Temple of Esna and a Whirling Dervish

Just across the street from where we docked is one more Valley of the Vultures to navigate to get to our next temple.  Fortunately, it wasn’t a long valley and they merchants weren’t quite awake yet as we walked through.  One we popped out the end, there were a couple of quite interesting things to see. 

Iron Man – he irons fabric using a very heavy-duty iron and moves it around using his foot! Not something I would want to do for sure.  

I’m not sure why using your foot to move the iron around is a ‘thing’ but apparently it is and he is busy pressing fabric all day long.  Next to Iron Man is a tailor using a very old sewing machine making and altering clothes for people and generally working non-stop at his machine.  Both of these guys have been working in their shops for many years and have become local legends.

Once through the tourist-oriented market we came upon the Esna Temple.  The temple, which has only been partially excavated, is about 200 meters from the river and some 30 below street level.  Over the years, the flooding Nile River had silted over the entire site.  excavation continues in the area but it is a slow process given there are more modern structures built above where portions of the temple complex are located.

The remains of the Temple of Esna contains a hall of columns with 24 pillars beautifully decorated with lotus floral capitals and palm capitals. The walls are covered with 4 rows of reliefs, showing Ptolemaic and Roman Emperors dressed in Pharaoh costumes, offering sacrifices to the god Khnum. There are chambers on both sides of the temple entrance that were used by the priests and keepers of the temple as storerooms.

This temple by far had the most color of any that we had seen. It was really amazing to see all the artwork on the walls, ceilings and columns.

During portions of the restoration, the painstaking cleaning of the ceiling revealed the second-century CE. artwork lying beneath   Among the many images the joint team uncovered was a full set of 12 zodiac symbols.   

The colors and depictions throughout the temple were fantastic.  It is clear there is lots more to discover at this temple.

Have you ever wondered why there are two knockers on some doors. A big one and a small one? Seems if your a man, you use the big one and if your a woman you use the small one. That way the right person can come and open the door. Just one more piece of information our guide gave to us while on our tour.

Back on board, we were entertained with a whirling dervish, or Tanoura, presentation.  Our Whirling Dervish did a sustained ‘dance’ for the better part of 10 minutes!  The Tanoura is a folkloric dance which was developed from the Sufi dance. The word Tanoura means skirt in English and the dancer wears a large circular multicolored skirt.

The dance tells a story that connects the relationship of land and the sky, man and God. The performer spins around and appears to enter a trance like state. He does this then stops without showing any signs of dizziness.

When the Tanoura dancer moves he is like the sun and the dancers around him are like the planets. The dancer removed several different skirts throughout the performance.

The skirts symbolize the succession of the four seasons and their anti-clockwise movement is exactly like the movement around the “Kaaba” (the holy Shrine in Mecca) When the dancer raises his right arm up and points his left arm down, this represents the joining of earth and heaven together.

Amazing for sure.  Hopefully, a bit of the movie I took will give you some idea of what was happening.