Abydos was the great cult centre of Osiris, the murdered and resurrected lord of the dead, and for that reason one of the most sought burial grounds in Egypt.
From royal cemetery to Osiris cult
The site began as the burial ground of Egypt's earliest kings in the First Dynasty, around 3000 BCE. One of those early royal tombs, that of Djer, was later reinterpreted as the tomb of Osiris himself, and Abydos became the mythic grave of the god. Egyptians who could not be buried there erected memorial stelae, or cenotaphs, so as to share symbolically in the god's resurrection; the desert is dense with them.
The temple of Seti I and the Osirion
The best-preserved monument is the temple of Seti I of the Nineteenth Dynasty, whose painted low reliefs are among the finest surviving from Egypt, and which carries the Abydos King List, a sequence of royal cartouches used to reconstruct dynastic chronology. Behind it lies the Osirion, a massive structure of great stone blocks built partly below the water table so that it appears to rise from subterranean water, evoking the primeval mound and the waters of creation. Its stark megalithic style has drawn much speculation about its date, though it is attributed to Seti's reign.
The mysteries
Each year a procession carried the image of Osiris from his temple out to the reputed tomb and back, a public re-enactment of the god's death, mourning and vindication that drew pilgrims for centuries. Ordinary participants could take part in the outdoor stages of these mysteries. The site is now an archaeological reserve; the temple of Seti I remains a principal destination for visitors to Upper Egypt.