Esna Temple [Egypt 2019]

Once back from Karnak, the ship left port, continuing south towards Esna as we enjoyed dinner and tried to get to sleep early. Day 8's wake up call was 5.20am with a 5.45 departure for the Temple of Khnum which is said to have been started by Thutmose III mid 1400s BCE and completed between 40 and 250 AD. It was a short two block walk through the still sleeping city which suddenly opened up to the temple sitting around 30 feet below current street level. That's over two stories in modern construction. The temple is dedicated to the ram-headed god and built from sandstone. The design is very similar to Dendera and as we'll see also to Edfu. Split door frame, 18 columns, 24 if you count the front wall integration, top cove, tapered corner bead, and winged sun disk. Additionally it has two smaller doors at each side, two on the front and two on the back. The temple shows signs of being larger as seen in this possible layout and there is evidence of that on the exterior of the back wall. The carvings are a mix of low and high relief, a lot of ankhs and wah scepters as well as the symbol which places those alongside the jet pillar. The columns employ the lotus flower and papyrus design and we see the reoccurrence of the energetic symbol around the bases. During the time of our visit this temple was undergoing restoration work to remove soot from the walls and ceiling. I'm always amazed at how the pigments have remained this vibrant after two centuries. This wall had a cool relief of sobek as well as some square notches and then I noticed that among the hall of columns one had a Corinthian capital. I find that to be a rather interesting design choice. In the back left corner of the lot I found a second staircase leading up the street level. The back of the temple is roped off so this provided a good vantage point. Here we see that the walls did tie in and extend from the back wall as well as flooring and what might be an offering table. At this point an armed officer popped out of the shadows and wasn't impressed with my proximity to the edge so off I went. This is the back left corner of the temple. Some remaining corner bead and you can see that the walls are fully covered in carvings. Also on this side the footing was exposed. Looks like buried foundation blocks and then footing blocks which are wider than the wall thickness. Similar to how we do it today. I'm not sure if these are tool marks from modern excavations or if they are old hieroglyphs which would point to repurposing of older materials for the foundation. This is the remaining top cove on the front right corner and then another rear view of the temple this time from ground level. The closer inspection has me questioning this being an offering table. It might be another lunchtime project by the guardians. Before leaving the site I did manage to visit the spare parts bin. Random statue parts, stone cylinders, and square vessels of some sort. A sizable collection of whatever these are. They all have the Coptic cross in high relief so something related to worship. Then this block with the conical recess. Perhaps the start of a vessel prior to any exterior shaping. We got a few more looks at the temple as we ascended the steps and started our walk back to the Nile. The schedule is breakfast, quick nap, and some relaxing as the ship sails five hours to Edfu.