Going down these steps we come to the original level of the temple. We tread the ancient pavement. We look up to the massive ceiling, recessed and sculptured and painted, like the ceiling at Denderah. We could almost believe, indeed, that we are again standing in the portico of Denderah. The number of columns is the same. The arrangement of the intercolumnar screen is the same. The general effect and the main features of the plan are the same. In some respects, however, Esneh is even more striking. The columns, though less massive than those of Denderah, are more elegant and look loftier. Their shafts are covered with figures of gods and emblems and lines of hieroglyphed inscription, all cut in low relief. Their capitals, in place of the huge draped Hathor-heads of Denderah, are studied from natural forms--from the lotus-lily, the papyrus-blossom, the plumy date-palm. The wall-sculpture, however, is inferior to that at Denderah and immeasurably inferior to the wall-sculpture at Karnak. The figures are of the meanest Ptolemaic type and all of one size. The inscriptions, instead of being grouped wherever there happened to be space and so producing the richest form of wall decoration ever devised by man, are disposed in symmetrical columns, the effect of which, when compared with the florid style of Karnak, is as the methodical neatness of an engrossed deed to the splendid freedom of an illuminated manuscript. The steps occupy the place of the great doorway. The jambs and part of the cornice, the intercolumnar screen, the shafts of the columns under whose capitals we came in, are all there, half-projecting from and half-imbedded in the solid mound beyond. The light, however, comes in from so high up and through so narrow a space, that one’s eyes need to become accustomed to the darkness before any of these details can be distinguished. Then, by degrees, forms of deities familiar and unfamiliar emerge from the gloom. The temple is dedicated to Knum[44] or Kneph, the soul of the world, whom we now see for the first time. He is ram-headed and holds in his hand the “ankh,” or emblem of life. Another new acquaintance is Bes,[45] the grotesque god of mirth and jollity. Two singular little erections, built in between the columns to right and left of the steps, next attract our attention. They are like stone sentry-boxes. Each is in itself complete, with roof, sculptured cornice, doorway, and, if I remember rightly, a small square window in the side. The inscriptions upon two similar structures in the portico at Edfû show that the right-hand closet contained the sacred books belonging to the temple, while in the closet to the left of the main entrance the king underwent the ceremony of purification. It may therefore be taken for granted that these at Esneh were erected for the same purposes.