Pilgrims came in great numbers to make offerings, erect stelae and statues and, if they could afford it, to build a tomb or a cenotaph. The town of Thinis, with which Abydos was associated, has never been located. But Abydos itself is well-known as one of the most extensive and important cemeteries and cult sites of dynastic times.
With good reason, the most famous building at Abydos today is ‘The Mansion of Millions of Years of King Menma’atre  Sety I] Who Rests in Abydos.’ This temple was begun by Sety I and completed by his son, Rameses II. It is elegantly decorated and uniquely well-preserved, one of the masterpieces of Egyptian art and architecture. Some Egyptologists have claimed that the temple’s unusual L-shaped plan was chosen to avoid damaging the Osireion, an ancient, subterranean cenotaph lying immediately behind the temple. But many scholars now believe that the Osireion was also built by Sety I, copying the plans of tombs in the Valley of the Kings. They doubt its reputed Old Kingdom origins.

THE TEMPLE OF SETY I

The temple of Sety I lies about 15 kilometers (9 miles) west of the Nile on the edge of the desert, a few meters above the village and fields of al-Balliana. A modern staircase leads to its ruined  first pylon and first court. The back of the pylon has fourteen niches built into it that originally held Osiris statues. Fragments of some of them can still be seen here, and three statue heads are on display to the left of the entrance in the first hypostyle hall. A pair of large stone ablution basins used by ancient priests for purification stand in the center of the court. The north and south walls of the court are decorated with scenes of battles fought in western Asia. Note at the left (east) end of the left (south) wall a soldier emptying a basketful of severed hands before scribes. The hands were hacked from enemy  soldiers as a method of tallying the number of dead.
A narrow terrace stretches along the rear (west) wall of the court. In its left rear (southwest) and right rear (northwest) corners, rowsof sons and daughters of Rameses II march across the walls. Originally, twenty-seven sons and twenty-nine daughters were shown here, each of them named, and shown in order of their birth.

THE SECOND COURT

The Second Court was also the work of Rameses II. At the rear stands a portico, 1.25 meters (nearly 4 feet) high, with a row of twelve pillars across the front. Each pillar is decorated with scenes of Rameses II or Sety I offering to various deities. These are standard scenes, but there is an unusual detail on the right (north) face of the first pillar to the left (south) of the court’s main axis. RamesesII wears a long gown that is depicted so sheer that his legs are clearly visible through it. But the gown also overlaps several hieroglyphs carved on the right, and these cannot be seen through the cloth. The rear (west) wall of the portico was originally designed with doors opening between twelve narrow walls. These were filled in, however, to create solid walls on either side of the main gateway and then completely decorated. Thecolors here are wellpreserved, even though the wall has been badly damaged. At the right (north) end, Rameses II stands with Horus and Khnum. To the left, he stands before a persea tree flanked by Thoth and Ptah. Ptah writes the king’s name on the leaves of the tree and Thoth carries palm branches that have been notched to indicate the many years the king will hopefully live. Nearer the central gate, the king offers an South of the central gateway, 116 columns of text describe the youth and early years of the reign of Rameses II. He boasts of having visited Abydos soon after his coronation, and finding his father’s temple unfinished, ordering that it be completed. “Now, the Temple of Sety I, its front and its rear were (still) under construction when he entered heaven. There were none who completed  its monuments, none who erected its pillars upon its terrace. I being now Lord of the Two Lands, I shall finish them in proper fashion. I will build up the walls in the temple of the one who begot me.”

THE FIRST HYPOSTYLE HALL

The First Hypostyle Hall is a huge chamber with two rows of twelve papyriform columns that support an 8 meter (26 foot) high ceiling. The walls are heavily decorated with elaborately carved and painted scenes. (The fluorescent tubes that lie on the floor provide an unsatisfactory light, but even so the fine quality workmanship is obvious.) We will tour the hall starting in its front left (southeast) corner and proceed counterclockwise to the rear left (southwest) corner.The front (east) wall has three “piers” on each side of the central doorway with large niches between them. At the far right (south), in the upper register, the king pulls the sacred bark of Sokar. Below, he stands before the god Min. On the second pier, the king kneels on symbols of Upper and Lower Egypt and is joined by Anubis and Horus. Below, the king makes offerings to Ptah. On the third pier, the king offers vases to Amen-Ra and, below, receives purification from Atum and Amen-Ra.On the fourth pier, immediately left (north) of the main doorway, AmenRa holds an ankh-sign before the king’s face and Osiris offers a miniature pavilion, the symbol of the Heb-Sed Festival, and a notched palm branch representing years of long life. The scene below is similar to that on the third pier. On the fifth pier, at the top, the king hoes the earth, preparing the foundations of the new temple, as Osiris watches. Below, the king and the goddess Seshat prepare to drive stakes that will define the temple’s plan on the ground. On the sixth pier, the king, dressed in an elaborately painted costume, presents the nowfinished temple to Horus. Above, he stands in adoration before the god.

At the right end of the right (north) wall, Thoth and Horus purify the king with ankh-signs that flow like water from gold vases. In the center of the wall, below a once-grilled window, the king is led into the temple by Horus and Wepwawet to be greeted by Hathor. The goddesses  obeisance. At left, Rameses II presents to Osiris a papyrus case that holds the deed to the temple. Isis and Horus stand nearby. Above, the king kneels before Thoth, who writes the royal name on the leaves of a persea tree. At the right (north) end of the rear (west) wall of the hall, Rameses II receives a royal crown from Horus and a uraeus and sistrum from Isis. He is suckled by Isis in the scene above. Farther left, the king receives the symbol of Heb-Sed jubilees from Osiris, Horus, and Isis. Above, the king’s name is written on his shoulder by Thoth. Near the main axis of the temple, Rameses II offers small statuettes to Amen-Ra and Mut and above, he burns incense before Amen-Ra and Khonsu. Similar scenes are repeated on the wall immediately left (south) of the main axis. These are followed by further scenes of the king with Mut, Ptah, Sekhmet, and the bark of Sokar. On the left (south) wall of the hall, the birth of Rameses II is shown in a badly damaged scene. He is fashioned on a potter’s wheel by Khnum, then cared for by Isis.

THE SECOND HYPOSTYLE HALL

The Second Hypostyle Hall has three rows of twelve columns each, the back row standing on a low raised platform. Behind this row of columns, seven doorways lead into seven chapels. The front (east) wall of the hall shows Rameses II offering to various deities. But the workmanship on this wall, and indeed, in much of the temple, pales in comparison to the reliefs on the right (north) end of this hall. Carved in the reign of Sety I but usurped by Rameses II, these are among the most beautiful reliefs in all of New Kingdom Egypt, and many of them still retain traces of the original paint.
At right, Sety I burns incense and makes libations before Osiris and Horus. The purifying water falls gracefully into three heart-shaped vessels. A superb figure of Horus stands behind them. In the register above, the king kneels, hands in adoration, his body lithe and youthful. In the center of the wall, the king makes offerings before a shrine of Osiris. Farther on, Osiris sits between figures of Ma’at and Renpet, and behind  him stand Isis, Imenty, and Nephthys. The goddesses are very finely carved; note especially the details of their hair and dresses. It is also worth pausing to admire the details in the hieroglyphs, the finelyfeathered birds, woven baskets, and small, human figures of remarkable grace. Further left, the king offers Ma’at to Osiris, Isis, and Horus, while above, Horus presents symbols of royal office. On the wall that lies opposite the third row of columns, there is an elegantly and elaborately carved djed-pillar.

SEVEN CHAPELS

We will describe the seven chapels behind the back wall of the second hypostyle hall from right (north) to left (south). Since the scenes in five of the seven chapels are repetitive, we will describe them in general, reserving more detailed descriptions for scenes in the Osiris Chapel and that of Sety I. From north, the seven chapels are as follows:
1. Chapel of Horus
2. Chapel of Isis
3. Chapel of Osiris (with acomplex of other chambers behind it)
4. Chapel of Amen-Ra
5. Chapel of Ra-Harakhty
6. Chapel of Ptah
7. Chapel of the deified Sety I

CHAPELS 1-6

The chapels have vaulted ceilings recalling the shape of the small reed huts that served as shrines in predynastic times. The last three chapels (numbers 5, 6, and 7) were never painted, in contrast especially to the chapel of Osiris, where the paint is still fresh and bright. On the rear wall of each chapel is an elaborate double false door. On the right (north) wall, the king grasps the two handles of double-leaf doors on the tall, narrow shrine, then censes and adores the deity inside. Farther left, the king stands before an offering  table, offering foods and incense before the god’s bark, then gives fresh linen robes and ointments to statues of the god or goddess. On the left (south) wall, the king again censes statues of deities and offers clothing and jewelry. Farther left, he presents insignias to the gods and adjusts their crowns. When these ceremonies are completed, the king pours sand from a small bowl onto the floor and departs. The sand will then be swept to erase any footprints, leaving the chapel in pristine condition until the round of ritual feeding, censing, and clothing is repeated.

CHAPEL 3

Although the scenes on the chapel walls are similar to those in chapels 1–6, the rear wall of the Chapel 3, or Chapel of Osiris, has a real doorway in place of a false door that leads into a chamber with ten columns and well-painted walls. On the front wall, right (south) of the doorway, the king stands before a shrine of Osiris and Isis, and makes offerings of incense, bread, wine, and Ma’at to various deities including Anubis, Heket (a frog goddess), Horus, and a goose-headed Hapy. On the rear (west) wall, the king and Isis erect a djed-pillar and dress it in linen garments. At the far right, Sety I raises a very finely carved standard of Abydos, and at left he offers incense to the standard of Thoth, depicted here as an ibis.At the right (north) end of the columned hall, doorslead into three small sanctuaries dedicated to Horus (with Osiris and Isis), Sety I (with Osiris, Anubis, Isis, Thoth, and Horus-son-of-Isis), and Isis (with Horus). All three are very well decorated, carved with great attention to detail and with much color still preserved. In the Horus sanctuary, Sety offers to the god (right wall), while Isis presents the king to Horus who offers a crook and flail (rear wall). At the right end of the left wall, an unusual scene shows the king scrubbing an offering table and filling an incense burner. The central Sety I sanctuary is decorated with scenes of purification. At right, in the Isis sanctuary, the king makes offerings and receives the symbol of the Heb-Sed Festival.At the southern end of the columned hall, a doorway leads into a roomwith four columns and three small sanctuaries beyond its rear wall. In the central sanctuary, Osiris lies on a bier with the king and various deities in attendance. Much in these rooms has been badly damaged.

CHAPEL 7

Scenes in Chapel 7, or Chapel of the Deified Sety I, are devoted to the celebration of the king’s Heb-Sed Festival, his coronation, the recognition of his royal authority by the gods, and the activities of his mortuary cult. On the right (north) wall, the king is led forward by Montu and Atum and various  goddesses to be united with his royal ancestors. The procession is followed by Thoth and the Souls of Nekhen (symbolizing the most ancient rulers of Upper Egypt). In an especially beautiful   composition, Sety I is embraced by goddesses of Upper and Lower Egypt, and Horus and Thoth tie together symbols of the Two Lands. On the left (south) wall, Thoth offers to the king, and other deities watch as he is crowned by Horus. The Souls of Pe (ancient rulers of Lower Egypt) and Nekhen are preceded by eight standards, each carried by anthropomorphic ankh-signs.

HALL OF NEFERTUM AND PTAH-SOKAR 

In the rear left (southwest) corner of the Second Hypostyle Hall, a door leads into a threecolumned hall dedicated to two mortuary deities of the Memphite area. Nefertum wears a lotus blossom on his head out of which the sun is said to rise. Ptah-Sokar, a syncretism of two deities,is a god closely associated with the afterlife and with Osiris. The wall adjacent to the door shows PtahSokar offering an ankhsign to the king. The god’s titles and forty-three lines of text relate to offerings being made. To the right of the hall are two small shrines. That on the right is dedicated to Ptah-Sokar and shows the king before a list of fifty-two Memphite deities. Below is a scene of the resurrection of Osiris. On the left (south) wall, Osiris lies upon a bier flanked by deities. The left-hand shrine is dedicated to Nefertum and its walls are carved with figures of many other gods as well. The rear (south) wall of the hall has four niches: Atum, Thoth, and Sokar are in the first; Osiris, Min and a third god are in the second.

HALL OF ANCESTORS

The entrance to this corridor, also called the Gallery of the Lists, lies immediately left (east) of the Hall of Nefertum and Ptah-Sokar. The left (east) wall of the corridor shows the king offering to many deities, but it is the right (west) wall that visitors come to see. Even better known than the superbly carved walls in the Second Hypostyle Hall, this wall is the most famous at Abydos because of its historical importance and its fine carving. Standing with his father, Sety I, young Prince Rameses (soon to become Rameses II) holds a papyrus bearing the names of his royal predecessors.

 His father holds incense before the king list (known as the Abydos King List), which is written in a series of rectangles on the wall before them. Beginning with Menes at the top left (traditionally the first king of the First Dynasty), the list names seventy-six kings, ending at the bottom right with Sety I. Minor kings are excluded, as are such female rulers as Hatshepsut and the rulers of the “heretical” Amarna Period, Amenhetep IV/Akhenaten, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamen, and Ay. Thus, Horemheb becomes the immediate successor of Amenhetep III.

Farther south along this corridor, doorways lead into rooms used by priests for the storage of temple equipment and for the preparation of offerings. Immediately beyond the King List, a door cuts through the right (west) wall into a sloping corridor sometimes called the Corridor of the Bulls .

THE CORRIDOR OF THE BULLS

On its walls well-carved scenes show (on the right) Rameses II and his eldest son, Amenherkhepshef, lassoing a bull. Farther west, the king pulls a bark of Sokar. On the left (south) wall, the king drives four calves toward Khonsu and Sety I. To the west, the king and others pull on a bird net, trapping wild ducks and presenting them to Amen-Ra and Mut. Such scenes are meant to show the king’s control over untamed nature. Above, scenes recount the foundation ceremony when the temple was first built.                                                                                                                                                                                     

OSIREION

The Corridor of the Bulls leads out of the temple to the Osireion, a cenotaph of Sety I also regarded as the burial place of the god Osiris. Work on the building was begun by Sety I but it was not completed until seventy years later, by his grandson Merenptah. Modeled on the plan of a New Kingdom royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings, its long L-shaped corridor leads to a subterranean faux burial chamber. Built in a huge pit cut into the desert behind the temple, the structure was then covered over with debris. The burial chamber, a pillared hall measuring 30 by 20 meters (98 by 65 feet), was constructed of red granite. A sarcophagus sat on a low mound in the center of the hall, surrounded by a waterfilled channel. The mound represents the primeval island on which creation first took place; the channel represents the ocean in which the island lay. Today, ground water at Abydos has risen and the entire building is flooded yearround. Fish can even be seen swimming in the deep pools that cover the floor. The walls of the original corridor leading down from the surface were decorated with scenes and texts fromthe Book of Gates. Beyond, after the corridor turns sharply to the left, astronomical scenes and texts from the Book of the Dead can be seen on walls and ceilings. An especially elegant scene of the sky goddess Nut covers the ceiling at the back of the burial chamber. A modern wooden staircase leads down to the center of the structure.

THE TEMPLE OF RAMESES II

About 300 meters (1000 feet) north of Sety’s temple stand the remains of a temple built by Rameses II. Like Sety’s Osireion, this too is a cenotaph, but it is modeled on a New Kingdom Theban temple, not on a royal tomb. In spite of its missing roof and upper walls, the standard scenes carved on its walls are of special interest because of their remarkably wellpreserved paint. The exterior walls of the temple display an elaborate calendar of festivals on the south wall, and scenes of the battle of Kadesh on the north and west walls. Inside, an open court has Osirid pillars around its perimeter andoffering scenes on its walls. West of the courtyard, behind a small portico, four small chapels are dedicated (from right to left) to Rameses II, the Ennead, royal ancestors, and Sety I. Another chapel, for the god Onuris, lies behind them on the right. Around the second of two eight-pillared halls, other chapels, several of them especially well-carved, are dedicated to Osiris, the Theban Triad, Thoth, and Min. The stela at the rear of the temple, placed here only recently, hides the entrance to a chamber housing a large granite statue group of Rameses II, Sety I, Amen, and two goddesses.

From" The Illustrated Guide to Luxor" by kent R.Weeks ,published by the American University in Cairo Press. Copyright © 2005 White Star S.p.a