Around 110 kilometers north of Aswan lies the city of Edfu with its famous temple. The Ptolemaic temple, which was built between 237 and 57 BC, is one of the best preserved ancient monuments in Egypt. The temple is dedicated to Horus, the avenging son of Isis and Osiris, and was preserved by the desert sand that had accumulated on the site after the pagan cult was banned. With its intact roof, it is also one of the most atmospheric ancient buildings. Edfu was a settlement and cemetery site from around 3000 BC. It was the "home" and cult center of the falcon god Horus of Behdet (the ancient name for Edfu), although the Horus Temple in its present form is Ptolemaic. The sandstone temple was begun in 237 BC by Ptolemy III on the site of an earlier, smaller building from the New Kingdom and completed 180 years later by Ptolemy XII. In its conception and design, it follows the general plan, scale, ornamentation and traditions of pharaonic architecture, right down to the Egyptian dress of the Greek pharaohs depicted on the temple's reliefs. Although it is significantly younger than the cult temples at Luxor or Abydos, its excellent state of preservation helps to fill in many historical gaps.