DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1035#0466
Chap.VII.] ZODIAC OF e'dAYR. 425
Strabo on the west bank, after Hermonthis. Its site
is uncertain; but it may have been at the Gebelayn,
where the vestiges of an ancient town appear on
the hill nearest the river; and where I observed
some grottoes, whose paintings have long since been
destroyed.
Tofnees is on the site of an ancient town, perhaps
Aphroditopolis, as Asfoon of Asphinis; and in the
plain, about two miles and three-quarters to the
north-west of Esne, is the small temple of E' Dayr
(" the convent"), which appears to mark the position
of Chnoubis.
Owing to the depredations of the Turks, who
have removed the stones of this temple to build the
manufactory of Esne, little now exists but a part
of the side wall and one column, having the names
of Ptolemy Euergetes with his queen Berenice, of
Epiphanes,* and Antoninus Aurelius. On a former
visit to this ruin, in 1822, I had the satisfaction of
seeing it in a much better state of preservation,
little being then wanting but the adytum itself.
On the ceiling of the portico was represented the
Zodiac, and though some of the blocks had fallen,
the only sign which could not be discovered was
that of Virgo.
It appears to have been founded by the third
Ptolemy, but being left in an unfinished state, the
* Not Philopator, as M. Charnpollion supposes. The Ptolemies,
as I have already observed, adopted the title of their predecessors
to form the commencement of their own prenomens.
Strabo on the west bank, after Hermonthis. Its site
is uncertain; but it may have been at the Gebelayn,
where the vestiges of an ancient town appear on
the hill nearest the river; and where I observed
some grottoes, whose paintings have long since been
destroyed.
Tofnees is on the site of an ancient town, perhaps
Aphroditopolis, as Asfoon of Asphinis; and in the
plain, about two miles and three-quarters to the
north-west of Esne, is the small temple of E' Dayr
(" the convent"), which appears to mark the position
of Chnoubis.
Owing to the depredations of the Turks, who
have removed the stones of this temple to build the
manufactory of Esne, little now exists but a part
of the side wall and one column, having the names
of Ptolemy Euergetes with his queen Berenice, of
Epiphanes,* and Antoninus Aurelius. On a former
visit to this ruin, in 1822, I had the satisfaction of
seeing it in a much better state of preservation,
little being then wanting but the adytum itself.
On the ceiling of the portico was represented the
Zodiac, and though some of the blocks had fallen,
the only sign which could not be discovered was
that of Virgo.
It appears to have been founded by the third
Ptolemy, but being left in an unfinished state, the
* Not Philopator, as M. Charnpollion supposes. The Ptolemies,
as I have already observed, adopted the title of their predecessors
to form the commencement of their own prenomens.