Restoration of the temple ceiling in Egyptian Esna completed

Orion, Sothis (= Sirius) and Anukis ( from left to right ). Above them the sky goddess Nut swallowing the evening sun. Experts from Egypt and Germany have completed the restoration of the ceiling of the Temple of Esna. Over a period of five years, 30 restorers under the direction of Ahmed Emam had freed several hundred figures with astronomical representations from dirt and thus made them visible again in their original colors. With the completion of the ceiling restoration, the project has reached its first and perhaps most important milestone," says Christian Leitz from the Institute for Ancient Oriental Cultures at the University of Tübingen: "In the coming years, we want to focus on removing soot from the interior walls of the pronaos and the remaining columns." The restoration of the Temple of Esna is a joint project of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the University of Tübingen. On the Egyptian side, project management was in the hands of Hisham El-Leithy. The colorful ceiling reliefs depict deities, mythological figures and representations of the sun, moon, constellations and various astronomical constellations.