Abydos

Site, Abydos to Abu Simbel · also called Abdju, Abdu, El Araba el Madfuna, Umm el-Qa'ab

Abydos was the holy city of Osiris and a royal burial ground from the very start of Egyptian history. For hieroglyph lovers it has everything: some of the oldest writing known, the famous King List, and the finest painted relief of the New Kingdom.

Abydos lies on the west bank of the Nile, about 10 km from the river near el-Balyana. The kings of the 1st Dynasty, Narmer probably among them, were buried at Umm el-Qa'ab in the desert behind the town. Later Egyptians believed one of these tombs was the grave of Osiris himself, and Abydos became the god's most sacred place.

Writing at Abydos goes back to the very beginning. Small bone and ivory labels from tomb U-j at Umm el-Qa'ab, dated c. 3200 BC, carry signs that many scholars read as early hieroglyphs. The 1st Dynasty tombs gave stone stelae with royal names written inside a serekh, the palace façade that came before the cartouche.

For two thousand years people came on pilgrimage for the festival of Osiris and left stelae asking for offerings. The standing monuments a visitor sees today are mostly New Kingdom: the temple of Seti I, the Osireion behind it, and the smaller temple of Ramesses II to the north.

At Abydos

Monument

Temple of Seti I at Abydos

Seti I's temple at Abydos holds the Abydos King List and some of the most refined hieroglyphs ever carved. It is the best place in Egypt to compare a king's fine raised relief with his son's quicker sunk relief.

Monument

Osireion

The Osireion is a sunken symbolic tomb of Osiris behind Seti I's temple at Abydos. Its plain granite hall is famous, but its writing is in the corridors and end chamber: royal underworld books and a sky ceiling.

What to see and read

Temple of Seti I

The main reason to come. Its inner rooms hold some of the most delicate raised relief in Egypt, much of it still painted. The Gallery of the Lists holds the Abydos King List.

Osireion

A sunken stone hall behind Seti's temple, built as a symbolic tomb of Osiris. You look down on its granite pillars; the texts are in its passages and end chamber.

Temple of Ramesses II

A short walk north. Roofless, but its lower walls keep bright colour on fine limestone relief. A second king list from here is in the British Museum.

Names you can find here

Signs to look for

Djed pillar R11ḏd The djed pillar, the backbone of Osiris, appears everywhere in Abydos, the god's own city.
Seated god A40 The seated god sign follows divine names, above all Osiris, in the temple texts and on pilgrims' stelae.
Bread on an offering mat R4ḥtp Bread on a mat begins the offering formula ḥtp-dj-nsw that opens almost every Abydos stela.
Sedge M23sw The sedge stands before royal cartouches in the title 'King of Upper and Lower Egypt', repeated through Seti's temple.
Cartouche V10 The cartouche ring: the King List has 76 of them in two rows.

Reading the hieroglyphs here

Allow at least two hours inside the Seti I temple, where the relief is sharpest.
Photograph the roofless Ramesses II temple in the morning.
Use the Hiero Lens live camera on a single column of text at a time; on worn outer walls, trace the sign over your photo instead.

Point your camera at a wall Hiero Lens boxes the signs and names them, on your phone; nothing is uploaded. On worn stone, trace a sign over the photo.

Questions

What is the Abydos King List?

A carved list of 76 royal names in cartouches in the temple of Seti I, from Menes down to Seti himself. It leaves out rulers later seen as illegitimate, such as Hatshepsut and Akhenaten.

Are there really helicopters in the Abydos hieroglyphs?

No. Seti I's titles were carved on a lintel and later plastered over and recarved with Ramesses II's titles. As the plaster fell away, the two texts showed through each other, and the mixed signs happen to look like modern machines.

Where it is

Open in OpenStreetMap · Written from published sources and not yet checked on site by our team: displays and open tombs change.