Kom Ombo is located about 45 km north of Aswan and 120 km south of Luxor. The plain of Kom Ombo extends over 450 square kilometers to the east of the Nile which widens in this area and the river winds to the west. The basin created by this is filled with late Pleistocene river sediments.

The name Kom Ombo is derived from the ancient Egyptian name Nibyt or Nbw (»the golden one«). The modern Arabic name means »Hill of Ombo«. Attested by inscriptions since the first intermediate period, Kom Ombo became an important administrative center of Egypt starting in the Ptolemaic period.

Archaeological find sites from the late Paleolithic (about 15,000-12,000 BCE) are located in the basin of Kom Ombo. The city has been settled since the Old Kingdom at the latest. Epigraphic sources attest to temples and private tombs from the Middle and New Kingdom.

The construction of the still visible temple began under Ptolemy VI Philometor (186-145 BCE); during his rule a large part of the relief decoration of the temple took place. Even for the rule of the Roman emperor Macrinus (217-18 CE) work on the temple has been verified.