I'm Off My Beaten Track in Abydos ...

 ... today.  This part of my Egypt Journal picks up from where I left off in September last year and a more recent post from May.  You can read those earlier posts Here and Here if you want to remind yourself ...

ART, OSIRIS AND CAMELS

With barely three hours of sleep for the crew, we were already moored at Abydos when I come down to breakfast.  We are still not a full complement, but numbers are on the way up, and the boat has recovered from its temporary 'illness'.  The temple of Seti I and a ride in a taxi are today's treats.

The ship was tied up at the side of the lock and a short walk on gangplanks to where our transport was waiting.  It was five of us in each taxi.  All the drivers had been asked not to drive like demons, we were told.  Despite the warning, the journey was an experience never to be forgotten.  If the windows were left open to let in the air they also let in all the dust and dirt.  If they were closed, each one of us steadily cooked.  The driver may have been told not to drive like a demon, but no one had given him the OED definition of the word.  He was driving here, there and everywhere.  He had no regard for white lines, what few of them there were, other road users, or pedestrians.  He had developed to a fine art the process of changing gear with as little use of the clutch as possible and was a master at finding and hitting every single pothole and bump.  The highlight of the journey was when our driver threw caution to the wind and proceeded down the wrong side of the road for a good mile or so.  I concluded that if you were not on the ship's sick list before getting in the car, you certainly would be when, and if, you ever got back!

 We were 'checked in' to the village of Kerba by the local police, and we parked up in front of the temple.  It was not quite what I had expected.  The desert stretched out behind, and the monument was flanked by a disarray of mud houses with a high rocky ridge in the distance.  To the right was a newly built concrete and brick mosque still awaiting completion, painting and final decoration.  And there in front of us, amidst all this paraphernalia of modernity, was a magnificent edifice predating our own calendar.  The tops of the external pillars were restored, and it was quite obvious how this had been done.  No attempt had been made to recreate the splendour of the originals.  Each column was highly decorated, although the colour had faded with time and the sun.
Abydos was one of the most sacred sites to the ancients and was a place of pilgrimage.  The temple was built during the existence of the new kingdom, between 1500 and 1100 BC approximately.  The Pharoah Seti I had the temple built, and there are scenes inside depicting him laying out the foundations.  Seti caused a change in the style of art, and in this temple, the gods are seen to display human expressions and emotions.
The artwork inside the temple was stunning.  Once my eyes had adjusted to the meagre light, it was as though I had stepped into a kaleidoscope.  Vast walls were completely covered in plasterwork of red, blue and green, brown, white and rose, black for effect, light blue and yellow.  Each of the rooms in the temple told a part of the legend of the god and goddess, Osiris and Isis.
The story goes that Osiris was a good and just king, but his brother Seti was jealous of his success and popularity and conspired against him.  At a banquet, Seti tricked his brother into entering a large chest, and then the chest was closed and cast into the Nile.  Isis was brokenhearted, and she set out to search for her husband.  With the help of the goddess of protection, Nepthys, she found the body of her husband in the Nile Delta.  Isis carefully hid the body, but this was not enough.  Jealous Seti discovered it and cut it into fourteen pieces, and scattered them far and wide.  Isis again set out to search for the remains of Osiris.  Having found the pieces of his body, she enlisted the help of the jackal god, Anubis.  Whilst Anubis prepared the remains for burial, Osiris was revived sufficiently to give Isis his seed, and she subsequently bore a son, Horus.  Isis raised her son in the marshes of the delta until he was old enough to avenge his father's death.  Horus found his uncle Seti and killed him, and then raised his father from the dead.  However, Osiris could no longer reign on earth and became the king of the underworld.  Horus then reigned over Egypt in the name of his father.  The legend is beautifully retold in the reliefs of the temple.

Restored reliefs at the entrance to the temple

On one wall, Osiris is pictured, standing tall and proud, wearing the double crown of Egypt.  I noticed a shaft of sunlight playing on the scene in front of me.  As visitors to the temple moved about so they disturbed the dust and the air.  In turn, the shaft of light flickered, and Osiris appeared to stride across the temple wall.  I stood there for some minutes, mesmerised.

All four rooms were almost completely intact.  The paintwork looked as fresh and as clean as it would have done 3000 years ago.  I found myself looking around for the artist - it seemed to me he must have just finished his work.

The wonder was that the eyes of a dead civilisation had read and understood the story on these walls. 

There are times when I think that we modern humans have lost the ability to see.  We have microchips, computers and photoelectric cells, and we seem to live from one tangible reminder to another rather than enjoying what we see and carrying the memory with us. 

My fellow travellers were solely concerned with their shots and their videos.  I was in awe of the talents of ancient people and the illusion of Osiris striding across the wall.  There are some things you can only witness, and having done so, the memory is all that is needed...

There will be more from my Egypt Journal in the coming weeks.  So, keep watching this space!