A towering pylon
About 36 m of reliefs.
Marie Thérèse Hébert & Jean Robert Thibault — CC BY-SA 2.0 · A. Parrot — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Chabe01 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Chabe01 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · lienyuan lee — CC BY 3.0
The best-preserved temple of ancient Egypt, built in the Ptolemaic era between 237 and 57 BC and dedicated to the falcon-headed god Horus. Its survival almost complete, roofs and walls included, makes it the clearest picture of what an Egyptian temple was like at its height. You are greeted by a towering pylon about thirty-six metres high, covered in huge reliefs of the king smiting his enemies, its entrance guarded by two black granite statues of Horus as a falcon. Then comes a broad colonnaded courtyard and hypostyle halls that grow darker as you approach the sanctuary, where the stone shrine that once held the god's statue still stands. Its walls carry rich texts telling the myth of the struggle between Horus and Seth and details of the temple's building and rites, making it one of the most important sources for the ancient Egyptian religion in its later centuries. A foreign visitor's ticket costs about five hundred and fifty Egyptian pounds, and it opens from seven to five. It lies about a hundred and five kilometres north of Aswan and is usually combined with Kom Ombo on a day trip or on a Nile cruise between Luxor and Aswan.
About 36 m of reliefs.
In black granite.
Its shrine still in place.
Edfu, on the west bank of the Nile, roughly halfway between Aswan and Luxor
It lies roughly halfway, so either works for a day trip; the easiest plan is to pair it with Kom Ombo, or visit on a Nile cruise.