No place was better to be buried than
Abydos. But even for the living it was the centre
for the most important pilgrimage of Egyptian
religion. Why this importance? Through being the
cult centre of Osiris, the Egyptians believed that
the entrance to the underworld was between the
hills of the desert west of Abydos.
Today, the main reason for the attention that
Abydos gets, is by the temple erected by the
command of Pharaoh Seti 1 in the late 14th century
BCE. The main god revered in this temple was
Osiris, but 5 others had their sanctuaries as
well. Two, Isis and Horus, are closely linked to
Osiris and his myths, Isis being his wife and
Horus his son. The other three gods were Amon, Re-Harakhte
and Ptah. The seventh sanctuary is devoted to Seti
himself, indicating the real purpose of the
temple: honoring the deified, deceased Pharaoh |