Temple Of Esna
Walking through Egypt’s cities and villages, you’ll always find a piece of history telling stories about our ancestors; and Esna is not an exception. Esna is a small city on the west bank of the Nile where you can find the Temple of Esna or the Temple of Khnum.
Where is Esna and the Temple of Khnum?
Esna is 55 km south of Luxor and around 780 km far from Cairo, the capital lies on the west bank between Luxor and Aswan. It was also called Senat during ancient Egypt, and later, the Greeks called it Latopolis.
Temple of Khnum
It’s believed that Thutmose III had started the construction of this temple, but it wasn’t completed until the Ptolemaic and Roman periods (40 to 250 AD). Khnum god, who was worshipped in this temple, was one of the oldest Egyptian deities ever known. He was depicted as a human with a ram head. He was the guardian of the Nile River source; that’s why he had a unique position among all the gods; as for the Egyptians, the Nile is the source of life till now.
24 Lotus flower
- To enter the temple, you’ll pass through a hall of columns, with 6 rows of 4 columns each; the main hall has 24 columns with lotus-leaf capitals.
- The walls are covered by inscriptions showing Roman and Ptolemaic Emperors offering sacrifices to Khnum. They were dressed like Pharaohs, and it’s believed that they were trying to earn Egyptian trust.
- One of the wall reliefs shows God Horus and God Khnum pulling a net full of fish from the Nile. The description written in hieroglyphic inscriptions is the last known and recorded dating from the reign of Decius (249 to 251 AD).
- The main entrance has rooms on both sides that were used once by priests as storerooms.
- Esna is one of the marvelous cities of Egypt, and a midpoint between two water levels that requires a lock system so the boats and Nile cruises could pass through. A visit will be exceptional and full of experience.
