Esna is a city located approximately 60 km south of the ancient capital of Luxor in Egypt.
The holy barque with the shrine of Khnoum, the main deity of Esna, carried by several priests. Image credit: Ahmed Amin / Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Dedicated to the Egyptian deity Khnum, the temple of Esna is one of the last examples of ancient Egyptian temple architecture.
Only the vestibule, called the pronaos, of the original temple complex survived, because it was used as storage facility for cotton during the 19th century CE.
The building measures 37 m long, 20 m wide, and 15 m tall, and was decorated mainly during the Roman period (1st to 3rd century CE).
“The pronaos of the temple in Esna is a sandstone structure which was erected in front of the actual temple building before or during the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius (41-54 CE) and was probably much larger than the temple itself,” Professor Christian Leitz from the Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Tübingen and his colleagues said in a statement.
“Its location in the middle of the city center probably contributed to the fact that the vestibule was preserved and was not used as a quarry for building materials as other ancient edifices were during the industrialization of Egypt.”
“Over the past 1,800 years, local people lit fires in the temple vestibule,” they added.
“As a result, the once-colorful wall and column decorations were blackened.”
“Over the past six years, a team of up to 30 Egyptian revealed the colors of the astronomical images covering the entire ceiling as well as the colors of the 18 inner columns.”
“A new phase of restoration began this year. Specialists finished restoring the southern inner wall and the southern part of the western rear wall.”
“They brought to light the original colors with dominant yellow and red pigments, marking a sharp difference from color schemes found elsewhere, for example at the temple of Dendara, where white and light blue predominate.”
The king’s apron with plant decoration: the papyrus (top) is the emblem of Lower Egypt and the lily (bottom) the emblem of Upper Egypt. Image credit: Ahmed Amin / Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
The team’s biggest discovery this year was the details of the clothing on the king and the deities of Esna, their crowns and their thrones.
“Previously, we could not see them at all due to the thick layer of soot over the reliefs,” Professor Leitz said.
“All these painted details are an integral part of the offering scenes which cover the inner walls of the temple.
“We knew about the hieroglyphic texts and the reliefs; but the freshly-uncovered decorations on the throne images have their own meaning.”
“In a scene depicting an offering of bow and arrow to the goddess Neith, our conservation team uncovered four painted bows in the lower part of the throne, perhaps part of originally nine bows — a reference to the ‘nine bows’ as a designation for Upper and Lower Egypt and seven other territories ruled by the king of Egypt.”
“Another example is the apron of the king in one of the offering scenes.”
“It is decorated with two plants: the papyrus (top) is the emblem of Lower Egypt, and the lily (bottom) the emblem of Upper Egypt, symbolizing that the king is the ruler of the two parts of the country.”
“Perhaps the most spectacular scene is the one with the holy barque of the local deity Khnoum which carries the shrine of the god.”
“This boat is carried by several priests who are bringing it out from the innermost part of the temple in a procession, so that on special occasions the people of Esna could at least see the closed shrine of the god.”
“For the rest of the year it was hidden in the temple to which only the priests had access.”