The Town of Kom Ombo I

This volume is the first in a series of monographs dealing with the research of the Cairo Branch of the Austrian Archaeological Institute at the site of Kom Ombo. Kom Ombo is situated approximately 45 km north of Aswan on the east bank of the Nile. The archaeological site of Kom Ombo lies some three km from the modern town, next to the river. Nowadays it is a protected area, containing the remains of the ancient tell that lies around three sides of the well-preserved Ptolemaic temple which makes Kom Ombo one of the main tourist destinations in Egypt. The Cairo Branch of the Austrian Archaeological Institute has a long-term research interest in settlement archaeology. A new project was started at Kom Ombo (in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (MoTA)) in 2017, with the aim of investigating the ancient town and its hinterland. This volume presents an overview of the Kom Ombo site and its history before the Egyptian/Austrian mission began its excavations. The publication gives an overview of the settlement history of the site, the research history, Kom Ombo as seen in the visual arts, the transformation of the landscape of Kom Ombo and, as the last chapter, the magnetic survey which was undertaken in 2018. The new research provides an important insight into the site, which had hardly been explored before, and makes a significant contribution to the understanding of this important town in Upper Egypt.