No place was better to be buried than Abydos. But even for the living it was the centre for the most important pilgrimage of Egyptian religion. Why this importance? Through being the cult centre of Osiris, the Egyptians believed that the entrance to the underworld was between the hills of the desert west of Abydos.
Today, the main reason for the attention that Abydos gets, is by the temple erected by the command of Pharaoh Seti 1 in the late 14th century BCE. The main god revered in this temple was Osiris, but 5 others had their sanctuaries as well. Two, Isis and Horus, are closely linked to Osiris and his myths, Isis being his wife and Horus his son. The other three gods were Amon, Re-Harakhte and Ptah. The seventh sanctuary is devoted to Seti himself, indicating the real purpose of the temple: honoring the deified, deceased Pharaoh
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