ONWARD TO ABYDOS

From Luxor, Abydos is 170 km drive that takes 3 hours [roads are very bad in stretches but our driver did quite a bit of turning back a bit and taking other routes, so we had just a few minutes of bad roads. we had first visited Dendera, then went on to Abydos which is further away].

ABYDOS TEMPLE OF SETI I

the sacred city of Abydos was the site of many ancient temples, including Umm el-Qa'ab, a royal necropolis where early pharaohs were entombed. Today, Abydos is notable for the memorial temple of Seti I. Seti was a pharaoh of Egypt in the Nineteenth Dynasty, ruling from 1290-1279 BCE. [and father of the great Ramses II who had the longest reign]

OUR LUNCH TAMPERED WITH AGAIN BY DRIVER

We had left our lunch bag with sandwiches and cashew, raisins in the car. We had not taken that bag in with us to Dendera temple... as we were quite early there and stray dogs can be a problem if you carry food. We were hungry and opened our bag seated on a bench before entering Abydos temple. the packet was open, sandwich filling fallen out, cashews almost fully eaten up, only a few broken bits left. We were speechless.... this had happened on the 1 st day we had left our lunch pack min the car with the same driver. For the rest of the days, he just dropped us, we carried all our bags.... no scope for lunch bag being opened. OK, whatever.... we ate the lunch and went into the temple

SANCTUARY

Except for the list of pharaohs and a panegyric on Ramesses II, the subjects are not historical, but religious in nature, dedicated to the transformation of the king after his death. The temple reliefs are celebrated for their delicacy and artistic refinement

The large Osiris Hall or sanctuary is located are the very rear of the temple complex. It is a relatively large hypostyle hall with 12 columns. The walls are decorated with scenes, which still remain somewhat cryptic. To the west are three barque-shines dedicated to the gods Isis, Osiris and Horus. To the east is a smaller hypostyle hall, dedicated to god Osiris.

Temple of Seti had a terrace, multiple courts and chambers, two pylons, as well as seven chapels. The temple is made of white limestone and each chapel is roofed with flat corbelling slabs decorated with royal cartouches and stars. These chapels were dedicated to Seti I, Osiris, Isis, Ptah-Sokar, Nefertem, Ra-Horakhty, Amun, and Horus. Each chapel was decorated with prayers to each specific deity. For example, the Horus shrine had a falcon carrying the eternal symbol, the shen, painted on the walls.

ISIS NURSING HORUS

CHAPEL OF AMUN

ITHYPHALLIC OSIRIS in the reliefs below....

The battle of Quadish

MAMA AFRICA 2 BEDROOM APARTMENT

We drove back, got dropped at our new apartment. We had to checkin, we had dropped our bags there before 6 am in the morning.

The youngster there took us to the top floor room which had lovely views of the Nile but it was just a room with a double bed. We had booked the apartment which was 1 floor below