Ombo is an agricultural town 50 km north of Aswan, known best for the Temple of Kom Ombo.
It was originally an Egyptian city called Nubt, meaning City of Gold. There are two temples at Ombo.
The more magnificent of two stands upon the top of a sandy hill it was dedicated to the god Apollo.
The smaller temple to the northwest was sacred to Isis. They are of the Ptolemaic age, with the exception of a doorway of sandstone, built into a wall of brick.
This was part of a temple built by Thutmoses III in honor of the crocodile-headed god Sobek.
The crocodile was held in especial honor by the people of Ombo; and in the adjacent catacombs are occasionally found mummies of the sacred animal.
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, forceps, scissors and medicine bottles dating from the days of Roman Egypt.
Most of the 60,000 Ombo villagers are native Egyptians, although there is a large population of Nubians who were displaced from their
and upon the creation of Lake Nasser.
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