The temple was buried by silt from the Nile floods and the city was built over it.
It was discovered and excavated and so it sits in a pit in the middle of the town.
Egyptologists would like to extend the excavation.
To do so they would have to destroy the homes of people some of which have been in their family for many generations.
Here is where we entered the pit
The mud of the Nile has preserved the carvings and the original paint.
Every inch of the columns are covered with hieroglyphics.
More carvings on the walls inside and out.
The heads and bodies of those who had been defeated were depicted in this image.
The Egyptians were building this at the direction of the Romans who controlled the area at that time.
The artisans expressed their distaste for their task by incorporating some interesting errors.
For example this foot has six toes and many of the figures are strangely proportioned.
A little ancient Greek graffiti on one of the blocks of the temple.
If you want to make a name for yourself as an Egypt expert just translate this panel.
The hieroglyphics that make it up are unique to this temple and have never been decoded.
I think a literal translation is "crocodile, crocodile, crocodile, crocodile, something else, crocodile, crocodile, crocodile, crocodile, crocodile, crocodile, ... "
Or more figuratively "There are a heck of a lot of crocodiles around here"
Khnum is the god of creation.
Here is the entire story of how the first man was made of clay on a potter's wheel.
A detail of the creation.
