EDFU  , in Coptic Atbo, a

town of Upper Egypt, 484 M . S.S.E. of Cairo by rail, on the W. bank of the Nile, the railway station being on the opposite side of the river . Pop . (1907) 19,262 . The inhabitants manufacture earthenware, which finds ready sale all through Egypt . The ancient Atbo (Apoilinopolis Magna) was capital of the second nome of Upper Egypt . The great sandstone temple is practically complete (see ARCHITECTURE: Egypt) . It was built on the site of an earlier structure entirely in the time of the Ptolemies . The central part of the building, begun by Ptolemy III . Euergetes in 237 B.C., was finished by his successor in 212; the portico, court, pylons and surrounding wall were added by Ptolemy Euergetes II., Soter . II. and Alexander I.; but the decoration was not finished till 57 B.C. in the reign of Ptolemy XIII . Neos Dionysus .

The

god of Atbo was a form of Horns (Apollo) as the sun-god; his most characteristic representation is as the disk of the sun with outspread wings, so often seen over the doors of shrines, at the top of stelae, &c . In the temple, where he is often figured as a falcon-headed man, he is associated with Hathor of Dendera and the child Harsemteus . See Baedeker's Egypt ; Ed . Naville, Textes relatifs au mythe d'Horus recueillis dans le temple d'Edfou . (F . LL . G.) .