Esna

Esna is a city in southern Egypt on the west bank of the Nile, about 55 kilometres south of Luxor. In antiquity it went by several names, among them Iunyt and Ta-senet in Egyptian and Latopolis in Greek, and the Ptolemaic and Roman remains of its temple give the city its archaeological standing. Until December 2009 it belonged to Qena Governorate, and it is now part of Luxor Governorate. The city serves as a trading centre for the villages around it, and its covered al-Qisariyya market is a surviving example of a traditional urban market type. A monastery near the city draws Christian visitors who remember the martyrs of the age of persecution in Egypt.