Esna

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Tourist bazaar

The Egyptian city of Esna (known in antiquity as Egyptian: Iunyt or Ta-senet, Greek: Λατόπολις transliterated as Latopolis, Strabo xvii. pp. 812, 817 or πόλις Λάτων, Ptol. iv. 5. § 71 or Λάττων, Hierocl. p. 732; Itin. Antonin. p. 160, Laton; Latin: Lato) is located on the west bank of the River Nile, some 55 km south of Luxor.

1 The ancient city
2 Modern Esna
3 References
4 External links

[edit] The ancient city

The name "Latopolis" is in honour of the Nile perch, Lates niloticus, the largest of the fifty-two species which inhabit the Nile (Russegger, Reisen, vol. i. p. 300), which was abundant in these stretches of the river in ancient times, and which appears in sculptures, among the symbols of the goddess Neith, associated by the ancient Greeks as Pallas-Athene, surrounded by the oval shield or ring indicative of royalty or divinity (Wilkinson, M. and C. vol. v. p. 253).

The tutelary deities of Latopolis seem to have been the triad – Kneph (Chnuphis), Neith (Satè), and Hak, their offspring. The temple was remarkable for the beauty of its site and the magnificence of its architecture. It was built of red sandstone, and its portico consisted of six rows of four columns each, with lotus-leaf capitals, all of which however differ from each other. (Denon, Voyage, vol. i. p. 148.) But with the exception of the jamb of a gateway – now converted into a door-sill – of the reign of Thutmose II (Eighteenth Dynasty), the remains of Latopolis belong to the Macedonian or Roman eras. Ptolemy III Euergetes, the restorer of so many temples in Upper Egypt, was a benefactor to Latopolis, and he is painted upon the walls of its temple followed by a tame lion, and in the act of striking down the chiefs of his enemies. The name of Ptolemy V Epiphanes is found also inscribed upon a doorway. Yet, although from their scale these ruins are imposing, their sculptures and hieroglyphics attest the decline of Egyptian art. The pronaos, which alone exists, resembles in style that of Apollonopolis Magna (Edfu), and was begun not earlier than the reign of Claudius (41-54 AD), and completed in that of Vespasian, whose name and titles are carved on the dedicatory inscription over the entrance. On the ceiling of the pronaos is the larger Latopolitan Zodiac. The name of the emperor Geta, the last that is read in hieroglyphics, although partially erased by his brother and murderer Caracalla (212), is still legible on the walls of Latopolis. Before raising their own edifice, the Romans seem to have destroyed even the basements of the earlier Egyptian temple. There was a smaller temple, dedicated to the same deities, about two miles and a half north of Latopolis, at a village now called E´Dayr. Here, too, is a small Zodiac of the age of Ptolemy III Euergetes (246-221 BC). This latter building has been destroyed in the 19th century, as it stood in the way of a new canal. The temple of Elsneh has been cleared of the soil and rubbish which filled its area when Denon visited it, and served as a cotton warehouse in the mid-19th century. (Lepsius, Einleitung, p. 63.)

[edit] Modern Esna

Two barrage bridges straddle the Nile at this point: one built by the British in 1906, and the "Electricity Bridge" built by the Italians in the 1990s. Navigation – particularly, Nile cruisers ferrying tourists from Luxor to Aswan, 155 km further upstream – can be held up for hours while vessels negotiate their way through the lock system.

Temple of Khnum

The two main points of interest in Esna are its lively tourist-oriented souk, which fills a couple of streets leading inland from the corniche. The other is a small Ptolomaic-era temple dedicated to the god Khnum. Construction work on this temple began under Ptolemy VII and continued under the Romans (Claudius and Marcus Aurelius, in particular, left major marks on the structure). The temple, which has only been partially excavated, is set at a depth of some 10 metres lower than the surrounding city streets.