Sights

Seth, Osiris, and Isis, the story goes, were siblings. When Isis chose to marry Osiris, a jealous Seth cut his brother into little pieces and left Isis to chase the limbs across Egypt and build temples wherever she found a piece of her beloved brother/husband. (The reincarnated Osiris and Isis would later beget Horus, the falcon-god, who would kill his uncle Seth. Sheesh.) Abydos is where the mutilated brother’s head allegedly landed; it became the site for the cult of Osiris, where the incestuous myth was once reenacted annually, including a simulation of Osiris’s death and dismemberment. (The temple at Dendera also depicts this story, as well as Osiris’s ascension to heaven.)

The Temple of Osiris, built by Seti I, has been partially reconstructed. Its echoing rooms and huge columns compose one of the most impressive sights in Middle Egypt. Three of the original seven doors remain to the Portico of Twelve Pillars, which guarded the entrance into the temple proper. The central doorway leads to the first hypostyle ball, lined with 24 colossal papyriform columns. This grandiose entrance gives way to the second hypostyle hall, which contains some of the finest bas-reliefs ever carved in Egypt. At the for left corner of the second hypostyle hall a long, narrow corridor known as the Gallery of the Kings leads toward the southeast. This simple passage houses one of Egyptology’s most treasured finds, the Kings’ List, which mentions the names of 76 Egyptian rulers from Menes of Memphis to Seti I, although it is missing a few. Correlating this list with prior knowledge, scholars were able to pinpoint the sequence of the Egyptian dynasties.

In the southern wing of the temple, beside the entrance to the Gallery of the Kings, a doorway leads to a chamber with two tiny chapels adjoining it. The right-hand chapel contains a kinky relief showing the mummy of Osiris impregnating Isis, in the form of a falcon. Osiris’s sanctuary at the temple’s rear is more elaborate than others in the complex, opening into the Inner Sanctuary of Osiris, a chamber still possessing most of the original painted scenes of Osiris’s life. The sanctuary is flanked by three small chapels bedecked with the temple’s best-preserved reliefs.

After exiting the temple of Seti I, head left through the sand to the ruins of the Temple of Ramses II. Bring someone with you to unlock the gate (or ask a local child to run back to the temple to fetch someone). The temple here contains interesting hieroglyphics as well as suggestions of a mixing of Coptic and Pharaonic styles. (Site open daily 7am-5pm. Admission LE6, students LE3. The ticket covers everything, so there’s no need to wound your wallet with baksheesh.)