The Egyptian village of Esna, was built in the area of ancient Latopolis and is the site of a major temple dedicated to the god Khnum.
Esna is located about fifty kilometers south of Luxor. The temple now stands in the middle of the modern town at a level about nine meters below that of the surrounding grounds. However, texts mentions that it was built on the site of a temple that may have been constructed as early as the reign of Tuthmosis III. Some blocks of the earlier 18th Dynasty structure are preserved. The present structure dates to the Greek and Roman periods and is one of the latest temples to have been built by the ancient Egyptians.
The decorations and inscriptions in the Temple of Khnum are frequently well executed and some are of special interest. There is a scene depicting the king netting wild fowl, said to represent inimical spirits, on the north wall that continues very ancient Egyptian themes. However, other depictions such as the king offering a laurel wreath to the gods, represented on a column at the rear of the hall, are decidedly new motifs. Decoration of the south wall was carved for Septimus Servus and his sons, Geta and Caracalla, depicting them before several divinities. The ceiling of the hypostyle shows Egyptian astronomical figures on the northern half and Roman signs of the zodiac on the southern half.
There is also interesting text within the temple, including a pair of cyptographic hymns to Khnum, one written almost entirely with hieroglyphs of rams and other other written with crocodiles. These are located inside the front corners of the hypostyle hall, next to the small doors used by the priests to enter and exit the temple. Other texts records four smaller temples in the region that probably had cultic connections with this temple, though none of these have survived . One of the smaller temples, dedicated to
Isis and built by Ptolemy IX Soter II and Cleopatra Cocce on the East Bank of the
Nile near el-Hilla (Contralatopolis), was recorded during Napoleon's expedition. It fell victim to the construction of an administrative building in 1828. Another temple mentioned in this text has been excavated at Kom Mer, south of Esna.
