The Temple of Khnum (Esna) - Qena

The temple of Esna is the name given to the remains of the ancient Egyptian temple of Khnum in the Upper Egyptian city of Esna, about 55 kilometers south of Luxor. He carried the ancient Egyptian name ("House of Khnum"). The only remaining part of the temple is the pronaos, the vestibule of the actual temple. The hall, supported by 24 columns and provided with an intact roof, stands in the middle of the city on the Nile, 200 meters west of the river bank.

The temple of Esna was dedicated to the ram-headed Khnum, who functioned as the creator of men and gods. In his manifestation as Khnum-Hapi he revitalized the Nile springs every year in order to bring about the Nile flood. In addition, his wife Menhit, the city goddess Nebetuu and the gods Heka and Neith were worshiped. The exposed pronaos of the temple lies nine meters below street level in the city of Esna in an excavated depression. Stairs lead down to the entrance of the temple. The temple parts visible today come from Ptolemaic and Roman times

The Khnum Temple of Esna was built on the ruins of an earlier sanctuary from the 18th dynasty, at the latest by the time of Thutmose III., († 1425 BC). The new building was built under the rule of the pharaohs Ptolemy VI. and Ptolemy VIII in the second century BC The main Ptolemaic part of the building, the Naos with the sanctuary of Khnum, was lost in the Middle Ages. In Roman times, under Emperor Claudius (41–54), the construction of the remaining pronaos began, which was completed under Emperor Decius (249–251). Due to the annual floods of the Nile and the associated flooding, the temple area gradually sank under silt, the amount of which grew to the level of today's street level in the city of Esna.
At the beginning of modern times, the floor reached the capitals of the columns of the pronaos. 

 

When Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Egypt, residents of the city are said to have protected themselves from the French under the roof of the temple, and bullet holes are still visible above the capitals. The French soldiers then partially excavated the portico of the pronaos. The first scientific excavations were carried out by Auguste Mariette in the middle of the 19th century.

In the recent history of Egypt, the restored pronaos of the Khnum Temple became the main tourist attraction of the city of Esna. Due to its close proximity to the Nile, a visit to the building is an integral part of the river trips between Luxor in the north and Aswan 135 kilometers to the south. The path from the pier east of the Khnum Temple leads through the streets of the Esna bazaar.

In addition to the preserved pronaos, the original layout of the Khnum Temple in Esna comprised an adjoining hall with six pillars, the sanctuary behind it and a surrounding wall decorated with reliefs. The structure was similar to the temples of Edfu and Dendera. The elimination of the southwestern Ptolemaic building parts makes the Khnum temple a torso today. Only a few relics indicate the arrangement of the destroyed temple parts. The rich reliefs of the pronaos compensate for the overall appearance of the complex that has not been preserved.

The columned hall of the Pronaos, which still exists today, is 33 meters wide and 16.5 meters deep. The roof is supported by 24 columns over 13 meters high with composite capitals in plant shapes. The pronaos of the Temple of Khnum at Esna is therefore larger than that of the Temple of Edfu. The columns of the first row of columns are, like those in Edfu, connected on both sides of the central main entrance by means of six half-height inter-column walls. Three of them have door openings. Bird screens have been installed above the walls to protect the interior of the pronaos.