Esna

The Egyptian city of Esna (known in antiquity as Iunyt, Ta-senet, and Latopolis) is located on the west bank of the River Nile, some 55 km south of Luxor.

The name "Latopolis" is honour of the Nile perch, Lates niloticus, which was abundant in these stretches of the river in ancient times.

Two barrage bridges straddle the Nile at this point: one built by the British in 1906, and the "Electricity Bridge" built by the Italians in the 1990s. Navigation – particularly, Nile cruisers ferrying tourists from Luxor to Aswan, 155 km further upstream – can be held up for hours while vessels negotiate their way through the lock system.

The two main points of interest in Esna are its lively tourist-oriented souk, which fills a couple of streets leading inland from the corniche. The other is a small Ptolomaic-era temple dedicated to the god Khnum. Construction work on this temple began under Ptolemy VII and continued under the Romans (Claudius and Marcus Aurelius, in particular, left major marks on the structure). The temple, which has only been partially excavated, is set at a depth of some 10 metres lower than the surrounding city streets.