Abydos

Welcome to the underground world

For the ancient Egyptians, 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.

The necropolis of Dahshur belongs to to periods of ancient Egyptian history, the 4th and the 12th dynasties, corresponding to the times around 2600 BCE and 1900 BCE.

The bent Pyramid at the tip of the Red Pyramid

The temple of Dush (known as Kysis) was built in the 1st century CE, and dedicated to the gods Isis and Serapis.

Dush

             The temple of Hathor at Dendera was built between 125 BCE and 65 CE belonging to the Greaco-Roman period. It is therefore more a continuation of the original Egyptian culture, than a part of it. Dendera had since long been a cult centre, also then with the goddess of joy, Hathor, as the central deity. The Birth House of Nectanebo is 200 years older than the temple.

Edfu was not a terribly important place of ancient Egypt, but according to the Egyptian myths it was the place where the falcon-headed god Horus avenged the murder of his father Osiris by killing Seth.
Horus was conceived after Osiris' death, and it was only following the hardship of collecting his body parts by Isis, that Osiris was sufficiently resurrected to give life to Horus. The unity of Osiris and Horus — Osiris was often understood to continue existing by his son — climaxed when Horus finally tracked down Seth and killed him.

The largest pyramid in the world is Cheops' (Khufu), built almost 4,600 years ago. It's made up of 2,300,000 blocks, with the average weight of 2,5 tons. Some stones weigh up to 15 tons. It was originally 146.5 metres high (before the casing stones were removed), and 230 metres along the base.

The legend of Khmunu told that this was the place where the sun-god emerged from a cosmic egg. This egg was the result of the original choas, a chaos that was recognized for a certain set of characteristics. According to the myth of Hermopolis, called the Hermopolitan Ogdoad, thoth laid the cosmic egg.

               There were so many of them that it is sometimes difficult to work out which was which. As the Egyptian religion evolved over the centuries, the identities of some early gods disappeared, as they merged together in people's minds, while other gods split up their roles to form separate new gods.

Many gods and goddesses were associated with certain animals, and they were often shown in paintings as that animal or with an animal mask. Major gods, like the sun god, were worshipped throughout Egypt, but some others were local gods, linked to a particular town or temple.

A small example of some of the gods follows:

Re was the most common form of the Sun god, although there were many different versions.

Each day Re was born again and began a journey across the sky.

Temple: Heliopolis

Egyptians regarded Osiris as King of Egypt. He introduced vines and grain to the land, and became supreme god, judge and ruler of the dead.

Son and heir of Geb and Nut, and the symbol of eternal life.

Temple: Abydos

One of the earliest and most important goddesses, Isis was worshipped as the great mother-goddess and goddess of crafts.

The daughter of Geb and Nut, she was married to her brother Osiris.

Temple: Philae

Anubis was the god of the dead and of magic and embalming. He guided the dead through the darkness of the underworld.

He was the son of Osiris and Nepthys.

Animal: Jackal

Horus, god of the sky, was said to have inherited the throne of Egypt from Osiris.

Temple: Edfu

Animal: Falcon

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