Two of the 46 vulture figures on the central ceiling area (central travée) of Esna. Above the Upper Egyptian crown goddess Nechbet with vulture head, below the Lower Egyptian crown goddess Wadjet with cobra head.
Two of the 46 vulture figures on the central ceiling area (central travée) of Esna. Above the Upper Egyptian crown goddess Nechbet with vulture head, below the Lower Egyptian crown goddess Wadjet with cobra head. German and Egyptian researchers have uncovered a series of colourful ceiling paintings in the temple of Esna in Upper Egypt. As Professor Christian Leitz of the University of Tübingen reported, the relief-like images of the central ceiling section are a total of 46 depictions of the Upper Egyptian crown goddess Nechbet and the Lower Egyptian crown goddess Wadjet. Both goddesses are depicted as vultures with outstretched wings. While Nechbet wears a vulture's head and the Upper Egyptian crown, Wadjet is recognisable by the Lower Egyptian crown, which sits on the head of a cobra. Researchers from the Institute for Ancient Oriental Cultures at the University of Tübingen and the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (Dr. Hisham el-Leithy) have been working since 2018 to uncover the temple's reliefs, paintings and inscriptions and to make the original colours visible again.
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