Esna temple or Temple of Khnum is a magnificent a Ptolemaic temple dedicated to the ram-headed god Khnum who was looked upon as the one who made the world and nature. It is situated in beautiful Esna city of Egypt and is close to the west bank of the majestic Nile River. Made in the 2nd century BC, this temple is ranked among the most outstanding and well-preserved ancient Egyptian temples.

The Temple Of Esna

The temple of Esna is a quintessential example of the most brilliant of the Egyptian architectural features. It was constructed with lovely sandstone, and the whole temple is very heavily decorated with deeply carved figures and reliefs. The front façade of the temple is amazingly gorgeous and can be recognized from very tall pillars and richly colorful decorative motifs. The historical inscriptions tell us that the temple was built over the ruins of an older one that might have been the time of Tuthmosis III. There are some traces of the original 18th Dynasty building. The current building from the Greek and Roman period, is one of the last temples of the ancient Egyptians.

History Of Esna City

Throughout its history, Esna has been a major port city and a center of religious importance closely linked to the ram-headed god Khnum. It became a crucial political center and a significant trading place during the Middle Kingdom (2040 – 1782 BC) and the New Kingdom (2550 – 1070 BC) respectively. In the Roman period, Esna was famous for its cloth and pottery production and thus became a large trading center due to various trade routes. The city was abandoned by the 7th century CE, and a large number broken pieces are scattered in present-day Esna. Now, Esna is enticing people with its well-known

Temple Of Esna Location In Egypt

485 miles from the present-day Cairo along the Nile, the town of Esna can be found on the west bank of the river. Along with the former names such as Senat in ancient Egypt and Latopolis given by the Greeks, Esna, which means "the city of the fish" (where the perch fish was considered as a god), is the place where the Temple of Esna is located.

The God Khnum Facts

Khnum was one of the earliest-known Egyptian deities in Upper Egypt, originally associated with the Nile cataract. He held the responsibility of regulating the annual inundation of the river, emanating from the caverns of Hapi, the deity embodying the flood. Since the annual flooding of the Nile brought with it silt and clay, and its water brought life to its surroundings, he eventually became known as the creator of human bodies, Using a potter's wheel and clay, he fashioned these entities and placed them within their mothers' wombs. Often, his creative endeavors were overseen by another god. He was later described as having moulded the other deities, and was revered as the creator of the animal kingdom.

Esna Temple History In Egypt

The Temple of Esna, a place dedicated to the ram-headed god Khnum (the god of creation), was started during the reign of King Tuthmosis III in the 18th Dynasty. However, it was completed in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, thus dated between 40 and 250 A.D. The temple walls hold the inscriptions that refer to the characters involved in the creation of the temple as the creators of the temple, the ones known as the temple of Khnum.

Esna Temple Restoration

The Khnum Temple was a victim of nature and time for a long period and only in the 19th century was it rediscovered. The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities have been in charge of the temple restoration and the efforts to revive its vibrant colors and the exquisite details have been going on for quite some time. To achieve this restoration, archaeologists and preservationists who recorded the temple’s decor, worked on the restoration of the wall paintings, and also on the re-coloration of the temple were involved. The group removed every bird deposit and replaced every broken block. The greatest part of the work was done on the roof of the Esna temple thus opening up for the first time in hundreds of years the breathtaking scenes and the colors there.

Temple Of Esna Inside

The temple of Esna is an architectural marvel which includes a large hall that is supported by 24 red sandstone columns. The columns have lotus and palm capitals. The walls have reliefs in four rows which depict Ptolemaic and Roman emperors offering to the god Khnum. Other features that matter the most are a ceiling that is richly decorated with celestial figures, rooms for storing goods on both sides of the door, and a holy place with a statue of Khnum.

The Rituals In The Temple Of Ancient Esna

As you enter the Temple of Esna, the first thing that you see is the precision of the work that was done. Being a temple considered to be a place of worship, the ancient Egyptians who made use of it were very careful about their own ritual purity. From the inscriptions of the temple, one can deduce that the people who wanted to get into the temple had to follow strict rules like cutting their nails, washing their hands with a salt called natron which comes from the earth, dressing in linen and not having sexual relations for some days.

Esna Temple Architecture

-The Temple Esna's Facade:

The temple's façade is fitted with half or curtain walls whose primary function is to hide the temple and keep the secrets of the rituals that are held inside. The external and internal walls are divided into four rows or registers, each register providing a full view. In fact, the temple views represent the Ptolemaic kings on the western wall, and the Roman emperors in pharaonic styles as presenting themselves. There are also gifts, offerings, and sacred flowers made to the temple gods (Khnum - Manhat - Nepot) as well as other gods (Min - Sobek - Isis). Some of the main facade views of the temple include the emperor being purified by two gods Horus and Thoth who are shown with purification vessels and life symbols before the god Khnum. Moreover, there is a depiction of the north and south gods leading the emperor to the temple, the northern side showing the emperor’s coronation.

-The Hypostyle Hall Of The Esna Temple:

The amazing part of the Esna Temple or the Temple of Khnum is undeniably its hypostyle hall which consists of 24 columns each about 37 feet tall. Different floral capitals decorate these columns which support a decorated with stars ceiling. The writings on the columns are temple liturgies, songs sung to the creator god Khnum, and the images of the Roman emperors dressed as the Egyptian gods giving gifts.

Esna Temple Zodiac Sign

The Zodiac Of The Esna Temple

On the ceiling of the Hypostyle Hall from the southern side of the Temple of Esna, the Zodiac presents images of gods and animals that have never been seen before. As part of a recording, documenting, and restoration project to show the temple in its original colors, the Zodiac of the Temple of Esna was revealed. The word Zodiac denotes the set of stars which were only fully depicted in the temples of Dendera in Qena and Esna.The Temple of Esna is the pinnacle of ancient Egyptian religious thought, demonstrating the Egyptians' determination to save their tradition in spite of the foreign invasions. For this purpose, they inscribed a great number of encrypted and mysterious writings that only the Egyptians could understand.

Temple Of Esna Facts

In Esna, the temple archeologists and scholars found fish that were embalmed; these fish were extremely dear to the Egyptians as they were considered the symbols of comeback and the renewal of life. The fish was also a deliverer of the flood and a representative of the god Hapi, and it was one of the holy fish. No part of it was allowed to be eaten, Esna became the first place in the world to invent (fesikh), and the Egyptians had a method of eating dried fish (fesikh) during their celebrations of the "Shammu" holiday, which is currently known as Sham El-Nessim. They incorporated white mollusks in the (fesikh) process. Moreover, the ancient Egyptians gave dried fish as a gift to the gods in temples and by the time dried fish had become a sign of the city in the Ptolemaic period, which resulted in its renaming to (Lathipolis). The Egyptians were acquainted with the different kinds of fish, which they drew on the walls of their tombs, such as mullet, carp, and tilapia. They even knew roe from the time of the Pyramids, A mummified fish was found in the necropolis of the workers at Esna, The ancient Egyptians called this fish "Aha" and they were very zealous of it in Esna, "Latopolis," which in Greek means the city of fish. Now, it is a piece of the Mummification Museum in Luxor.

Esna Temple Inscriptions Khnum

Enjoy seeing Ceiling of the Esna Temple inscriptions

A bright series of ceiling frescoes was the discovery in the Temple of Khnum at Esna in Upper Egypt. Around the middle of the ceiling, there are 46 figures of the Upper Egyptian eagle goddess Nekhbet and the Lower Egyptian serpent goddess Wadjet. Both goddesses are shown as eagles with their wings spread. Nekhbet is the one with the eagle head and the white crown of Upper Egypt, and at the same time, Wadjet can be recognized by the crown of Lower Egypt topped with a cobra.

Temple Esna Of Creation Facts

One can read the very old Egyptian doctrine on the temple walls fashioned out of sandstone that Khnum, the one with his head of a ram, was the creator of the universe and made humans out of the earth of the Nile by the use of his potter's wheel. He is said to have made the different races and languages of both Egyptians and outsiders from the same mud. The hieroglyphs have it that it was Khnum who put the first seed of life into every mother's belly which is shown as a zigzag oval to denote its life force. Simultaneously, Khnum is also depicted as the one who forms the 'ka', the spiritual part, of the infant. After a period of nine months, he with Heket, the goddess of delivery, help the mother when the baby is born as she is on the birthing chair.

Esna Temple Entrance Fees

Adult: EGP 200 | Student: EGP 100