abydos
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Abydos, the cult city of Osiris, lies on the West Bank of the Nile, about 145 km north of Luxor. Ever since the beginning of the Dynastic Period, kings had built tombs or cenotaphs there. The kings of the first dynasty, and some of the second dynasty, were buried here, and the temple was renewed and enlarged by them. Great forts were built on the desert behind the town by three kings of the 2nd dynasty. The temple and town continued to be rebuilt at intervals down to the times of the 30th dynasty, and the cemetery was used continuously. In the 12th dynasty a gigantic tomb was cut in the rock by Senusret III. Seti I, in the 19th dynasty, founded a great new temple to the south of the town in honour of the ancestral kings of the early dynasties; this was finished by Ramesses II, who also built a lesser temple of his own. Merneptah added a great Hypogeum of Osiris to the temple of Seti. The latest building was a new temple of Nectanebo I in the 30th dynasty. From Ptolemaic times the place continued to decay and no later works are known.
The original deity of Abydos was the jackal god Kenti-Amentiu, who was absorbed into the cult of Osiris in the Fifth Dynasty. It was here that Osiris regained his power: at Abydos Isis found the last part of his dismembered body - his head, and restored him to life. The earliest royal tomb was found there, as well as the earliest known hieroglyphs. The temple at Abydos dates to about 3150 BCE. It was restored or expanded by various pharaohs, including Ahmose I and Tuthmose III.
Abydos was an important place of pilgrimage for the Ancient Egyptians. They wanted to be buried as close to Osiris as possible, and when they could not be buried at Abydos, they sometimes raised a stela there bearing their name and titles. Amenhotep III, with his taste for antiquities, ordered the royal necropolis of Abydos to be cleared, and his subjects were told to find the tomb of Osiris himself. This they claimed to have found, although in fact it was the tomb of King Djer (c 2800 BC), the third king of the First Dynasty.
The temple of Seti I | |
| The first two pylons of the Abydos Temple have been destroyed. The entrance is now formed of twelve pillars that originally formed the back of the Second Court. | At the rear of the Second Hypostyle Hall are the entrances to seven chapels. They are (left to right): A deified Seti I, Ptah, Ra-Horakhty, Amon, Osiris, Isis and Horus |
The temple of Seti I at Abydos was begun early in his reign in the 19th Dynasty. Built on entirely new ground and constructed in limestone about half a mile to the south of the earlier temples, it is probably better known as the "Great Temple of Abydos". An impressive sight, it was still unfinished at Seti's death and his son Ramesses II completed the works, although little of his decoration reaches the supreme standard of that of his father.
The temple, in the shape of an L, once had a landing quay, a ramp, a front terrace, two pylons, though the outer one is mostly lost, with two courts and pillared porticoes, followed by two hypostyle halls and seven chapels (see above), with additional chambers to the south making up the short leg of the L. Storage chambers fill the area from the southern wing to the front of the temple. The main body of the temple was symmetrical back to the seven chapels. While the L shaped floor plan of this temple is unusual, analysis seems to show that the southern wing was no afterthought, but the result of a well thought out alternative to the usual axial temple plan.
A principal purpose of the temple was the adoration of the early kings, whose cemetery, to which it forms a great funerary chapel, lies behind it. On the wall in the "Hall of the Records", Seti I and his young son, the future Ramesses II, are shown worshipping the cartouched names of 76 of their ancestors (unacceptable predecessors, such as Hapshepsut and Akhenaten are conveniently omitted from this list, neither does it record any of the kings from the Second Intermediate Period). At the back were large chambers connected with the Osiris worship. The temple was originally 550ft long, but the forecourts are now scarcely recognisable, and area that remains in part reasonable condition is around 250ft long by 350ft wide, including the L-shaped wing at the side.
The Osireion
Lying undiscovered until an excavation in 1902 by Flinders Petrie, this is the almost unique structure that today we refer to as the Osireion. It has been suggested that the architecture of the Osireion was inspired by the Valley Temple and causeway of Khafre at Giza - by the New Kingdom this was buried underground but was still accessible and known to the Egyptians as a tomb or shrine of Osiris. It is carefully aligned with the main temple of Seti I, and enclosed within a mud brick wall. Most of the actual excavation work was largely carried out by Margaret Murray and Petrie's wife. The whole site was not finally uncovered until 1926 by Henri Frankfort.
The structure was built in an excavation in the sandy clay stratum of the desert, with almost vertical sides. Two parallel limestone walls running over the eastern room of the structure served as retaining walls for the sand bed upon which the temple was built. The foundations are cut many feet below the current level of the water table, and the base of the temple is 30ft below the level of the desert, with the central part being 40ft deep. At this depth it is below the Nile flood plane. This means that the centre part of the temple forms a island with a flooded moat surrounding it. Excavations on the south side passage revealed funerary texts from 'The Book of Gates' and 'The Amduat', depicting the dangers of the Underworld which the deceased has to overcome on his journey to the Hall of Ma'at.
The name 'Osireion' was invented by Petrie for this unique structure, which he interpreted as a symbolic tomb of Osiris. The Osireion, according to myth, was the final tomb of the god Osiris. It dates from the reign of Seti I in the New Kingdom period and is situated to the West of Seti's Temple at Abydos (see plan above). The Osireion is perhaps the most conspicuous example of religious symbolism in Egyptian architecture.
The cult of Osiris was abandoned during the reign of Akhenaten, and the familiar votive figure of a squatting man wrapped in a pilgrim's cloak and the Osiris-shaped bed planted with seeds disappeared temporarily from the inventory of funerary goods.
The Royal tombs
The Royal Tombs of the earliest dynasties were placed about a mile back on the great desert plain, in a place now known as Umm el-Qa'ab. The earliest is about 10ft × 20ft inside, a pit lined with brick walls, and originally roofed with timber and matting. Others also before Menes are 15ft × 25ft. The tomb probably of Menes is of the latter size. After this the tombs increase in size and complexity. The tomb-pit is surrounded by chambers to hold the offerings, the actual sepulchre being a great wooden chamber in the midst of the brick-lined pit. Rows of small tomb-pits for the servants of the king surround the royal chamber, many dozens of such burials being usual.
By the end of the 2nd dynasty, the tomb type changed to a long passage bordered with chambers on either hand, with the royal burial being in the middle of the length. The greatest of these tombs with its dependencies covered a space of over 2500 square metres. The contents of the tombs have been nearly destroyed by successive plunderers; enough remained to show that rich jewellery was placed on the mummies, a profusion of vases of hard and valuable stones from the royal table service stood about the body, the store-rooms were filled with great jars of wine, perfumed ointment and other supplies, and tablets of ivory and of ebony were engraved with a record of the yearly annals of the reigns. The sealings of the various officials, of which over 200 varieties have been found, give an insight into the public arrangements.
The cemetery of private persons begins in the 1st dynasty with some pit-tombs in the town. It was extensive in the 12th and 13th dynasties and contained many rich tombs. A large number of fine tombs were made in the 18th to 20th dynasties, and later ages continued to bury there dead here until Roman times. Many hundreds of funeral stele were removed by Auguste Mariette's workmen when he worked on the site, but without any record of the burials.
By the end of the 2nd dynasty, the tomb type changed to a long passage bordered with chambers on either hand, with the royal burial being in the middle of the length. The greatest of these tombs with its dependencies covered a space of over 2500 square metres. The contents of the tombs have been nearly destroyed by successive plunderers; enough remained to show that rich jewellery was placed on the mummies, a profusion of vases of hard and valuable stones from the royal table service stood about the body, the store-rooms were filled with great jars of wine, perfumed ointment and other supplies, and tablets of ivory and of ebony were engraved with a record of the yearly annals of the reigns. The sealings of the various officials, of which over 200 varieties have been found, give an insight into the public arrangements.
The cemetery of private persons begins in the 1st dynasty with some pit-tombs in the town. It was extensive in the 12th and 13th dynasties and contained many rich tombs. A large number of fine tombs were made in the 18th to 20th dynasties, and later ages continued to bury there dead here until Roman times. Many hundreds of funeral stele were removed by Auguste Mariette's workmen when he worked on the site, but without any record of the burials.
