Kom Ombo

Kom Ombo (Arabic كوم أمبو, DMG Kum Umbū; Coptic ⲉ ⲙ ⲃ ⲱ Embo ) is a city on the banks of the Nile in Upper Egypt, about 40 kilometers north of Aswan and 150 kilometers south of Luxor. The more than 75,000 inhabitants ( Calculation: 2010) scoring village is located, how many of the Upper Egyptian settlements on the east side of the Nile.

The area of Kom Ombo is dominated by agriculture, but also contributed by the sugar cane to build up large sugar factories. It is known Kom Ombo ( com Arabic for small mountain ) for the 8 km south of the village Darau ( Daraw ) held the largest camel market in Egypt and the ruins of the ancient Egyptian Temple shared directly on the Nile.

Kom Ombo was wearing different names in ancient times. First, under the ancient Egyptian form of the name Nbyt (pronounced " Nubet " or " Nubyt " ) announced the place was called in the Ptolemaic period Omboi (Greek Ὄμβοι ) or Ombos ( Ὀμβος ). From the name Ombi derived in the Roman era. But the Latin ambo has survived from this period, followed by the subsequent Coptic form Embo involved.

Location

Kom Ombo is located in the southern part of Egypt on the Nile, 55 kilometers north of Lake Nasser, in the midst of a fertile plain on both sides of the river, which has a north- south extent of about 25 km and an east- west distance of up to 30 kilometers. It is irrigated to about 12,000 hectares by the waters of the Nile and used for agriculture. This is followed, in the east of the Arabian Desert in the west, the Libyan Desert to.

The place belongs administratively to the province Aswan ( Aswan ). The Sudanese border in the south is about 270 km, the Red sea 200 km to the northeast. With Aswan and Kom Ombo Luxor along the Nile is connected by a railway line, the main town on the east leads past. The center of the village is located three kilometers north east of a bend of the Nile, the downstream turns here on five kilometers to the west.

With the province capital of Aswan Kom Ombo is out of the path connected by a road that runs south of the Nile on the eastern bank. There is also the closest Aswan International Airport. However, most important artery for Kom Ombo, the Nile, on the run that are important for the tourism river cruise ships from Luxor to Aswan and freight traffic is handled to Lower Egypt. The pier of the trains running on the Nile cruise ships is located right next to the double temple, about 70 meters west of the temple complex.

History

Kom Ombo was under the ancient Egyptian name Nbyt part and the main town of the fifth nome of Upper Egypt Netjerui. The place is covered under this name for the first time in the First Intermediate Period. From the Middle Kingdom, very few radicals, such as a decorated grave chamber come. In the Ptolemies of Egypt, 304-31 BC, the then Omboi (also Ombos ) remained next to Elephantine administrative center of the district. On the banks of the Nile, was today still built south of the actual town open to visitors double temple, which served the worship of the gods Sobek, the crocodile god, and the falcon-headed Haroeris.

The ruins of the double temple of Kom Ombo were up more than half buried by sand for a long time. They were uncovered and restored in 1893 under Jacques de Morgan. Before the temple was to the 19th century a large Mammisi ( " Birthplace ") of Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II However, about two feet above the average lying Nile flood destroyed most of the building including the western part of the enclosure.

The inhabitants of present-day Kom Ombo live next to the tourist from sugar cane and cotton. The place gives despite its relatively high population with its unpaved roads more like a large village than a city. Between 1963 and 1965, 60,000 Nubians were resettled in 34 villages in the area that had to leave their homes because of the rising waters of Lake Nasser after the construction of the Aswan High Dam on the Nile south of Aswan. Overall, the number of settlers amounts to over 100,000 people. Many newly built villages were named today in Lake Nasser submerged villages of origin, as Kalabsha, Amada and Abu Simbel.