Temple of Horus at Edfu is the most well-preserved and the only one we know to have been completed. Built from sandstone blocks the huge Ptolemaic temple was constructed over the site of a smaller earlier temple, oriented east to west, towards the river.

The later structure faces north to south and leaves the ruined remains of the older temple pylon to be seen on the east side of the first court. Little is known about the first temple of Horus at Edfu, but there is inscriptional evidence that New Kingdom rulers Seti I, Rameses II and III did building work there. From building texts inside the later Ptolemaic temple which survives today, we know that this was begun by Ptolemy III Euergetes I in 237 BC, but was not completed until 57 BC.