The Temple of Khnum at Esna

Modern Egyptian village of Esna, which was the old Ta Iunyt or Senet (from which snow Esna Coptic and Arabic derived), was built in the area of the old Latopolis is an important temple site dedicated to the god Khnum. Under the Greeks and the Romans, and the city became the capital of the third name of Upper Egypt. Besides Khnum, the temple dedicated to different gods, the most prominent of whom was Neith, Heka. This was the ram who was worshiped God through this area and who fashioned mankind from Nile clay on a potter's wheel.
Esna is located about fifty miles south of the city of Luxor. The temple is now in the center of the modern city on the level of about nine feet below that of the surrounding grounds. However, according to the texts that have been built at the site of the temple can be built early in the reign of Thutmose III. Some blocks of the structure of the former strain to maintain 18th. The current structure dates from the periods of Greek and Romanian and is one of the last temples built by the ancient Egyptians.
Although the hall only columns were excavated by Auguste Mariette, and was well preserved. Other remains of the temple buried under the buildings near the town of Haditha. The back wall of the columns of the hall is the oldest part of this building, having been a front for the old Ptolemaic (Greek) temple. The representation of both Philometer Ptolemy VI and VIII. The remainder of the building which was built by the Romans (Claudius through Decius) and some of the history of decoration, such as late third century.
Ceiling of the room, which can not remain unchanged, with the support of four rows of six in height (forty feet) columns with capitals of different compounds floral design that retain some of their original color. It is decorated with texts describing the religious celebrations of the city and several Roman emperors before the gods. One of the columns shows the emperor Trajan Menheyet dance before God. The front of the room in the form of a wall screen between the columns along the lines of Dendera and Edfu temples. This structure before the crash, may be similar to the temples. The group, which is still in the structure of the Esna very regular and symmetrical in design with the exception of a small camera in the southern part of the entry, and may serve as a Hall Pass priests. This feature is also present in Edfu. Interface of this structure is about forty meters wide by seventeen feet.
Ornaments and inscriptions in the Temple of Khnum and often performs well and some of particular interest. There's a scene representing the king bird of compensation, and said to represent the spirit of hostilities, and on the north wall, and the topics are still very ancient Egyptian. However, other representations, and gives the king a wreath of flowers to the gods, represented in a column in the back of the room is certainly a new basis. Decoration of the south wall was carved from Septimus Servus and his sons, Geta and Caracalla, which represents the various gods. Hall roof columns show the Egyptian astronomical figures in the northern half of the signs of the zodiac and Romania in the southern half.

It is also interesting text in the temple, including a pair of hymns to Khnum cyptographic, one written almost entirely with hieroglyphs of rams, and others, written with crocodiles. These are located in the corners of columns and the front of the small doors that used by the priests to enter and exit the temple. Other texts, scored four of small temples in the region is likely that contacts with a range of the temple, despite the fact that anyone had survived. A temple dedicated to Isis, small and built by Ptolemy IX Soter II and Cleopatra Cocce in the West Bank of the River Nile near the city of Hilla (Contralatopolis) that was recorded during the campaign of Napoleon. He was the victim to build an office building in 1828. Another temple mentioned in the text have been drilled in the Kom Mer, south of Esna.
In the courtyard in front of the temple is a statue of the goddess Menheyet Menhyt you are a lion or unknown-headed goddess called the presumption of Khnum in Esna. Here, there are also in the early building blocks for the Christian church. There is a pattern found in the back of the mass of the emperor Decius decreed that Christians face death if not to sacrifice to pagan gods.

Originally associated with the temple through the celebration of the River Nile, where the old pavement, decorated with cartridges Marcus Aurelius, there is still significant.