The Temple of Horus (Edfu)
Located on the west bank of the Nile, about halfway between Esna and Kom Ombo, the Ptolemaic temple of Horus at Edfu(also known as the Temple of Edfu) is probably the best-preserved temple in Egypt, and indeed in all the ancient world. This partly because it was built later than most: in the Ptolemaic era from 237 to 57 BC. Yet despite its later date, it exactly reflects traditional pharaonic architecture and so provides an excellent idea of how all the temples once looked. Edfu is also very large: the second largest in Egypt after Karnak Temple.
The falcon-headed Horus was originally the sky god, whose eyes were the sun and moon. He was later assimilated into the popular myth of Isis and Osiris as the divine couple's child. Raised by Isis and Hathor after Osiris' murder by his brother Seth, Horus avenged his father's death in a great battle at Edfu. Seth was exiled and Horus took the throne, Osiris reigning through him from the underworld. Thus all pharoahs claimed to be the incarnation of Horus, the "living king."
The Temple of Edfu was abandoned after the Roman Empire. It lay buried up to its lintels in sand, with homes built over the top, until it was excavated by Auguste Mariette in the 1860s. The sand protected the monument over the years, leaving it very well preserved today.