Abydos - Temple of Sethos I

On the right hand wall of the King's Gallery is the famous Abydos King List, which has yielded important information on the sequence of Egyptian rulers. It depicts Sethos I with a censer and the Crown Prince, later Ramesses II (with the side lock of youth), who is reciting hymns from a papyrus roll. They are revering their royal ancestors, 76 of whom are listed in the two upper rows. The list begins with the first King of Egypt, Menes (Hor-aha?), and continues to Sethos, the names of unimportant or illegitimate rulers being omitted. The inscription above the list reads as follows: "The performance of the prayer for the dead ('May Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, lord of the tomb, who dwells in the temple of Sethos, increase the gifts for the kings of Upper and Lower Egypt') by King Sethos: 1,000 loaves of bread, 1,000 head of cattle, 1,000 geese, 1,000 offerings of incense, etc., by King Sethos for King Menes, ...", followed by the list. In the bottom row the phrases "by King Men-matre" and "by the son of Re, Sethos" are repeated over and over again. On the left hand wall of the gallery Sethos, holding a censer in his left hand, is depicted with Ramesses, wearing the panther skin of a priest, who pours a libation on the altar. The inscription gives a long list of the names and shrines of the gods to whom they are making sacrificial offerings.

Of particular interest is the decoration of the temple, in particular the reliefs dating from the reign of Sethos I, which rank among the finest achievements of Egyptian sculpture.

The temple is entered from the northeast. In front of it, to the left, is the facade wall of a small building, probably a festival temple, facing on to the axis of the main temple. The first pylon is in ruins; on its rear side are shallow niches which contained statues of Sethos I and Ramesses II in the form of Osiris. The First Court is largely destroyed. On its southeast wall (to the left) are scenes from Ramesses II's wars and victories in Asia (Battle of Qadesh against the Hittites; counting of the severed hands of the enemy dead; dedication of booty to Amun). On the southwest side of the court, on a higher level, is a Hypostyle Hall, with representations of Ramesses II's children on the base of the walls; the scenes are continued on the rear wall of the second pylon. In front of the hall can be seen two wells.

The central doorway leads into the First Hypostyle Hall (170ft/52m by 35ft/11m), the roof of which (partly fallen in) is supported on 24 papyrus cluster columns with bud capitals. The columns are so arranged that the five central processional aisles leading to the chapels are flanked by two pairs of columns, while the two outermost aisles are bounded on one side by the walls of the hall. The reliefs on the shafts of the columns show the King in the presence of the god to whose chapel the aisle leads, sometimes accompanied by the other deities of his triad. The carving is of mediocre quality; the reliefs date from the time of Ramesses II, who caused Sethos I's bas-reliefs to be chiseled out and replaced by sunk reliefs. Notable among the other reliefs are those in the lower row on the end wall to the right. They show (to the right) Thoth and Horus pouring holy water, in the form of the hieroglyphs for "purity" and "life", over Ramesses II; to the left the dog headed Wepwawet and the falcon headed Horus, "avenger of his father", lead the King into the temple and hold the hieroglyph for "life" to his nostrils, with Hathor of Dendera to the left; farther to the left Ramesses presents to Osiris, who is accompanied by Isis and Horus, a case for papyrus rolls in the shape of a column held by a kneeling king, with a falcon's head on the top as a lid.

By far the most important feature of the south wing is the Gallery of the Kings, a long and gradually rising corridor which is entered from the Second Hypostyle Hall (doorway between the second and third rows of columns).

A door half way along the right hand wall of the Gallery of the Kings leads into a passage, beyond which is a vaulted stone staircase, originally leading out of the temple but walled up in ancient times. The reliefs in the passage date from the reign of Ramesses II. On the right hand wall the King and a Prince are shown lassoing a bull in the presence of the dog-headed god Wepwawet, to whom (farther left) they sacrifice it. On the left hand wall Ramesses conducts four sacred oxen to Khons and King Sethos. Beyond this are other scenes: Ramesses pacing out the precincts of the temple; Ramesses and four gods catching birds in a net; Ramesses and a Prince offering the captured geese to Amun and Mut. On the walls of the staircase are numerous Phoenician and Aramaic inscriptions left by Semitic visitors to the temple.

The Second Court is better preserved. To the right and left are dedicatory inscriptions in the name of Ramesses II. Ramesses is also depicted making offerings to various deities and smiting his enemies in the presence of Amun. On the far side of the court a low ramp leads up to the temple proper, which stands on a platform. It comes first to a vestibule, which, like the Hypostyle Hall in the First Court, had 12 pillars constructed of blocks of sandstone and limestone. It originally had seven doors in the rear wall. On the wall to the left of the main doorway is an inscription in 95 vertical columns recording the completion of the temple by Ramesses II. The reliefs depict Ramesses in the presence of various deities; one scene (adjoining the doorway) shows him presenting an image of the goddess Maat to the triad of Osiris, Isis and Sethos I (here taking the place of Horus). The seven doors corresponded to the temple's seven chapels. Processions in honor of the King passed through the first door, at the left hand end, while the other doors were used by processions honoring Ptah, Re-Harakhty, Amun, Osiris, Isis and Horus. Six of these doors were walled up by Ramesses II, leaving only the one in the middle as the main entrance.

Seven doors, corresponding to the walled up entrance doorways, lead into the Second Hypostyle Hall, with 36 columns set in three rows supporting the architraves and the roofing slabs which rest on them. The arrangement of the columns flanking the processional aisles is similar to that in the preceding hall. The 24 columns in the first two rows have closed papyrus capitals. The columns in the third row, set on a raised platform, are tree trunk columns with cylindrical shafts and no capitals, on which rest stone slabs forming an abacus for the support of the architrave.

From the south end of the Gallery of the Kings, where there are Coptic inscriptions (prayers) in red paint, a doorway leads into the slaughter court, with a colonnade (never completed) of seven columns. The scenes and hieroglyphics on the walls were sketched in color in the reign of Sethos I, but only a few of them were later finished as sunk reliefs. They depict Sethos sacrificing to various deities and (in the lower row) the slaughter and cutting up of sacrificial animals. The screen between the first column and the left hand wall was intended to block the view from the Gallery of the Kings into the slaughter court.

Adjoining this court are four unfinished rooms, two of which are closed. In three of them the scenes on the walls are merely sketched in; in the fourth they have been completed in color. From the first room (immediately on the right, close to the doorway into the slaughter court) a staircase leads up to five other rooms (two of them closed) containing unfinished paintings dating from the reign of Merneptah. From to the Osireion. Beyond the east corner of the south wing, outside the temple proper, is a deep circular well.

A door in the right hand wall of the Gallery of the Kings leads into a small Hypostyle Hall (six columns), with paintings (designs for reliefs which were never completed) dating from the reign of Sethos I and sunk reliefs of Ramesses II's reign. Along the walls are benches, probably for offerings.

The South Wing contains a slaughter yard, a well, store rooms, etc., as well as a Chapel of Ptah-Sokar, the death god of Memphis, which is entered from the Second Hypostyle Hall, turning left immediately in front of the King's Chapel. The roof is supported by three tree trunk columns. The fine reliefs show Sethos I revering Ptah-Sokar, his son Nefertum and other deities. In the east wall are four niches decorated with reliefs. Off the main chapel open two smaller ones roofed with false (corbeled) vaults, dedicated to Sokar (right) and Nefertum (left). On the left hand wall of the former isa relief of Horus and Isis by the bier of Osiris, on whose mummy sits a falcon (Isis); at the head and foot are two other falcons with drooping wings. On the right hand wall are Isis and Horus at the bier of Sokar-Osiris, who holds his left hand to his brow and grasps his phallus in his right.