These funerary beliefs also explain the existence of huge necropolises from various periods located between the city area and the temples which today are the most important ones, that of Sethi I (1294-1279) and his son Ramses II (1279-1213, XIXth dynasty).Ībydos reached the height of its glory under these two kings.

On the hill of Kom es-Sultan (in the centre of the ancient sacred city) and dedicated to Osiris after the XIIth dynasty, the Khentamention sanctuary was mostly built of unbaked bricks, hence their disappearance, but the building work continued without interruption during almost the whole of the Egyptian period. Most of the monuments of Abydos are based on this belief. The Book of the Dead which called Abydos 'the island of the Just' contains a specific formula 'to enter Abydos and become part of the retinue of Osiris'. The city thus became one of the most important cultural centres where the mysteries of the god's feastday were celebrated. Wishing to be buried there, even if only symbolically, some Pharaohs from the IInd dynasty on and the faithful too erected small brick cenotaphs or stelae representing them near the tomb of Osiris, lord of the underworld. The Egyptians believed each deceased to be an Osiris: the proximity of the god of the dead thus increased the chances of resurrection and of eternal life. Antef II (2121-2070, beginning of the XIth dynasty) officially made Abydos into the city of Osiris and main centre of the Osiris cult. According to mythology, the city harboured his main tomb which contained his head after his brother Seth had dismembered his body. The importance of Abydos rose with the establishment, with the Vth dynasty, of the cult of Osiris, god and sovereign of the earth. Numerous temples, often dedicated to the local divinity, also go back to the Thinites period, as well as two fortresses in Shünet el-Zebib. The area was occupied by the populations of el-Amra, then of Nagada who built a prehistoric and protodynastic village which later became the city of Abdjou (Abydos is the transcription of the Egyptian name) with protodynastic kings (the Horus) and the Thinites (1st and IInd dynasty), whose capital (This) was slightly further north and whose main necropolis was in the area of Um el-Qaab.

The pharaohs holy treasure