Temple of Esna
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The remains of the ancient Egyptian Khnum temple in the Upper Egyptian city of Esna , about 55 kilometers south of Luxor , are called the Temple of Esna . He carried the ancient Egyptian name Hut-Chenmu ("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 date from Ptolemaic and Roman times.
history
 
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Location in Egypt |
The Khnum Temple of Esna was built on the ruins of an earlier sanctuary from the 18th dynasty , at the latest 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), construction of the still existing pronaos began, which was completed under Emperor Decius (249–251). Due to the annual floods of the Nile and the associated floods, the temple area gradually sank under silt , the amount of which increased to the level of today's street level in the city of Esna.
At the beginning of the modern era, the floor reached the capitals of the columns of the pronaos. During the conquest of Egypt by Napoleon Bonaparte , residents of the city are said to have protected themselves from the French under the roof of the temple, 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 .
Temple complex
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 that 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 intercolumnia walls. Three of them have door openings. Bird screens have been installed above the walls to protect the interior of the pronaos.
On four of the walls connecting the columns on both sides of the central entrance, on the front, the temple facade, there are reliefs depicting the Roman emperors Tiberius , Claudius and Nero as pharaohs with various Egyptian deities. Links Claudius appear in a typical cleaning scene where the ibis-headed Thoth and the falcon-headed Horus , in the presence of the lion-headed Menhit give water on the head of the ruler, and Tiberius, with the Egyptian double crown Pschent crowned by the Lower Egyptian Wadjet and the Upper Egyptian Nekhbet to Khnum is led. In front of Khnum stands the child god Heka-pa-chered on a pedestal with the symbol of the “unification of both countries” . This is also interpreted as the son of Khnum with Menhit as the mother. Two scenes with Nero are shown on the walls to the right of the central temple entrance. In the one next to the main entrance he is led by Month and Heka to Neith , the other wall, in which there is a door opening, shows his coronation with the pharaonic double crown by Harsiese and Thoth.
- Facade reliefs on both sides of the temple entrance
Emperor Tiberius is of Wadjet and Nekhbet to Khnum out (before the child god Heka-pa-chered )
Coronation of Nero by Harsiese and Thoth with the double crown of Egypt
The former connection to the Ptolemaic temple complex can be seen on the back of the pronaos, the outer back wall of the columned hall in the southwest. The half-height wall of the columned hall of the temple, which in the past adjoined the pronaos, is integrated into the disproportionately large Roman porch. There are three openings in the building wall here. The middle, the Ptolemaic portal, led inside the temple to the sanctuary. The two side openings were doors to the corridor around the actual temple house. The relief depictions around these two doors date from the time of Emperor Mark Aurel and his son and successor Commodus . They show the two rulers as pharaohs before the gods.
The outer side walls of the pronaos are also completely decorated with reliefs. They depict the Roman emperors Titus , Domitian and Trajan , with Titus only appearing in the smaller reliefs, for example on the southeast wall when a turtle was stabbed in front of the goddess Sekhmet and an oryx was killed in front of the goddess Menhit. From each of the four display levels, two reliefs are particularly emphasized due to their size, including double the height over two levels. They are alike not only in terms of dimensions, but also in terms of their content.
On the right side of the southeast wall, Domitian slays a group of enemies of Egypt in the manner of the pharaohs before the gods Khnum and Menhit. He holds them by the tufts of hair. The temple lord Khnum hands the ruler , who is accompanied by a lion, a curved sword , the Chepesch . Menhit accompanies the scene behind Khnum with a raised hand while she holds the sign of life Ankh in the other . The north-western wall of the pronaos shows the same scene as the opponents were slain, only mirror-inverted. Here it is Emperor Trajan who holds the enemies of the country by the tufts of hair. Even the lion accompanying the ruler is repeated in the relief, as is the handover of Chepesch by Khnum. Only the representation of the goddess Neith standing behind Menhit differs from the relief with Domitian.
The inscriptions and reliefs in the interior of the pronaos, both on the walls and on the pillars, are in good condition. The ceiling of the hall is covered with religious and astronomical frescoes . Here you can find the ancient Egyptian signs of the zodiac as well as, on the six ceiling fields northwest and southeast of the central field, representations of the "day and night travel" of the sun. The moon is depicted on the northwestern strip of the ceiling. The so-called dean stars are also located there and on the southwestern ceiling section . The heavenly images are assigned to the respective times of the gods acting under them at the corresponding festivals.
The walls and columns of the interior of the hall, like the external reliefs, were largely created in the reigns after Vespasian , beginning with Titus, but above all under Domitian and Trajan. Under Nero and Vespasian, only a few issues concerning decoration had been worked on. During the time of Vespasian, the ceiling of the middle section had been started. This was only completed after him. Under Titus and Domitian at least ten of the columns of the pronaos were decorated. There are only two reliefs, one on a column and the other on the back wall above the Ptolemaic temple wall, recalling Nerva's short, not even two-year reign . The latter shows the emperor making a smoke offering to the goddess Neith in front of the barque.
The shafts of the pillars of the pronaos are provided with inscriptions that reproduce the festival calendar of the temple, which was probably divided into two sections, placed under Emperor Domitian on the inside of the front corner pillars of the pronaos. On the walls of the hall, the reliefs there continued the representations of various Roman emperors, all in the position of rulers and in relation to the Egyptian religion . The emperors Commodus , Septimius Severus , Caracalla , Geta , Severus Alexander , Philippus Arabs and Decius are listed. A relief, dated in the middle of the 3rd century, shows Decius with the lower Egyptian crown handing a potter's wheel to Khnum in human and ram form, the symbol of the creator god Khnum. It is the last surviving temple relief of the ancient Egyptian temple of Esna.
- Interior of the hypostyle hall of the pronaos
View to the northwest wall
colonnade
Rear portal wall
Column capital
Ancient Egyptian temple festivals in Esna
Two of the most important Esna temple festivals were held in honor of Neith and Khnum. The Neith festival was held on the 13th Ipip as the female counterpart of the Khnum festival " Setting the potter's wheel ", which in Esna coincides with the Dendera festival " Raising the sky for Ptah " on the first day of the lunar calendar in the month of Pa-en- Amenhotep was celebrated. The reasons for this are to be seen in the special importance of the Khnum and the Neith in Esna, who were especially venerated here as creator deities. In addition, the following important celebrations are mentioned in the Esna festival calendar:
- 22. Hathyr : Coronation feast of the god child Heka-pa-chered with excerpt to the outer temples Pa-netjer and Pa-Khnum.
- 23. Hathyr: Coronation festival of the Nebetuu ( mistress of the two countries ) for the purpose of revitalizing the vegetation . Nebtuu appeared in the form of Tefnut visiting her brother Schu .
- 29. Hathyr: Festival of the Nebetuu
- 30. Hathyr: Worship of the deceased deities, especially of Osiris with subsequent departure to the Abaton and procession of Isis .
- Month Ka-her-ka : Several processions of the Heka and the Nebtu, in which, among other things, the dance festival of the Shu-Khnum with Menhit-Nebtu was embedded, which referred to the mythological complex of topics of the return of the sun-eye . The character of all processions celebrated in the month of Ka-her-ka was based on the content of birth and rebirth. The content of the other Esna processions was based on the nationally celebrated “ Festival of the Rebirth of Osiris ” from the 29th to the 30th Ka-her-ka , which was followed by the procreation of Horus on the 1st Ta-abet .
- Other festivals of the Nebetuu: 5th Pa-en-Amenhotep, 1st Pa-en-Chonsu and 21st Ipip.
literature
- Hans Bonnet : Latopolis . In: Lexicon of Egyptian Religious History . Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 , p. 416 ff.
- Maria-Theresia Derchain-Urtel: The image and text design in Esna . In: Ursula Verhoeven, Erhart Graefe: Religion and Philosophy in Ancient Egypt: Commemoration for Philippe Derchain on his 65th birthday on July 24, 1991 (= Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta. Volume 39). Dep. Oriëntalistiek, Leuven 1991, ISBN 90-6831-337-1 , pp. 107-121.
- Maria Theresia Derchain-Urtel : Epigraphic investigations on the Greco-Roman times in Egypt (= Egypt and Old Testament. Volume 43). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-447-04173-0 .
- Alexandra von Lieven : The sky over Esna. A case study on religious astronomy in Egypt using the example of the cosmological ceiling and architrave inscriptions in the temple of Esna (= Ägyptologische Abhandlungen. Vol. 64). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2000, ISBN 3-447-04324-5 (also: Tübingen, Univ., Master's thesis, 1998).
- Giovanna Magi: A Ride on the Nile - The Temples of Nubia, Esna · Edfu · Kom Ombo. Casa Editrice Bonechi, Florence 2008, ISBN 978-88-7009-246-2 , pp. 6-11.
Web links
- Esna (www.nefershapiland.de)
- Temple of Esna (www.sam-carter.de)
- The temple of Esna, with floor plan (www.selket.de) ( Memento from July 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- Images of the reliefs in the Khnum Temple
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Esna - Temple of Khnum (www.nefershapiland.de)
- ↑ Giovanna Magi: A Journey on the Nile - The Temples of Nubia, Esna · Edfu · Kom Ombo. P. 7.
- ↑ ESNA: Khnum Temple (www.roland-harder.de)
- ↑ Giovanna Magi: A Journey on the Nile - The Temples of Nubia, Esna · Edfu · Kom Ombo. P. 8.
- ↑ Maria-Theresia Derchain-Urtel: The image and text formatting in Esna . P. 116.
Coordinates: 25 ° 17 ′ 36.3 ″ N , 32 ° 33 ′ 22.4 ″ E