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Temple at Kom Ombo : Kom Ombo, Egypt : Trip Report

Temple at Kom Ombo

Quote of the day: Is this a temple of Horus or a temple of whores?

This temple is beautiful simply because it's high up on a hill right on the banks of the River Nile. The boats dock right on the bank and for once no shuttle bus is necessary as we can just climb a few sets of stairs.

The temple here is an unusual dual-purpose temple where both the crocodile god Sobek and the falcon god Horus (sometimes spelled Haroeris) are worshiped. The temple is split down the middle with one side for Sobek and the other for Horus.

Despite this temple not being in the best of shape, it does have a couple cool features. One is the relatively few peddlers trying to sell crap and the other is a room with three mummified crocodiles. Two of them were in remarkably good shape. Another feature is they have an exhibit of ancient Egyptian surgical instruments. We were running out of time and the line to see them was WAY too long and moving WAY too slowly.

The Sunray was having a special "Egyptian Night" that night where there would be an Egyptian-themed costume party, Egyptian food, etc. The girls decided to get a jump on it and started dressing up on the cruise up to Kom Ombo. So they were all tramped-up when we got there and went on the tour that way. I think they got more attention then the temple did. Tourists from just about every country approached them to ask them to take a picture. This time not only was there a row of Japanese tourists taking pictures of them but there was also a Japanese group that had the same idea and were already dressed up as well.


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Next: Visiting the City of Aswan.