Mysterious Abydos

"For those who love her, Abydos still has a mysterious life." - Dorothy Eady, aka Umm Sety

One of the places we have wanted to see for a long time, but have never gotten to, is the temple of Seti I at Abydos. This is a beautiful temple about a four hour drive north of Luxor that has been a place of worship since pre dynastic times, over 5000 years ago. There are many things here, including tombs of the first Pharaohs of Egypt, but the thing everyone comes to see is this amazing temple. It was built mostly by Seti I and his son, Ramses II. But it is in the inside temple of Seti I that you will see Egyptian art at its finest and most perfect. Amazing carvings in limestone of gods, pharaohs and other things are done in exquisite detail in the hard limestone. 

One of the most interesting and certainly the most controversial is the famous helicopter hieroglyph. This one block, high up by the ceiling near the entrance, shows what appears to the modern eye to be a helicopter, a tank, and a plane of some kind. Many people travel to Abydos just to see this, proof to them that the ancient Egyptians had advanced technology. The explanation, alas, is much more boring. This carving is the result of a palimpsest gone bad. Ramses II had written his cartouche over his father's, Seti I by using carving and mortar. Over the centuries, the mortar crumbled and fell away. The result, to the modern eye, is these modern contraptions.  

"By the half-light that strayed in through the portico, we could see vague outlines of a forest of giant columns rising out of the gloom below and vanishing into the gloom above. Beyond these again appeared shadowy vistas of successive halls leading away into depths of impenetrable darkness.  It required no great courage to go down those stairs and explore those depths with a party of fellow travelers; but it would have been a gruesome place to venture into alone.” - Amelia Edwards, 'A Thousand Miles Up The Nile', 1876

In addition, there are a couple of beautiful hypostyle halls with their huge columns. At the right time of day light streams through the upper windows just to light the columns in a beautiful way. 

This is the Kings List, where Seti I had the cartouches of every pharaoh since Narmer engraved.   But he left off some that he didn't like, such as Hatchepsut, Akhenaten, and Tutankhamen. 

"The camel's paces, however, are more complicated than his joints and more trying than his temper. He has four: a short walk, like the rolling of a small boat in a chopping sea; a long walk which dislocates every bone and in your body; a trot that reduces you to imbecility; and a gallop that is sudden death." - Amelia Edwards, 'A Thousand Miles Up The Nile', 1876

After going through this temple we walked over to another temple, this of Ramses II. Since you have to walk over open desert, the local guards have to come with you. Ours had a camel along side with a gun on his saddle. Whether the gun worked or even had any bullets, is a total mystery.