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| Abydos
is the home of Osiris, the ruler of the netherworld. It
is said that at night you can hear the spirits
congregating to pay homage to Osiris. All spirits must
travel to Abydos as part of their journey in the
afterlife. All Egyptians aspired to be buried here, but
if that was not possible, they built cenotaphs or
monuments. Seti
died before this temple was completed and his son,
Ramesses II, completed it. Some of the decoration concern
the life and exploits of Ramesses II instead of Seti I.
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The
Temple of Seti I is one of the few remaining
royal monuments still intact at Abydos. According
to the reliefs Seti was part of the local
triad of gods.
| Seti I and his
famous son, Ramesses II are shown here, indicating the
famous King's List.The
The
Osirion is located behind the Temple of Seti I
and is the remains of his Cenotaph. It was
designed to fill with water at the Nile
Inundation. The water you see in this picture is
ground water.
The local women believe that
they can enhance their fertility by immersing
themselves in the water. |
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| The temple. |
Osirion
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There are
other possible Osiris water structures associated
with Seti I and Ramesses II. The Tomb of Seti I
(KV 17) in the Valley of the Kings contains a
deep shaft (Chamber K) that appears to be heading
down to the water table.
In KV 5,
the tomb thought to be constructed for Ramesses
II sons, there is a room on the lower levels that
has been glazed with a combinations of colors to
perhaps simulate water spreading across the
floor.
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The Temple of Seti
I contains some of the most sublime decorations of any
Egyptian monument. Unfortunately, the day that we visited
the lighting system was not working, so the interior
pictures on this site are drawn from videos taken using
either natural light or my trusty flashlight. I could not
take photographs inside as it would have required a
flash, which is not allowed due to the perceived damage
the flash might cause to the colors of the reliefs.
Click on the
thumbnails below to see details of the Temple. Details
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