Esna is a city located approximately 60 km south of the ancient capital of Luxor in Egypt.
Dedicated to the Egyptian deity Khnum, the temple of Esna is one of the last examples of ancient Egyptian temple architecture.
Only the vestibule, called the pronaos, of the original temple complex survived, because it was used as storage facility for cotton during the 19th century CE.
The building measures 37 m long, 20 m wide, and 15 m tall, and was decorated mainly during the Roman period (1st to 3rd century CE).
“The pronaos of the temple in Esna is a sandstone structure which was erected in front of the actual temple building before or during the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius (41-54 CE) and was probably much larger than the temple itself,” Professor Christian Leitz from the Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Tübingen and his colleagues said in a statement.
“Its location in the middle of the city center probably contributed to the fact that the vestibule was preserved and was not used as a quarry for building materials as other ancient edifices were during the industrialization of Egypt.”
“Over the past 1,800 years, local people lit fires in the temple vestibule,” they added.
“As a result, the once-colorful wall and column decorations were blackened.”
“Over the past six years, a team of up to 30 Egyptian revealed the colors of the astronomical images covering the entire ceiling as well as the colors of the 18 inner columns.”
“A new phase of restoration began this year. Specialists finished restoring the southern inner wall and the southern part of the western rear wall.”
“They brought to light the original colors with dominant yellow and red pigments, marking a sharp difference from color schemes found elsewhere, for example at the temple of Dendara, where white and light blue predominate.”
The team’s biggest discovery this year was the details of the clothing on the king and the deities of Esna,…
Read the full article here
