Abydos

The father of Ramses the Great ruled from 1294–1279 BC. His temple features magnificent reliefs, among them a long carved list of the pharaohs of the principal dynasties, the sole source to dates and names of many of the kings of the 7th and 8th Dynasties, thus valued greatly for that reason: the Abydos Kings List. The raised reliefs in the temple are some of the finest quality in all Egypt, incredibly beautiful and detailed. Although the lighting in the interior of the temple can be somewhat gloomy in places, the reliefs still stand out as exceptional. The reliefs on the outer portions of the temple were completed during the reign of Ramses II, and are of a much lower quality than those further inside the complex. (Ramses moved the best craftsmen to work on his own temples after his father's death). The Kings List, or Pharaohs List is somewhat selective, omitting for example Akhenaten (the heretic king), Hatshepsut (a female pharaoh), and the reigns of the kings during the Hyskos occupation. If you are interested in ancient Egyptian history and art, this temple is as much a must-see as Abu Simbel or the Karnak temple.

An integral part of Seti I's temple, built at a considerably lower level than its foundations, to resemble an 18th Dynasty Valley of the Kings tomb. It was discovered by Flinders Petrie and Margaret Murray, who were excavating the site in 1902–3. The name "Osireion" was invented by Petrie, who interpreted it as a symbolic tomb of Osiris.

The adjacent temple of Ramses II is much smaller and simpler in plan; much of the better carving, and his list of pharaohs, similar to that of Seti I, which used to stand here, sits today in the British Museum in London, but some lower parts remain. The outside of the temple was decorated with scenes of the Battle of Kadesh.

The necropolis of the Early Dynastic Period kings, pharaohs of the 1st Dynasty of Egypt and the last two kings of the 2nd Dynasty, a site of veneration and worship in Ancient Egypt; by the time of the Middle Kingdom, at least one of the royal tombs was excavated and rebuilt for the priests of Osiris. This area was first excavated by Émile Amélineau in the 1890s and more systematically by Flinders Petrie between 1899-1901. The German Archaeological Institute has been excavating here since the 1970s.