Our last official stop on our cruise was the Kom Ombo Temple. As far as sights go, this was among the youngest we visited, and dates to 180-47 BC. This period is known as the Ptolemaic Era, and corresponds to Alexander the Great’s conquest of a huge chunk of the known world. After his conquest, Ptolemy– a foreigner!– was installed as the king of Egypt.
Kom Ombo was a dual temple dedicated to Sobek (the crocodile god) and Horus (the falcon god). Two millennia ago it was a significant site for the cult of Sobek, and after touring the temple we visited 20+ crocodile mummies, crocodile eggs, Sobek statuettes, and crocodile figurines at the Crocodile Museum.
I’m not sure why the faces are vandalized on this one– I might have asked at the time but long forgot the answer! Usually the Coptic Christians vandalized depictions of the gods as idolatry. But these are just images of slaves– you can tell because their hands are bound behind their backs– lots and lots of slaves…
At Kom Ombo, much of the carving seemed a bit more refined– less deep, and with greater attention to detail. Case in point: the beautiful tendrils in this lion’s mane:
This thing that looks like you could stick a giant key into it is a Nile-o-meter. It was used by the priests at the temple to measure the strength of the annual Nile floods. Why did the priests concern them with such things? Because the flood levels would determine how large the harvest would be, and the priests would know what to expect in terms of receipts from the countryside. Death and taxes– inevitable even in antiquity.
As we prepared to get on the boat, I caught the local water fountain in action. We had walked past these terra cotta pots before and I hadn’t paid them much notice. Then I saw this boy walk up, remove the lid, and fish out a tin mug to scoop some water out.
We caught a lovely view of Kom Ombo as the boat pulled away from the dock:
