Spring in Egypt Part 6 - Kom Ombo Temple

On our 4th day in Egypt, after cruising the Nile from Aswan for a few hours, we arrived at Kom Ombo just before sunset. As soon as our cruise ship docked, we disembarked and walked over to Kom Ombo Temple. It was a nice and short early evening walk along the riverside.

That evening was either a full moon or close to a full moon. I couldn't really tell without my glasses but for the next few days the moon looked pretty round to me.

The Kom Ombo Temple caught me by surprise. It had many interesting things to see in and around it. It was dedicated to the Egyptian gods Sobek (the one with crocodile head) on one side, and Horus on the other side. The two sides are perfectly symmetrical along the main axis.

Back in the days, they used to keep crocodiles in the temple as a representative of Sobek. These crocs were mummified when they died. On this site were found three hundred crocodile mummies, some of which are displayed at the nearby Crocodile Museum.

Papyrus shaped pilars

Chopped pillars

There were a few other things that impressed me at this temple, one of which is the very first written calendar known to men. This calendar is a solar calendar (following the earth's rotation around the sun) that had 30 days in a month and 12 months in a year. This was before they realised that it took 5.25 extra days to make a full year... That is 365 days a year and a leap year every four, in case you're still calculating.

This ancient calendar is carved on one of the walls of temple. This calendar served not only as a day indicator but was used as a schedule for their annual and periodical tasks in relation to planting and harvesting. On the far right column it shows the date and month, while the columns to the left show the things that needed to be done.

At this temple we were able to see how they had stacked the stones and held them together to create the walls. At the edges of two adjacent stone blocks, they carved a bowtie shaped hole. Then they would carve a wooden stick of the same shape, twice higher to lock them in. Then two more blocks with the same shaped hole will be placed on top, having one wooden stick locking four stone blocks in place.

On a different wall, we saw reliefs that is believed to represent medical tools used at that time. The shapes are very similar to our current modern medical tools. Along with the tools, a wash basin is also depicted in the relief. Most likely it was used to disinfect the tools. The wall with this carving is located in the temple's recovery area. Sick people used to come to this temple and wait in the hallways to wait for the god's advise, and this scene can be found on one of its walls as well. On that scene, they pictured the one and only Egyptian god who is known to really have walked on earth amongst men and that is Imhotep, the father of ancient architecture and medicine. This is the same Imhotep that designed the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara.

In the picture below, drawn sitting in the middle top with spread out wings and a feather on her head is Maat, their goddes of justice. She was the one who oversees the judgement of Osiris who weighs the heart against a feather to decide where one goes after death. Pictured above her is Heru Wer which is a winged sun disc with a cobra on either side, that is also a form of Ra the sun god in the evening. (Miss Kiki says that he has 4 different forms.)

Kom Ombo temple looked pretty with the lights casted on the walls and pillars. We left the temple after some picture taking and we proceeded to the Crocodile Museum. afterwards. We saw the crocodile mummies inside but picture-taking was not allowed without a special ticket.