A mammisi is a birth house — not an actual gyneacological hospital, of course, but a symbolic chapel of the birth of Osiris. The birth house here is the first building you come to as you enter the grounds, outside the main temple.

It was built by the Romans to replace a much-ruined tample build by Nectaneba in the 30th Dynasty. The earlier bulding was partially destroyed when they built the wall around the temple There are interesting carvings of Bes, the god of childbirth here..