Abydos - Temple of Sethos I

The chief feature of interest is the Temple of Sethos I, Strabo's Memnonium. This magnificent structure, completed by Sethos's son and successor Ramesses II, was almost completely excavated in 1859 by the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette (1821-81) the expense of the then Viceroy, Said.

The temple complex is laid out on three levels. The walls are built of fine grained limestone, the columns, architraves and door posts of a harder limestone. The layout differs in many respects from that of other Egyptian temples. There are not one but no fewer than seven chapels, dedicated to Osiris, Isis, Horus, Ptah, Re-Harakhty, Amun and the deified Sethos. The front partof thetemple is thus divided into seven individual temples, each with its own doorway, and the chambers behind the chapels are not arranged behind one another, as in other temples, but side by side. Another unusual feature is the wing, containing various subsidiary chambers, which branches off the main structure at right angles structure at right angles.