Wilkinson, John Gardner: Topographie of Thebes, and general view of Egypt: being a short account of the principal objects worthy of notice in the valley of the Nile, to the second cataracte and Wadi Samneh, with the Fyoom, Oases and eastern desert, from Sooez to Bertenice (London, 1835)

426 ESNE, LATOPOLIS. [Chap. VII.

sculptures were afterwards completed by Epiphanes,
Augustus, Adrian, and Marcus Aurelius, whose
names occurred in different parts of the interior.
On the southern wall Ptolemy Euergetes was re-
presented, accompanied by a lion, in the act of
smiting the chiefs of several captive nations,*
whose names were arranged in a series of ovals
below.

E'sne, or rather E'Sne,f in Coptic Sne,J was
known to the Greeks and Romans by the name of
Latopolis, from the worship of the Latus fish, which,
according to Strabo, shared with Minerva the
honors of the sanctuary. But the deity who pre-
sided over Latopolis was Chnouphis or Kneph, as
is abundantly proved by the sculptures and dedica-
tions of the portico : which is the only portion of the
temple now free from the mounds that have accumu-
lated over the whole of the back part, and from the
intrusion of modern habitations. The imposing style
of its architecture cannot fail to call forth the ad-
miration of the most indifferent spectator, and many
of the columns possess an elegance and massive
grandeur which are not surpassed by any of the
ruins of ancient Egypt

* Among these, M. Champollion reads the names of Armenia,
Persia, Thrace, and Macedonia.

t Some write it Esneh, but it is not correct. Aboolfidda has
Esna or E'sne".

| This name occurs in the hieroglyphics also, but generally
written Tosne, or Shne, " a garden."