All access towards the adytum is closed with rubbish. The debris of temples and 
other structures which rise in extensive mounds above the ancient city prove the size 
and importance of Latopolis, which is now so buried, or built over with huts and 
houses, that this portico is almost the only evidence that remains of its ancient greatness. 
When the French were here they cleared thege obstructions from before it, but the 
people have now replaced their abominations. The ruins of a stone quay exist on 
the eastern side, but this is of a later date than the Temple—a fact established by 
a Greek inscription, which mentions the time of its construction. 
Whilst Mr. Roberts was in the portico some Copts, known by their black turbans, 
observed his sketching with much interest, and recognised in him a Christian brother 
by crossing themselves whenever they addressed him. 
Wilkinson’s Egypt and Thebes. Roberts’s Journal. . Wathen’s Arts and Antiquities of Egypt. 
TEMPLE OF WADY KARDASSY, NUBIA. 
This is one of the most picturesque ruins in Nubia, and stands in a fine situation 
elevated above the west bank of the Nile. It is an hypaethral building, apparently 
never completed, of the Ptolemaic period, and dedicated to the Egyptian Venus — 
Anthor. The court is formed by six beautifully finished columns, connected by screens: 
four of them have a species of Egyptian composite capital, common to temples of the 
Roman era, some of these have the lotus form, others the grape and wheat-ear under 
their volutes; two of them are surmounted by the head of Isis, with a shrine containing 
an asp; the columns on the northern and southern sides are quadriform. It has 
no sculpture, except a few figures rudely drawn on one of the columns on the west 
side: but it is highly probable that it belonged to a larger edifice, as some substructions 
may be traced a little way towards the south. A short distance from the Temple 
are some sandstone quarries, where numerous Greek ex-voto inscriptions remain, chiefly 
of the time of Antoninus Pius, M. Aurelius, and Severus, and in honour of Isis, 
to whom the Temple was probably dedicated. 
Roberts, in his Journal, when he mentions this Temple, says, “ It is impossible 
to indicate the age from the condition of the ruins, as the effects of the violence which 
destroyed them appear to be the work of yesterday; no moss or creeping plant is here 
to soften down its nakedness: it stands relieved against the deep blue of the sky in 
a blaze of sunshine, and appears as if the hand of the destroyer had just been stayed. 
From the total want of moisture, the very stones when struck ring like a bell.” 
Wilkinson’s Egypt and Thebes. 
Col. Vyse’s Pyramids of Gizeh. 
Roberts’s Journal. 
