Abydos Temple

Abydos Temple

The Tet Pillar of stability and the Blue Lotus of Health.

   Abydos is not on the Nile Cruise itinerary and requires a separate day trip, but it is worth the effort. In the old days in was simply a case of hopping into a taxi with Mohamed and going anywhere the fancy took me. Mohamed would find a tree with some shade or pop into a local cafe to play draughts with his mates, while I did my own thing, exploring wise. Nowadays one has to go in a convoy of taxis and coaches with an escort of armed soldiers.

The Temple of Seti I

    Abydos is old, it has been there since the dawn of Egyptian civilization, so I am not even going to try to cover the vast array of antiquities, suffice to say that in the Temple of Seti I there is an extensive list of the ancestor kings of Egypt going back to the first ever king Menes I. It is a long list, however it is not complete, as those kings who were considered heretic have had there names omitted to purge them from history, and immortality. Name changing on monuments was a common occurrence as one Pharaoh simply stole a monument from his predecessor by changing the name on it to his own.

    The best thing about Abydos is the fabulous artwork, some of it retaining the original colours, and very little has been spoiled by Christian and Muslims.

   Alcove after alcove filled with wall upon wall of magnificent colourful pictures.

Abydos Picture Show

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    There is much to see outside the temple, body-less heads abound, though somewhat small compared to other temples. The water filled Osireion flooded with every flood and is so old it could not be accurately dated at present, because it is devoid of inscriptions.

The Abydos Helicopter
     The most amazing find at Abydos were the pictures of a helicopter, a jet plane, a hover car and a cruise missile, or was it a nuclear submarine?

The Paranormal fraternity had a field day, and still do, convinced that all the great monuments of Ancient Egypt were built either by extra terrestrials or by an advanced culture that has long since vanished.
      I am sorry to pour cold water on such a controversial debate but ... in the old days, the craftsmen plastered over an old king's name and recarved it with a new king's name, as I mentioned earlier. An old king dies during construction and the new king has to pay for it, so, he wants his name on it. Fair enough.
   Time and weather has eroded the plaster until some has fallen out of the old names leaving behind the most weird and wonderful images, that are not what they appear to be ... sorry ... but there is enough magic to be found here without having to invent any more.

   Here is another example of a king overwriting the name of the previous king. The names in the cartouches are mirror images of each other - hieroglyphs were written left to right or right to left. The figures always point towards the beginning of the writing, so here we have two names and four changes.

   Ah well, time to head back to Luxor and another adventure

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