Abydos

A little past the midway point between the modern cities of Asyut and Luxor, the ancient city of Abydos (Egyptian Abedju) dates from the very beginnings of the Dynastic Period, with evidence of habitation extending back well into prehistoric times. The site was a cult centre of the canine necropolis god Khentiamentiu, 'Foremost of the Westerners' (i.e., ruler of the dead), whose temple evidently existed here from very early times. During the 5th and 6th dynasties Khentiamentiu became assimilated with the important Lower Egyptian god Osiris, and by Middle Kingdom times the site was the most important religious centre of the ruler of the dead. Because of its association with the afterlife, many Egyptian kings constructed cenotaphs at Abydos, including the great New Kingdom cenotaph temple of Sethos I.


About Abydos:
Osiris temple:
Apart from the ancient, outlying royal structures Abydos which seem to figure in the earliest development of temple forms, the northernmost of the central Abydene monuments is the oldest A little than 1 km (0.6 mile) to the northwest of the I temple in the area called Kom el-Sultan of an ancient temple of the god Kheniamentiu and, from the 12th dynasty on, of Osiris. Artifacts found at the site show activity ging from the beginning of the 1st dynasty to the Roman Period They include a fragment of a vase of the 1st dynasty king Aha as well as small figures of men and animals of the same period. Most kings of the Old Kingdom are attested here, as are a number of rulers of the Middle and New Kingdoms including the 18th-dynasty monarchs Amenophis I Tuthmosis III and Amenophis III who all undertook rebuilding here. But the temple itself was built almost entirely of brick-with only a few elements such as doorways constructed of stone- so that very little survives today. The large mud-brick ramparts which surround the area date to the 30th dynasty.

Sethos I temple:
Begun by Sethos I and completed by his son, Ramesses II, this temple - the 'Memnonium' of the Greeks - was built of fine white limestone and is one of the most impressive religious structures in Egypt. The temple is approached through its ruined outer courts (the first with massive tanks for the priests' ablutions), with rows of mud-brick storage magazines grouped around a stone entrance hall visible to the left. This area of the temple's outer pylons and courts and the first hypostyle hall were completed and somewhat hastily decorated by Ramesses II, who is shown in part of the decoration worshipping the temple's major triad of Osiris, Isis and Sethos I. The wall of the portico leading to the first hypostyle hall was originally pierced by seven doorways which opened to the same number of processional paths leading, between cluster columns, to the seven chapels at the rear of the temple. Most of the doorways were filled in, however, when Ramesses added the outer sections of the temple - revealing, perhaps, an abbreviation of the temple's original plan. The second hypostyle hall, which thus serves as a vestibule for the chapels beyond, contains 36 lotus-bud columns carefully aligned to give access to the multiple sanctuaries. The columns are of somewhat squat dimensions typical of a number of 19th-dynasty structures, but the raised reliefs carved in this part of the temple in Sethos' own reign are of superb quality - ranking with the finest produced in any Egyptian temple. Ritual scenes of many types are depicted - including representations of Sethos before various gods, performing sacrifices and presenting the image of Maat. The quality of the carving extends from the carefully modeled figures to even the smallest details of minor items and hieroglyphs.
The decoration produced for Ramesses II, while mostly of somewhat inferior sunken relief, includes some unusual scenes such as the lively representation of the young king lassooing a bull with his father, Sethos, which is depicted in a passage of the temple's south wing.
The seven chapels which uniquely form the focus of the main temple were dedicated (from south to north) to the deified Sethos I, Ptah, Re-Horakhty, Amun, Osiris, Isis and Horus, and each is decorated with representations of the rituals associated with various festivals. Six of these sanctuaries contain false doors on their rear walls, but that of Osiris was given a real door leading to a suite of rooms dedicated to him in the space lying behind the whole row of chapels. The first and largest room of this suite is a columned hall decorated with various scenes of the king offering to Osiris. On its north side are three chapels dedicated to Horus, Sethos and Isis (in which the king is doubtless assimilated with Osiris), behind which is a secret crypt wherein the temple's chief treasures were probably stored. At the south end of the Osiris suite is a smaller pillared hall also with three chapels, but now in more damaged condition.
The southern wing of the temple's unusual L-shaped plan contains cult chapels of the Memphite gods Ptah-Sokar and Nefertem - Osiris' northern counterparts - as well as a hall where the barques of temple's gods were kept, and various service chambers and magazines. Of particular interest is the narrow hallway which connects the second hypostyle hall with this wing. On its inner wall, opposite the fine relief of Sethos and his son - the young Ramesses II - lassooing a bull, is one of the few surviving Egyptian king lists. The list begins with Menes, the traditional founder of Egypt, and ends with Sethos, but is selectively edited to delete such undesirable individuals as the kings of the Amarna Period. The list would seem to be associated with the royal cult of ancestors, but the reason for its placement in this narrow passage is not entirely clear. A doorway in the passage leads to other hallway with flights of steps leading due west to the temple's cenotaph.
Behind the temple proper and carefully aligned on the temple's axis, is the unusual structure known as the 'Osireion', a cenotaph constructed by Sethos, and decorated mainly by his grandson Merenptah, in the form of a royal tomb. In fact, the main temple stands as a mortuary temple before its tomb in relationship to this structure. A long passage, decorated with scenes and texts from the funerary Book of Gates, turns sharply at its end and leads into an enormous hall. Similar in appearance to the massively pillared chambers of the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the large (some 30 x 20 m, 98 ft 3 in x 67 ft 6 in) granite-built hall has an anachronistic look but one which strangely fits its symbolic purpose. At the centre of this structure a kind of pseudo-sarcophagus and canopic chest (chest for the royal viscera) stood on an island surrounded by ground water symbolizing the primeval of creation. The secondary, transverse rooms positioned at each end of this hall were decorated with astronomical and funerary texts and representations including a depiction of the sky-goddess Nut. The structure thus reflects, in both its overall plan and decoration, many elements of the New Kingdom royal tomb – which tied it firmly into the its role of cenotaph.