Contra Latopolis

Contra Latopolis (sometime named Al Hilla).^[1][2]

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Building of a temple

During the reign of Cleopatra,^[3] a temple ^[4] was built opposite Latopolis, or Esne as it is now known,^[5] on the other side of the Nile from this settlement.The Roman people having constructed this, named the building Contra-Latopolis. Very little has survived into the current age of this construction, all but a "massive portico upheld by two rows of four columns each". The temple built together with these mentioned structures includes, positioned on the overhanging eaves, a globe with wings outstretched to either side. The walls of the building were found covered with hieroglyphic writing. Of the names amongst them, the earliest of these showed Cleopatra Cocce,and her son Ptolemy Soter, the most recently written showed the name of Emperor Commodus.^[6] The temple described by Thomas Dudley Fosbroke as "the most perfect in proportion and pure in execution in the entire Egyptian world", did also contain walls covered like as if a gallery in a manner that later in the churches existing for the use of modern society became known as Triforia, the observation conveyed in his writing to us from Denon.^[7]

"Thr temple of Esné,the ancient Latopolis,to me appears the perfection of the art of Egyptian places,the most beautiful production of the antiquity;since the Edfu( or Great Apollinopolis), of the most great,most conserved,and best situated,of the monuments of the Egyptians: in it's actual state it appears again as a fortress of a master." ("Le temple d'Esné, l'ancienne Latopolis, me parut la perfection de l'art chez les Égyptiens, une des plus belles productions de l'antiquité; celui d'Edfu (ou Apollinopolis Magna), un des plus grands, des plus conservés, et le mieux situé, de tous les monuments de l'Égypte: en son état actuel il paraît encore une forteresse qui la domine." [Denon's])^[8][9]

The columns of a building in Contra Latopolis are stated as from construction dating from the Ptolemic period,the columns of buildings from Contra latopolis considered particularly distinct examples a formal order of architecture where the god Hathor is placed as capitals upon the columns of temples.(This shown by Gaston Camille Charles Maspero).^[10]

engraving of temple(1806/1810)

engraving of "Remains of the Temple at Latopolis in Upper Egypt"

Location

Latitude  : 25.284

Longtitude : 32.583 ^[11]

an interactive map can be located at this link-address ^[12]

References

1. ^ NASA Goddard Space Flightcentre (primary source from secondary not given retrieved 21/09/2011)
2. ^ (MAPCARTA retrieved 21/09/2011)
3. ^ History of Cleopatra, queen of Egypt (1851 retrieved 21/09/2011)
4. ^ Sharpe,Samuel (1799-1881) The history of Egypt:from the earliest times till the conquest by the Arabs A.D. 640:in two volumes(1905) retrieved 21/09/2011)
5. ^ Encyclopedia of antiquities, and elements of archaeology, classical and mediaeval by Reverend Thomas Dudley Fosbroke (1843 retrieved 21/09/2011).
6. ^ HISTORY OF EGYPT by S. RAPPOPORT, Doctor of Philosophy, Basel retrieved 21/09/2011
7. ^ pages.15 &Encyclopedia of antiquities, and elements of archaeology, classical and mediaeval by Thomas Dudley Fosbroke (1843 retrieved 21/09/2011)
8. ^ VOYAGES DANS LA BASSE ET LA HAUTE ÉGYPTE, PENDANT LES CAMPAGNES DE BONAPARTE,EN (1798 ET 1799. 22/09/2011
9. ^ The British museum retrieved 22/09/2011
10. ^ Manual Of Egyptian Archaeology And Guide To The Study Of Antiquities In Egypt by Gaston C.C. Maspero retrieved 21/09/2011
11. ^ Latitude and Longtitude :NASA Goddard Space Flightcentre (primary source from secondary not given retrieved 21/09/2011)
12. ^ Al Hillah Map is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0. retrieved 21/09/2011

not currently used in article:

THE NOTITIA DIGNITATUM AND THE GEOGRAPHY OF EGYPT retrieved 21/09/2011

Manual Of Egyptian Archaeology And Guide To The Study Of Antiquities In Egypt by Gaston Camille & Charles Maspero (freefictionbooks) retrieved 21/09/2011

project site-further information retrieved 21/09/2011