The Temple of Suchos and Haroeris lies in the heart of the Wadi Kom Ombo, a valley some 37mi/60km long and 16mi/25km wide which opens out immediately south of the Silsila Gorge. The chief place in the valley is the busy market town of Kom Ombo (pop. 25,000). This area of fertile alluvial soil, engulfed in the course of many centuries by the
desert sand, has been irrigated and brought under cultivation since the beginning of the 20th C. by the privately owned Kom Ombo Company and now produces large quantities of sugar-cane (refined in a large local refinery) as well as cotton and vegetables. There has also been some development of stock-farming.