Hidden under layers of soot and dirt on the roof of the temple dedicated to the god Khnum in Esna, some 60 kilometers south of Luxor, was the oldest complete zodiac discovered in Egypt, dating back almost 2,000 years. The images, executed in relief, include the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, as well as a series of stars and constellations used in antiquity to measure time.
The zodiac developed in Babylon around 500 BC. Even so, they had already been studying the course of the stars and planets for hundreds of years, as evidenced by the Mul-Apin tables, some cuneiform engravings dating from the 7th century BC. and that they compile all the astronomical knowledge of the time.
The Babylonians divided the firmament into 12 parts of about 30º each and assigned a name based on the most prominent constellation in each region. This is how Aries, Pleiades, Gemini, Praesepe, Leo, Spica, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces were born.
Later, Greek astronomers changed the Pleiades, Praesepe and Spica to Taurus, Cancer and Virgo and were probably the ones who introduced the Babylonian zodiac to Egypt during the Ptolemaic period, which extends from the death of Alexander the Great until 30 BC, when it became a Roman province, explains Christian Leitz of the University of Tübingen.
Leite and his team have been working closely with Egyptian archaeologists in restoration work on the Temple of Khnum, the ram-headed god, creator of the primordial egg from which sunlight emerged. The sanctuary was completed in the Roman period, around the year 250 AD.
“Images of the Babylonian zodiac became popular in Egyptian tombs, sarcophagi, astrological texts, and horoscopes, but have rarely been found in Egyptian temples,” Christian Leite said in a statement. “This is the first time I see these inscriptions and reliefs in the Temple of Esna,” adds Hisham El-Leithy, from the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities.
The restoration team, led by Ahmed Emam, succeeded in fully restoring and recoloring the images depicting the heavens, which include a full depiction of the zodiac signs. “This type of spelling is very rare in Egyptian temples,” adds Leite.
“The zodiac itself is part of Babylonian astronomy and does not appear in Egypt until Ptolemaic times. It is then that it was used to decorate private tombs and sarcophagi and was of great importance in astrological texts, such as the horoscopes found inscribed in pottery fragments,” says Dr. Daniel von Recklinghausen, also a researcher at the University of Tübingen.
In addition to Esna, only two fully preserved versions remain, both in Dendera, where there is, in addition to a temple dedicated to Hathor, the goddess of love and fertility, another Greco-Roman sanctuary with a Zodiac sculpture containing images of Taurus and Pound
In Esna, beyond the zodiac and star constellations, restoration revealed colorful images of snakes, crocodiles, and various fabulous beasts, including a ram-headed serpent and a crocodile-headed bird, a serpent’s tail, and four wings. .
During the work, which has lasted five years, the researchers also discovered previously unknown inscriptions. Both the paintings and the texts on the ceiling, however, were barely recognizable for centuries because they were very dirty and covered with soot caused by the candles that illuminated the place for years.
Only the complete vestibule (called pronaos) remains of the ancient temple. At 37 meters long, 20 meters wide and 15 meters high, the sandstone structure stood in front of the royal temple building under the Roman Emperor Claudius (AD 41-54) and probably outshone it.
Its location in the center of the city probably contributed to the fact that the hall was preserved and not used as a quarry for building materials as other ancient buildings were during the time of Egypt’s industrialization. Even in the time of Napoleon, the pronaos attracted the attention of scholars, as it was considered an ideal example of ancient Egyptian temple architecture.
