The discovery, which was announced on Monday, came within the framework of completing a project to record, document and restore the scenes painted on the walls and columns of the temple, according to what the German News Agency reported.
The project appeared six years ago with the aim of removing the factors of time from the walls and columns of the temple and recording, documenting and restoring the scenes on them, which were restored to their original colors after the completion of the work of cleaning them from the dirt and dust that covered a large part of them, indicating that one of the most important of these works is restoring the colors of the astronomical ceiling. In its entirety and those on the inner columns of the temple.
A team of restorers was able to reveal the details of the clothing designs of the king and the gods of Esna, and their crowns and thrones, which appeared for the first time while cleaning some of the inscriptions on the southern inner wall as well as the southern part of the western rear wall of the temple.
Sherif Fathi, Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, appreciated the restoration work carried out on the walls, which resulted in the unveiling of a number of inscriptions for the first time in one of the most important… Ancient Egyptian templesHe stressed the Ministry’s readiness to provide all means of support to complete the project work and preserve the heritage Egypt Cultural tourism and learning more about the secrets of ancient Egyptian history, which contributes to improving the tourism experience for tourists who love the cultural tourism product.
Muhammad Ismail Khaled, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, explained that one of the most important scenes that were uncovered during the project work was the scene depicting the priests of the Temple of Antiquities. Esna They carry the sacred vehicle of the god Khnum, the god of Esna at that time, and take it out in procession outside the temple so that the people of the city can see the shrine of the god who remains hidden inside the temple throughout the year.
Hisham Al-Laithi, head of the preservation and recording sector, said Egyptian antiquities The Supreme Council of Antiquities and the head of the mission from the Egyptian side said that all the details painted on the walls that were revealed constitute an integral part of the sacrificial scenes that cover the inner walls of the temple, as until now the texts had not been Hieroglyphs The inscriptions are well-known, but the decorations of the throne chairs have their own meaning.
Al-Laithi pointed to a scene of offering sacrifices depicting the king’s loincloth bulrush At the top is a symbol forLower Egypt The lily plant at the bottom is a symbol ofUpper Egypt Which indicates that the king is the ruler of both parts of the country.
Christian Leitz, head of the mission from the German side, also expressed his happiness with the tangible progress the mission has achieved in showing the original colors of the temple, pointing out that the mission will resume its work next month to clean the outer part of the six front columns of the temple.
It is noteworthy that the Esna Temple restoration project began in 2018, and the Egyptian-German archaeological mission succeeded during the past years of work in recovering the inscriptions and colors of the ceiling, which depict the celestial constellations and the goddess Nut, as well as the interior columns, which number about 18 columns out of 24 columns.