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- ABYDOS. Chapter II - The Temple of Sety I ( The Temple of the Kings)
[<< Previous report on expedition "Egypt-2013: Abydos, The Temple of the Kings] [<< Chapter I of the report on expedition "Egypt - 2018: Osirion" ] (Continuation) The Temple, built by Sety I - the King of the XIX Dynasty, with its beautifully preserved bas-reliefs and texts, is a real "stone book" - one of the most durable storage of information, invented by its creator for keeping it for the millenniums for many of the future generations. More than 3 thousand years have passed, but this "book" opens more and more new pages to those for whom it was intended. Much has been learned, much has been explored, but not all. Time, nature and geology are taking their own. Slowly for us, but catastrophically fast for the Eternity, these factors are influencing on the pages of this priceless stone manuscript, which its devoted readers are trying their best to preserve as long as possible. "When first discovered by Mariette in the middle of the last century, the main part of the Temple of Sety I was in fairly good condition as far as the actual shape of the building was concerned. Some of the roofing-slabs had been removed, others were badly cracked, and the upper courses of some of the walls were missing. Most of the damage lay in parts of the western and southern ends of the building. Some columns had fallen, others were leaning. But the pylon and the walls and pavement were almost entirely destroyed. But the most serious carnage to the temple was caused by the sinking of the foundations. This was due to faulty judgement on the part of King Sety's architect who built the side walls of the temple on virgin ground and the central part on the filling of the ancient conduction channel that had connected the Nif-wer Canal with the site of the Osirion. With the passing of the years, the bed of the Nile rose, and with it the subsoil water. Every year the inundation of the Nile increased the flow of the subsoil water which seeped through the filling of the channel and washed out the sand and debris from under the foundaitons of the temple. The result was that the whole of the center of the building sank causing the blocks of the walls to override each other, cracks to appear in the walls, roof and columns, and the back wall of the temple to lean out dangerously to the west. The first architect appointed by the Antiquities Department to attempt restoration of the temple was Mr. Alexander Barsanti. His first concern was to prevent the dangerously cracked roof from falling. The French architect M.V.M. Baraize worked on the temple from 1923 to 1939. He roofed the three colored chapels leading out of the Osiris Hall and also the western end of the Second Hypostyle Hall, Mr. Baraize also filled up unsightly holes in the walls, but he did nothing about the foundations. The work of restoration was taken over by Mr. Abdel Solem Hussein until his untimely death in 1948. During these years he commenced rebuilding the upper parts of the walls using limestone from the quarries which had supplied the original stone for the temple. This work was continued by Mr. Mustafa Sobhy from 1950 to 1951. The level of subsoil water in the whole area of Abydos must be carefully scrutinized to see its effects on the foundations of both Sety's Temple and the Osirion. Correctional work is needed. " Omm Sety and Hanny El-Zeini
The Egyptian archaeologist Abdel Salam Mohamed Hussein was carrying out works on ground stabilization between the western wall of the Temple of Sety I and Osirion, because the western wall of the Temple was noticeably sinking down into a certain underground void. He also drilled a well in the first Court of the Temple of Sety I and proposed the hypothesis of existance of a ruined ancient water channel, running under the Temple of Sety I and connecting Osirion with the Nile. "The soil brouht up by boring at a point in the 1st court was a mixture of debris, sand and mud. At a depth of about 10 metres fragments or limestone came up indicating a layer 60 cm thick, then came a very thin layer of mud and again limestone for another 60 cm. The tube then droppedin a void 90 cm deep to encounter a third layer of limestone 40 cm thick with sand and mud underneath it. It was evident that a kind of construction existed at that depth; presumably a conduit 90 cm deep with a roof consisting of two courses of limestone and a bed of the same kind of stone. The width of the conduit still remains undetermined. A series or borings put down in the plantations west or the antiquities zone gave negative results until in one lying on the axis granite fragments were brought up from a depth of about 7 metres. Granite was also found at about the same depth in another boring near the last one but on a line perpendicular to the axis. As no naturul bed of this stone can possibly exist in this neighbourhood there can be no doubt that this granite was transported here for construction purposes. These facts suggest that the ancients had excavated the central ditch in the rock to built an underground conduit at its bottom to conduct Nile water from canal to Osirion. If this is the case the canal-end of the conduit will probably be built in granite. Strabo mentions "a canal which leads to this place (Abydos) from the great river". Osman R. Rosten Year 2004 According to the research of Dr. Tarek Mahmoud Mohamed Abdel-Hafez, stated in his dissertation work Tarek Mahmoud Mohamed Abdel-Hafez. Geophysical and geotechnical studies in pharaonic and urban Egypt", with which he spoke in Bern in 2004, the current state of things are as follows: "Part of the Abydos Temple lies on Holocene Nile sediments and the other part on older Nile deposits, which make up a terrace. Groundwater can be a problem in desert areas, especially if its level is raising. The Abydos Temple is one of the ancient archaeological monuments of Egypt, which is affected by deterioration due to rising groundwater. It has been proposed that a channel existed between the River Nile and the Temple, which was used for transportation to the Temple by the Pharos. These channel sediments might be responsible for enhanced hydraulic conductivity and, therefore, for rising groundwater levels in the Osireion behind the temple of Sety I. Ground Penetrating radar (GPR) with a 100 MHz Antenna was used to test the hypothesis of a channel beneath the Temple of Sety I. A channel beneath the Temple and its extension into the farmland in the direction of the River Nile is demonstrated. Other anomalies in the subsurface are interpreted to be previously unknown rooms or tunnels in the Temple area". Tarek Mahmoud Mohamed Abdel-Hafez
In the GPR profiles below (after the initial processing of the georadar data), some land subsidence was detected in the first and second Courts of the Temple. This is demonstrated in the profiles 5, 6, 7 and 10. Apparent subsidence is interpreted as a canal running towards the Nile under the territory of the Temple of Sety I, which was discovered both inside and outside of the Temple area. Blue color shows the channel area, according to profiles No. 5, 6, 7 and 10 (the figures inside the circles are showing the locations of GPR scanners and the red arrows are indicating the scanning directions). On the right - are the profiles that are identifying the canal itself.
"...Above this city is Abydos, where is the palace of Memnon, constructed in a singular manner, entirely of stone. It has a fountain situated at a great depth. There is a descent to it through an arched passage built with single stones, of remarkable size and workmanship. There is a canal which leads to this place from the great river." Strabo 63 BC-24AD
Many archaeologists could not understand how granite blocks weighing more than 120 tons from Aswan quarries were transported to the construction site of the future Osirion. The answer to this question was given by the georadars, which has discovered a canal passing under the Temple of Sety I in the direction of the Osirion. This very canal, that was used by the ancient Egyptian builders and about which Strabo wrote in his famous "Geography" and the search for which has attracted the attention of more than one generation of scientists.
За западным тоннелем Осириона также обнаружена аномалия глубиной 8 м и шириной 3 м:
"There is one significant point however. The paving stones of some of the aisles in the hypostyle halls are large, single slabs resembling those in the upper "Blind Room." These could well be roofing subterranean passages. But in all other places the paving stones are smaller and irregularly shaped. As some of the inscriptions on the columns in the Osiris Complex state that Sety had built the western end of the temple on the site of an older, ruined temple, perhaps this room is part of the original building incorporated into the new one. On the other hand, this subterranean room might have at one time communicated with the Osirion which lies very near it though at a lower level. However, this room has never been seriously examined in a scientific manner, and it may well go down far deeper than its present floor level indicates. Omm Sety & Henny El-Zeini, 1981 The so-called "blind room", showed on the scheme of Auguste Mariette as "sector K", was detaily considered in our previous report "Egypt 2013: Temple of the Kings".
There is no GPR data on the "Blind Room" yet. But the archaeological research of the Temple of Sety I contunues.
"It must be pointed out that there are some unique features (apart from the exquisite perfection of its sculpture) which set it apart from any other Egyptian temple. First of all, the plan of the building is not the customary rectangle but is shaped like a capital letter "L". The reason for this change of plan is, as we have seen, the rediscovery of the Osirion. Had the temple been continued westward, as it should have been, it would have covered the roof of the older building. This was something the architect wanted to avoid at all costs. The Osirion was by no means just one of those old temples to be built upon! " Omm Sety and Hanny El-Zeini
What was that unknown ancient structure, which was mentioned by the owner of the Temple - the King of the XIX Dynasty, Pharaoh Sety I? What was the reason for building the underground water systems especially in this area of Abydos, in 10 kilometers from the modern location of the Nile? What was Abydos at the dawn of its existence, taking into account that the complicated, both underground and surface water supplying system (represented in the form of numerous still functioning canals) was hardly necessary for the territory, intended only for the Necropolis..?
Year 2018 The expedition of ISIDA Project has visited the Temple of Sety I for the 5th time. In addition to the received research information, we as usual, provide our reader with photographic material that contains much more information than can be expressed in words and contains many more unsolved secrets and "clues" on the way to understanding of our Ancient Ancestors, who millenniums ago with scientific engineering approach (and sometimes making mistakes) mastered the lands of Abydos.
"...Tourists visiting Abydos, after having crossed the temple of Seti, will find themselves before the majestic ruins of one of the most ancient edifices that the soil of Egypt has preserved for us and which was absolutely unknown up to these last few days. This indicates that this privileged land perhaps still contains under a thick bed of sand some great moniunents of whose existence no one had any idea." Edouard Naville, 1914
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