The Osireion (also Osirion or Osiron) in Abydos, Egypt is a small temple complex that was built in honor of the ancient Egyptian god Osiris. It is located to the southwest immediately behind the mortuary temple of Seti I and was built like this in the time of the New Kingdom. Earlier assumptions that the Osireion was a royal tomb or a sham tomb are rather improbable according to recent studies. The temple character is just as clear in the sacrificial rites performed as in the type of decorations.
The Osireion complex was discovered in 1902 by Margaret Alice Murray and Flinders Petrie. The uncovering took place until 1926 under Henri Frankfort. The structure of the temple is reminiscent of the royal mortuary temples of the Fourth Dynasty, but dates from the time of Seti I. The decoration continued into the time of his grandson Merenptah. The name Seti I is recorded on dovetail-shaped building clips that held the massive granite blocks of the main hall of the Osireion together. Building materials from before the Nineteenth Dynasty were not found
Originally the Osireion was covered by a barrow, surrounded by rows of trees. The entrance was in the west of the facility. From there a long, downward-going corridor led southeast into a rectangular chamber with a narrow room behind. Paintings were placed on the walls of the corridor depicting the “Book of the Caves” on the northeast side and the “Book of the Portals” on the opposite wall. Both describe the nocturnal journey of the ancient Egyptian sun god Re through the underworld. Under Merenptah, at the southern end of the Ganges, the paintings were started as bas-reliefs.
Further bas-reliefs from Merenptah's time can also be found in the rectangular chamber, its adjoining room, as well as the corridor leading from the chamber to the northeast and the rear wall and the architraves of the adjoining transverse hall in front of the main hall with the surrounding moat. The corridor from the entrance chamber to the first temple hall is sloping like the described corridor, so that the water in the underground temple moat could be fed by groundwater. Today the entire temple floor of the Osireion is under water. From the first hall, built from red granite blocks, a gate with a still existing lintel led into the main hall with two rows of five large pillars each on the artificial island surrounded by water. The Osireion thus had the usual arrangement of Egyptian temples according to the “Book of the Temple”, each of which had a holy hill.
On the walls and the ceiling, cosmological texts from the sky books and deans were attached. The north, south and east walls are so destroyed that reading is no longer possible. Remains of the Book of Earth can still be seen on the west wall. The ceiling spans the western sarcophagus and eastern embalming hall. The groove book is shown in the western half, while the book of the night is shown in the eastern half.
In the southern room, on the east, south and west walls, the “Proverb of the 12 tombs” is attached as the 168th chapter of the Book of the Dead. The associated vignette shows the three phases of the sun god Re, which were already documented in the pyramid texts. Even in the oldest testimony from the reign of Amenhotep II, “7 tombs” are no longer available as a text. Only in the Osireion was an attempt made to reconstruct the tombs schematically as a unit.
The Osireion complex was discovered in 1902 by Margaret Alice Murray and Flinders Petrie. The uncovering took place until 1926 under Henri Frankfort. The structure of the temple is reminiscent of the royal mortuary temples of the Fourth Dynasty, but dates from the time of Seti I. The decoration continued into the time of his grandson Merenptah. The name Seti I is recorded on dovetail-shaped building clips that held the massive granite blocks of the main hall of the Osireion together. Building materials from before the Nineteenth Dynasty were not found
Originally the Osireion was covered by a barrow, surrounded by rows of trees. The entrance was in the west of the facility. From there a long, downward-going corridor led southeast into a rectangular chamber with a narrow room behind. Paintings were placed on the walls of the corridor depicting the “Book of the Caves” on the northeast side and the “Book of the Portals” on the opposite wall. Both describe the nocturnal journey of the ancient Egyptian sun god Re through the underworld. Under Merenptah, at the southern end of the Ganges, the paintings were started as bas-reliefs.
Further bas-reliefs from Merenptah's time can also be found in the rectangular chamber, its adjoining room, as well as the corridor leading from the chamber to the northeast and the rear wall and the architraves of the adjoining transverse hall in front of the main hall with the surrounding moat. The corridor from the entrance chamber to the first temple hall is sloping like the described corridor, so that the water in the underground temple moat could be fed by groundwater. Today the entire temple floor of the Osireion is under water. From the first hall, built from red granite blocks, a gate with a still existing lintel led into the main hall with two rows of five large pillars each on the artificial island surrounded by water. The Osireion thus had the usual arrangement of Egyptian temples according to the “Book of the Temple”, each of which had a holy hill.
On the walls and the ceiling, cosmological texts from the sky books and deans were attached. The north, south and east walls are so destroyed that reading is no longer possible. Remains of the Book of Earth can still be seen on the west wall. The ceiling spans the western sarcophagus and eastern embalming hall. The groove book is shown in the western half, while the book of the night is shown in the eastern half.
In the southern room, on the east, south and west walls, the “Proverb of the 12 tombs” is attached as the 168th chapter of the Book of the Dead. The associated vignette shows the three phases of the sun god Re, which were already documented in the pyramid texts. Even in the oldest testimony from the reign of Amenhotep II, “7 tombs” are no longer available as a text. Only in the Osireion was an attempt made to reconstruct the tombs schematically as a unit.
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