, 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of
Aswan (Syene), gave it some control over trade routes from
Nubia to the Nile Valley, but its main rise to prominence came with the erection of the
Temple of Kom Ombo in the 2nd century BC.
In antiquity the city was in the
Thebaid, the capital of the
Nomos Ombites, on the east bank of the
Nile; latitude 24° 6' north. Ombos was a garrison town under every dynasty of Egypt as well as the
Ptolemaic Kingdom and
Roman Egypt, and was celebrated for the magnificence of its temples and its hereditary feud with the people of
Dendera.
Ombos was the first city below
Aswan at which any remarkable remains of antiquity occur. The Nile, indeed, at this portion of its course, was ill-suited to a dense population in antiquity. It runs between steep and narrow banks of sandstone, and deposits but little of its fertilizing slime upon the dreary and barren shores. There are two temples at Ombos, constructed of the stone obtained from the neighboring quarries of Hagar Silsilah.
The more magnificent of two stands upon the top of a sandy hill, and appears to have been a species of Pantheon, since, according to extant inscriptions, it was dedicated to
Haroeris and the other deities of the Ombite nome by the soldiers quartered there. The smaller temple to the northwest was sacred to the goddess
Isis. Both, indeed, are of an imposing architecture, and still retain the brilliant colors with which their builders adorned them. However, they are from the Ptolemaic Kingdom, with the exception of a doorway of sandstone, built into a wall of brick. This was part of a temple built by
Thutmose III in honor of the crocodile-headed god
Sobek. The monarch is represented on tress, the doorjambs, holding the measuring reed and chisel, the emblems of construction, and in the act of dedicating the temple.
The Ptolemaic portions of the larger temple present an exception to an almost universal rule in Egyptian architecture. It has no propylon or dromos in front of it, and the portico has an uneven number of columns, in all fifteen, arranged in a triple row. Of these columns, thirteen are still erect. As there are two principal entrances, the temple would seem to be two united in one, strengthening the supposition that it was the Pantheon of the Ombite nome. On a cornice above the doorway of one of the adyta, there is a Greek inscription, recording the erection, or perhaps the restoration of the sekos by
Ptolemy VI Philometor and his sister-wife
Cleopatra II, 180-145 BCE. The hill on which the Ombite temples stand has been considerably excavated at its base by the river, which here strongly inclines to the Arabian bank.
The crocodile was held in especial honor by the people of Ombos; and in the adjacent catacombs are occasionally found mummies of the sacred animal. Juvenal, in his
15th satire, has given a lively description of a fight, of which he was an eye-witness, between the Ombitae and the inhabitants of Dendera, who were hunters of the crocodile. On this occasion the men of Ombos had the worst of it; and one of their number, having stumbled in his flight, was caught and eaten by the Denderites. The satirist, however, has represented Ombos as nearer to Dendera than it actually is, these towns, in fact, being nearly 100 miles (160 km) from each other. The Roman coins of the Ombite nome exhibit the crocodile and the effigy of the crocodile-headed god Sobek.
In Kom Ombo there is a rare engraved image of what is thought to be the first representation of medical instruments for performing
surgery, including
scalpels,
curettes,
forceps,
dilator,
scissors and medicine bottles dating from the days of Roman Egypt.
At this site there is another
Nilometer used to measure the level of the river waters. On the opposite side of the Nile was a suburb of Ombos, called Contra-Ombos.
The city was the seat of a
bishop during
Late Antiquity. Two bishops of Omboi are known by name, Silbanos (before 402) and Verses (402).[11] Under the name Ombi, it is included in the
Catholic Church's list of
titular sees. Karol Wojtyła (the future
Pope John Paul II) was titular bishop of Ombi from 1958 until 1963, when he was appointed Archbishop of
Kraków.[12]
Most of the 60,000 villagers are native Egyptians, although there is a large population of
Nubians, including many
Magyarabs[14] who were displaced from their land upon the creation of
Lake Nasser.
In 2010, plans to construct a new $700m 100 MW (130,000 hp) solar power plant near the city were unveiled by the Egyptian government.[15]
Medical instruments image at the Temple of Kom Ombo, showing scalpels,
forceps, scissors, plus prescriptions and two goddesses sitting on
birthing chairs.
A painting from the ceiling of the temple at Kom Ombo.
^Lassányi, Gábor; Gergely Lantai-Csont (2014). Eltűnő Núbia: Válogatás Lantai-Csont Gergely szudáni fotóiból [Disappearing Nubia: Selection from Gergely Lantai-Csont's photos from Sudan]. Translated by Zsolt Magyar. Budapest: BTM. pp. 16–23.
ISBN978-615-5341-09-0.