Kom Ombo travel guide

Kom Ombo (Egyptian Arabic: كوم أمبو; Coptic: ⲙ̄ⲃⲱ əmbō or ⲛ̄ⲃⲱ ənbō; Ancient Greek: Ὄμβοι Omboi or Ὄμβος Ombos; or Latin: Ambo and Ombi) is an agricultural town in Egypt famous for the Temple of Kom Ombo. It was originally an ancient Egyptian city called Nubt, meaning City of Gold (not to be confused with the city north of Naqada that was also called Nubt/Ombos).

Kom Ombo sits in an irrigated basin on the east bank of the Nile, producing sugar cane and corn. The reason to visit is its temple, built from circa 180 BC into Roman times; there is sure to be much older building beneath this area that has not yet been excavated. The climate is hot desert, pleasantly warm in winter and blisteringly hot in summer. Imagine the slave labourers excavating and erecting the monumental stone in this heat.

There's a guesthouse in town, and a couple of others on the river island facing the temple, but no confirmation that they are still in business (as of April 2020). So unless a local agent can fix you up, plan on visiting Kom Ombo on a day trip or as a stopoff along the Luxor-Aswan road.

Getting in

Trains from Cairo take 10 hr to Luxor then another 3 hr via Esna and Edfu to Kom Ombo station, continuing to Aswan. There are 10-12 per day, so you should be able to avoid an early-hours arrival or departure. The temple is 5 km southwest of the station, so a taxi might be LE20 or a tuk-tuk LE10, or just walk. Four of these trains, badged "Ordinary", stop at multiple little wayside halts, including Naj al Shatb al Kabir 5 km further south and only 2 km from the temple. There are few facilities here (though tuk-tuks wait 200 m north).

Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.