Templum Hori, Apollinopolis Magna
About
Best-preserved of Egypt's classical-era temples, dedicated to the falcon-god Horus. Ptolemaic construction (237–57 BCE) — long complete and in active worship by 117 CE under Roman rule.
What happened here
The building itself is a house for the god, and most people never go inside. Everything public happens on the steps and at the altar in front: an animal led up, examined, killed cleanly, its organs read, the meat divided and eaten. The priest covers his head and a flute player keeps up a noise so no ill-omened word is heard. Worshippers leave what they can afford — a terracotta figure, a coin, a model of the body part they want healed — and the accumulated clutter is periodically cleared and buried on site. On festival days the doors are opened and the cult statue is dressed, garlanded, and sometimes carried out through the streets. The temple also holds money, which is why towns keep their treasury in one.
In ancient writing
- Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride (Moralia) 50
Plutarch describes the custom at Apollonopolis (Edfu) of hunting and ritually killing crocodiles every year and casting the carcasses down opposite the temple, explained through the myth of Typhon (Set) escaping Horus in crocodile form.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →