The Osireion - The Central Hall and related annexes .. Part ( 6 )

The Central Hall

From the First Transverse Chamber a short passage leads eastward into the grand imposing Central Hall of the Cenotaph . This is a three-aisled chamber, 100 feet by 65 feet, surrounded by seventeen small cells, of which one, the middle one of the end wall, has been pierced to give access to a further transverse chamber .

Walls of huge blocks of dark red sandstone surround a rectangular island of even greater blocks of red granite on which stand ten monolithic pillars of the same material . These pillars measure 3.90 meters ( 12.8 feet ) high, 2.37 meters ( 7.8 feet ) wide and 2.13 meters ( 7.0 feet ) thick, and have an average weight of about fifty tons each ! . This pillared island in the centre of the hall is approached by a stairway at each of its shorter sides .

Between the island and the walls of the hall is a channel of water about two meters ( 6.6 feet ) wide and nine meters ( 30 feet ) deep . Originally there was no permanent access to the island from any other part of the building . Neither was there access to the side walls of the hall in which are seven small square cells opening onto a narrow ledge ( about 60 centimeters wide ), and on the same level as the surface of the island . These cells, which were originally closed by wooden doors are six in each of the northern and southern walls, two in the western wall, and three in the eastern wall . The ledge onto which the cells open is interrupted on its western and eastern sides by two pilasters, or engaged pillars . At the eastern and western ends of the island, is a small and narrow flight of thirteen steps which descends part of the way into the channel .

The water in the channel was originally introduced through a long underground passage, roofed, walled and paved with limestone that led eastward to the ancient Nif-wer Canal . In modern times, the bed of the Nile has risen, and consequently the level of the subsoil water . Therefore, this wonderful monument is now permanently flooded, and only the Entrance Passage, the antechamber and small side-rooms are still high and dry . The Roman writer Strabo, mentions this passage and says that it was constructed of stone and was without joints ! .

Most of the granite roof of the hall is missing but from what remains, it is clear that the form was most unusual . At the northern and southern sides, the roof sloped upwards but the central part was flat . In fact, it resembled the undersides of the lids of some Old Kingdom Sarcophagi .

How the hall was lit and ventilated we do not know, but Strabo mentioned that the roof was covered externally by a great mound, surrounded by a grove of trees . There are still some circular stone-lined pits at the southern and northern sides of the building, and when excavated, they contained earth and the roots of large trees .

Even in its roofless state, the Central Hall is an inspiring sight in its massive simplicity . Like the valley Temple of Khafra at Giza, it was originally undecorated, but Merenptah had the eastern wall sculptured with scenes of himself offering to various gods . He also commenced but did not finish the decoration of some of the architraves .

Flower of Life " FOL "

The " Flower of Life " is the modern name given to a geometrical figure composed of nineteen overlapping circles with completed arcs inside larger circle, and they are drawn in red ochre and some are very faint and difficult to distinguish and is not etched or carved into the granite rock, it appears to be Indelibly burned into the rock . It is considered to be a symbol of sacred geometry and religious value . The symbol is of great spiritual and religious importance and believed to depict the fundamental forms of space and time . It has long been regarded as a blueprint of the Universe, containing the basis for the design of every atom, molecular structure, life form, and everything in existence . So, it is without doubt one of the most powerful ancient symbols .

The " Flower of Life " circle clusters appear on the surfaces of two of opposite granite pillars of the Central Hall and are believed by some to be 6000 years old . There is no evidence at all for this but there is strong evidence for a very approximate later dating ; this evidence has been ignored by enthusiasts for the exotic prehistoric theories that have been woven around the early date . Recent research shows that these symbols can be no earlier than 535 B.C. and probably date to the 2^nd and 4^th century CE, based on photographic evidence of Greek text, seen alongside the " Flower of Life " circles and the position of the circles close to the top of columns, which are over 4 meters in height . This suggests the Osireion was half filled with sand prior to the circles being drawn and therefore likely to have been well after the end of the Ptolemaic Dynasty .

The Eastern Transverse Hall ( Sarcophagus Chamber )

Lying behind the eastern wall of the Central Hall is another Transverse Hall . Its present entrance is through a hole in the back of the central square cell of the eastern wall of the hall, and this hole was forced through in modern times .

It is exactly the same as the one on the western side except that this hall had no connection originally with the rest of the building . It is also tent or saddle-roofed, which was probably the sarcophagus-chamber, or rather a symbolic representation of the sarcophagus itself .

Yet, during the reign of Seti I, this Transverse Hall must have been accessible as he had decorated its roof with the usual sarcophagus-lid representation of the Goddess Nut stretched out over the world and bending over the dead king, and also with the scene of Nut being raised above the earth by Shu, the god of the air .

The accompanying texts, in the form of a dramatic script, tell how Nut complained to the Great God that her husband Geb had insulted her by calling her " Sow that Eats her Young ! " . Called to order about this, Geb defends himself by saying that every evening Nut gives birth to her children the stars, but in the morning she eats them, therefore he is justified in the name that he called her . After some more domestic mud-slinging on both sides, the Great God pronounces his decision by saying that Nut may eat her children every morning, but she shall not fail to give birth to them again at night, and added sternly, " And she shall not be called, ' Sow that Eats her Young ' . So that is that ! " .

About fifty-five years ago, the western part of the Temple of Seti I was in danger of collapsing, so fourteen great piers of steel and concrete were sunk in the ground to below water level between the western wall of the temple and the eastern wall of the Transverse Hall . But during this operation no connecting passage or stairway linking the two buildings was discovered, so we still do not know how Seti's men got in to decorate the roof .

The Purpose of the Osirein

What was the purpose of this mysterious building ? . The fact that Merenptah decorated the Entrance Passage with scenes and texts normally found in royal tombs suggests that in his day the building was apparently regarded as a tomb . The Great Hall itself suggests a stone sarcophagus, and the rectangular island, the wooden coffin that it contains .

Frankfort though that the island, with its two flights of steps, was supposed to represent the first hill of dry land that emerged from the Primeval Ocean at the time of the Creation . He also thought that the pavement, between the two rows of pillars, are two large rectangular and square depressions, perhaps destined as the resting-places of a symbolic coffin and Canopic chest . It is probable that the island was cut off from the rest of the building by filling the trench with water . But they seem to be much too large for such a purpose . What seems probable is that these depressions were intended to receive the bases of a large statue and an altar . If so, this again points to an Old Kingdom date when statues were sunk into recesses in the pavements of the temples to make their removal or overthrow more difficult .

It is possible that some ruler of the Old Kingdom, thinking that a mud-brick Mastaba Tomb was unsuitable for Osiris, rebuilt it in eternal stone ? . In some of the ancient hymns, Osiris is referred to as, " He who sleeps surrounded by water " . If he were buried on ( or in a still undiscovered chamber, inside ) the island, this would certainly be true . Furthermore, a stela from a Late Period refers to " the Hill of Thinis, which conceals its Lord " . And as we have already said, Strabo mentioned that the Osireion was covered by a hill . It would seem as though some Egyptians regarded it as the Tomb of Osiris although others of their compatriots thought that the Mastaba of King Djer was the holy tomb .

But as the channel surrounding the island has never yet been freed from its water, despite the use of powerful pumps, and probably never will be, it is unlikely that the mystery of the Osireion will be solved . It will always remain one of the most breath-taking puzzles of Egyptology ; a challenge for a future generation of Egyptologists who must really make an exceptional effort before solving its mystery .

A Glimpse of an Old Scandal

Near the ancient temple at Kom el-Sultan was found the only statue, so far known, of King Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza . This is a miniature ivory figure not more than 7.0 centimeters high but having all the power and dignity of a colossus . The King is seated and wears the Red Crown of Lower Egypt, and the determined little face seems to have been a portrait as it bears a close resemblance to his son Khafra . It is now in the Cairo Museum ( No. 4244 ) .

This figure dated back to the 4th Dynasty . Most Egyptologists believe the statuette is contemporary, but some scholars, such as Dr. Zahi Hawass, think that it was an artistic reproduction of the 26th dynasty . His argument is that no building that surely dates to the 4th dynasty was ever excavated at Kom el-Sultan or Abydos . This figure, with a number of others, some of which dated back to the 1^st Dynasty, were found by Petrie in 1903 in a pit near the ancient temple . All had been slightly damaged, and were coated with some dry brown material . Puzzled by the nature of this material, Petrie sent a sample of it to be analyzed only to learn that it was dry human excreta ! . The pit in which they were found was evidently the cesspit of the temple lavatory, and here we get a glimpse of an ancient scandal . It was the custom for kings and nobles to dedicate votive statues to a temple . When became too numerous, or were damaged, a priest would take them away and bury them somewhere in the sacred temple enclosure, and so make room for newer votive offerings . In the case of these statues, the priest was probably a lazy, irreligious wretch, and instead of troubling himself to dig a hole and bury them, he just threw them down the lavatory . And to think that this happened to the only known statue of the great Khufu, of all the pharaohs of Egypt !!! . What an unbelievable irony of fate ! .

Another ivory figure from the same group is now in British Museum, London . It represents a king wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt, and a richly patterned clock . Who is he ? . We shall never know . But the beautiful, thoughtful face, with its intensely spiritual expression tempts one to think that perhaps we have here a portrait of the Archaic King who was to be later worshiped as Osiris .

By the time of the 5^th Dynasty, Abydos was quite a big flourishing town . The old temple was now greatly enlarged and had may priests and lay-workers, as well as lands and cattle, all designated by royal decree of king Nefer-ir-ka-Ra ( means " Beautiful is the Soul of Ra ", the third king of the 5^th Dynasty ) for the protection of these people and the temple property . This decree was inscribed on a limestone stela, and was found by Petrie at Kom el-Sultan . It is now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA . On it, the King says : " I do not permit that any man has the right to take away any priests who are in this district except to do service for the God himself in the temple in which he is and to conserve the temple in which they are . They are exempt in the limits of Eternity by the decree of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Nefer-in-ka-Ra " .

" I do not permit that any man has the right to take away the necessary equipment for any work in any other temple estate on which there is priestly service by any priest " .

" I do not permit that any man has the right to take away any serfs who are on any god's field for the corvée or for any other work in the district .

" As for any man who should disobey this decree ", the King orders, " thou shalt consign him to the temple work-house ; he himself being put on any corvée, or to the place of ploughing " .

This is really poetic justice, and it must have been a joyous sight to the oppressed to see a fat pampered, over-fed official grubbing about the mud of a canal, or staggering along in the blazing sun behind a plough ! . Justice spread its wings at a very early time in the history of mankind in the land of Egypt .

The Triumph of the Common People's Cult

The annual pilgrimage was firmly established, and by now Osiris was regularly referred to as, " Lord of Abydos " . The Cult of the God of the Common People had triumphed and the priests of the Solar Cult had to include him in their great religious work now known as the " Pyramid Texts " . The earliest known version of these are found on the walls of the passages and burial chamber of the Pyramid of King Unas of the 5^th Dynasty at Sakkara . They are also found in the pyramids of the kings and queens of the 6^th Dynasty and very much later in the tombs of private people .

From these texts we have clear proof that Abydos was regarded as the burial place of the entire body of Osiris . Thus it was considered to be particularly holy ground and many persons though living elsewhere in Egypt, longed with all their hearts to be buried in Abydos beside the body of their God . And so a large necropolis gradually grew up on the sandy plain between the cultivation and the mountain .

Sometimes family ties or other reasons prevented a person from realizing the wish to be buried in Abydos, and he had to be content with erecting a small cenotaph, or even a memorial stela .

A lot years ago, an interesting monument of this kind was found . It was dedicated by two women to their mother . The old lady had passionately desired to be buried in Abydos, but for some reason or other the family had not complied with her wish but had erected a stela there in her name . But her daughters did not forget their mother's wish, and at last they were able to fulfill it . They brought the old lady's body to Abydos and interred it in a modest tomb in the " cool earth of Osiris " . They erected this stela at the tomb, and ended its inscription by asking future passers-by to pray for offerings on behalf of their dead mother .

How such small human documents as this bridge the gulf of nearly 5000 years between their time and ours ! . And we may be sure that there are many more of such small monuments remaining still buried under the sand .

King Teti, the first ruler of the 6th Dynasty, left a similar decree to that of King Nefer-ir-ka-Ra . His successor, King Pepi I, married two sisters of Djau, the Nomarch ( The vizier ) of Abydos . The latter had a stela made for these ladies, both of whom were named Mery-Ra-Ankh-Nes ( I and II ) . This stela was found by Auguste Mariette ( Mariette Pacha ) built into the side of a well in the modern village . It is now in the Cairo Museum ( No. 1413 ) .

Apparently Djau did well at the hands of his royal brother-in-law as he managed to accumulate the following official titles : " Real Hereditary Prince, Nomarch, Overseer of the Pyramid City, Chief Justice, Vizier, Overseer of the King's Archives, Priest of the Gods of Buto, Priest of the Gods of Nekhen, Chief Ritualist, Sempriest, Master of the Wardrobe, Wearer of the Seal " . He says that he made a stela in " Abydos of Thinis, as one in honor with the Majesty of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Mery-Ra ( Pepi I ) out of love for the nome in which I was born " . The inscription ends with a plea that the priests of the Temple of Osiris Khenti-Amentiu shall honor the contract made between them and Djau to the effect that the latter had made an endowment of land to the temple, but out of the income from it, the priests were to provide him with mortuary offerings after his death .

There is little doubt that Djau and his two sisters inspired Pepi I to take an interest in their hometown . He entirely rebuilt the old temple in limestone, and judging from the fragments which remain, the sculpture was of a very high standard . He also built a limestone portal at Kom el-Sultan, the battered remains of which still bear his name .

Pepi II, whose reign of ninety years is the longest in history, added to the temple and left a decree endowing offerings to the priests and to the statues of the two Queens Mery-Ra-Ankh-Nes and their brother Djau .

Part ( 7 ) .. Coming SoOoOon .....

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