Temple of Khnum (Esna)

The Temple of Esnan Khnum, also known as the Temple of Esna, dedicated to the god Khnum, his consorts Menhit and Nebtule, their son Heka and the goddess Neith, was a remarkable site for its beauty and architectural grandeur. . The Temple of Esna shows how important the ancient Egyptians considered their places of worship. All Egyptians who entered the confines of an Egyptian temple had to “observe strict rules of ritual purity.”.

Overview

It was built of red sandstone, and its entrance hall consisted of six rows of four pillars, each with lotus leaves (cheque), but all different from each other. The temple has very late hieroglyphs originating from the reign of Decius (249-251 AD). Another temple from the same period has been identified about 12 km south of Kom Mer, but it cannot be excavated because a modern village has been built over it. In a village about two and a half miles north of the city, now called el-Dayr, there was a smaller temple dedicated to the Triad of Latopolis. There is also a small horoscope from the time of Ptolemy III Euergetes (246-221 BC).This last building was destroyed in the 19th century because it was in the way of a new canal. The Esna Temple was cleared of soil and debris that filled the area when Vivant Denon visited and served as a cotton warehouse in the mid-1800s.

With the exception of the Thutmose II (Eighteenth Dynasty) gatepost now turned into a threshold, the remains of Latopolis belong to the Ptolemaic or Roman period. Ptolemy III Euergetes, the restorer of so many temples in Upper Egypt, was a benefactor of Latopolis and is depicted on the walls of that temple, followed by a tame lion smiting the chiefs of his enemies. The name of Ptolemy V Epiphanes is also carved into the doorway. Although the scale of the ruins is impressive, their sculptures and hieroglyphs testify to the decay of Egyptian art. On the west wall are the reliefs of Ptolemy VI Philometor and Ptolemy VIII Physcon. The only surviving pronaos is similar in style to the pronaos at Apollonopolis Magna (Edfu) and was begun as early as the reign of Claudius (AD 41-54) and completed in the reign of Vespasian, whose name and titles are carved on the dedicatory inscription over the entrance. On the ceiling (inspect) of the pronaos is the larger Latopolitan Zodiac. The name of the emperor Geta, the last ruler’s name that can be read in hieroglyphic, although partially erased by his brother and murderer Caracalla (212), can still be read on the walls of Latopolis. It seems that the Romans even destroyed the basements of the earlier Egyptian temple before building their own building. The ceremonial custom that apparently connected the pier with the temple has disappeared. There are drawings of Marcus Aurelius on the platform.