The City of Esna:
The sleepy farming town of Esna lies on the western bank of the Nile, just south of a sandstone dam across the river, built in 1906.
Known as Latopolis by the ancient Greeks because the Nile perch (lates in Greek) was worshipped here, Esna is today best known for the Temple of Khnum. This Graeco-Roman structure was designed to resemble a much earlier temple on the site, built by 18th-Dynasty pharaoh Tuthmosis III.
Both temples were dedicated to the ram-headed god Khnum, who, according to one of the Egyptian creation myths, fashioned mankind out of Nile clay using a potter’s wheel.
Gradually, repeated flooding by the Nile buried the Graeco-Roman structure under layers of silt and mud, and the modern town of Esna was built on top of it. Excavation work on the site began in the 1860s but this has only cleared one part of the temple, the hall, which was built during the reign of the Roman emperor Claudius (AD 41-54).
Today this well-preserved hall stands in a huge excavation ditch 10 m (33 ft) below street level in the center of town. Its roof, which remarkably is still intact, is on the same level as the foundations of the surrounding houses.
The facade of the hall is inscribed with the cartouches of Roman emperors Claudius, Vespasian (AD 69-79) and Titus (AD 79-81). Inside the hall, the last emperor mentioned is Decius, who died as late as AD 249.
The roof is supported by 24 columns inscribed with hieroglyphs and fascinating texts describing the sacred festivals of Esna and recording hymns to the god Khnum. The bright colors of the astronomical ceiling have faded but it Granite statue of the is Still possible to make out the zodiac register, remarkable for its subtlety and detail.
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