INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE OF ESN&, IN UPPER EGYPT. 
Esn£ was known to the Greeks and Romans by the name of Latopolis, derived, it 
is supposed, from 'the worship by the inhabitants of the Latus fish, which, according 
to Strabo, shared with Minerva the honours of the sanctuary. Wilkinson says that 
the deity who presided over Latopolis was Chnouphis, or Knaph, abundantly shown, 
by the sculptures and dedication of the portico, the only portion now free from the 
mounds that have accumulated over the whole of the back part of the Temple, and 
from the intrusions of modern habitations; the imposing style of its architecture cannot 
fail to call forth the admiration of the most indifferent spectator. Many of the columns 
are remarkable at once for their elegance and massive grandeur. 
It has lately been cleared out to the floor by order of Mohammed Ali, during 
his visit to Esnk in 1842; and it is easy to imagine the improvement thus made in 
the effect of this beautiful monument. Whatever may have been the date of the 
inner portions of this Temple, the portico merely presents the names of some of the 
early Caesars: those of Tiberius, Claudius, and others, occur in the dedication over 
the entrance; and those of Trajan, Adrian, and Antoninus, in the interior. On the 
ceiling is a zodiac, similar to that which was found at Dendera; and upon the pilasters, 
on either side of the front row of columns, are several lines of hieroglyphics, which 
are interesting from their containing the names of the Egyptian months. The small 
quantity of light now admitted into this beautiful pronaos over the walls, which have 
been built in the interspaces of the columns, or by the door when it is open, is not 
sufficient to enable the visitor to see the zodiac, or even the whole of the varied and 
beautiful capitals of the columns, owing to their height above the observer. Since 
it was cleared out it has been used as a granary or a cotton-store, as it was required 
for either; but latterly the Pacha has established in it a magazine of gunpowder, 
and no torch is now allowed to be used within the Temple. 
. The walls in front of the portico are seen on the left, built up to within a foot or 
two of the soffit of the architrave: the door in the centre, by which it is entered, is 
level with the external ground, and from it a flight of steps descends to the floor 
of the portico; this door, when closed, is rudely sealed with a lump of impressed clay. 
There is scarcely a more beautiful example than this Temple of the Ptolemaic period 
of Egyptian architecture. The finely sculptured shafts, the elegant and varied devices 
and forms of the capitals, derived from the fruit and leaves of the date, the vine, 
and the lotus, are proofs, that to limit such a member to the sameness, however 
beautiful, of the capitals of Greek columns, is an unworthy restraint upon the human 
mind which can produce such exquisite variety. In this transverse view one-half 
of the portico only is seen: the whole has six columns in width, and four in depth. 
