Esna

Dusty Esna on the edge of the Nile was once one of the primary market towns on the North African trading circuit, and it shows. Its bustling town centre is still a conglomeration of heady and buzzing Berber bazaars and Egyptian crafts stalls, Sudanese goods caravans and haphazard emporiums touting trinkets from Morocco, East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula across the Red Sea; an immersive bout of Egyptian multiculturalism in a nutshell if there ever was one. But for all its modern day cultural intensity, Esna’s real pièce de résistance remains firmly in its past, looming in colonnaded majesty at the very heart of town, and adorned with mysterious hieroglyphic motifs and decorations now half-faded into obscurity. This is the massive Temple of Khnum; all that remains of ancient Latopolis and one of the most remarkable glimpses of Ptolemaic Egypt left today. If that’s still not enough in the way of history, then ask your Esna tourist guide for the low down on the lingering remnants of Ottoman imperialism, or the ageing relics of the 10th and 11th century Fatimid Caliphate; the one-time hegemon of Esna, Egypt and the Nile.