Esna

To see our other stops in Egypt click on:
Giza and Cairo, Nile, Luxor east, Luxor west, Esna, Edfu, Kom Ombo, Aswan, Abu Simbel, Hurghada, Memphis, PeopleFlowers, birds, and bugs

We passed through a bazaar on the way to the temple of Khnum at Esna.


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.

The Esna locks in the distance. 
There are more pictures of them in action on the Nile page.

To see our other stops in Egypt click on:
Giza and Cairo, NileLuxor east, Luxor west, Esna, Edfu, Kom Ombo, Aswan, Abu Simbel, Hurghada, Memphis, PeopleFlowers, birds, and bugs

Thanks to many friends on the trip for sharing their photos with us and with you.
Jerry and Carmen, Jeannie and Bill, Kathy and Howard, Jim and Lilly, Randy and Trena, and Hoy and Nancy thanks again.

See other places we have visited here.

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