Abydos: Funerary Enclosure of Khasekhemwhy

Upon arriving in Abydos, I went out for a tour of the project's various excavation sites. There was a lot to see, and everything made a lot of sense to me when it was being explained, but I'm not an Egyptologist and I wasn't taking notes, so I'm just going to post some pictures and give the simplest explanations I can recall, with no guarantee of 100% accuracy.

This is the full view of what the locals call Shunet el-Zabib. It was Pharoah Khasekhemwhy's funerary enclosure in the desert landscape, looking at the southeastern corner.

Egyptian pharoahs often had funerary enclosures erected at Abydos, separate from their tombs. There were at least 12 others nearby, but this is the only one still standing. It's over 5,000 years old and built entirely of mudbrick. That is no small feat.

This is a panoramic view of the interior of the enclosure, as seen from on top of the 11 meter high northern wall. Click on the image to see it full-size.

I don't know exactly what the purpose of these enclosures was, but being located at Abydos was very significant. Abydos is associated with the Egyptian god of creation, Osiris. Osiris was an early king of ancient Egypt, and when he died, he became a god, and his son Horus, the new king, was seen as his incarnation. Since then, all living pharoahs were considered to be Horus, until their death when they would become Osiris and have to travel west into the underworld. It just so happens that right here, in Abydos, there is a valley that goes all the way into the deep western reaches of the desert.
This is the Valley to the Underworld, in the center of the above image, as seen from the funerary enclosure.

The funerary enclosure is a tall structure with a shorter, outer wall surrounding it, both walls broken by narrow entrances which would have had their doors shut closed.

View of the passageway between the eastern inner and outer walls.

Architectural detail on exterior of inner wall.

Whitewash paint on the inner wall below the excavation line.

Restored entrance through the inner eastern wall.

Much of this building is suffering from serious structural damage due to erosion and infestation by mud wasps. Also, there was a time period when Coptic Christian monks lived in the enclosure, and they created bedrooms and kitchens by hollowing out large sections of the thick walls. As a result, some parts of the structure are in immediate danger of collapse. The project team has been conserving these walls by making identical mudbricks (but they are marked to indicate that they are not original) and filling in the structurally damaged areas.

The damage is so severe in some parts, that there are holes straight through the wall.

The cavities in this wall have already been patched. You can tell by the 2 areas of lighter brown mudbrick.

Finally, here is the missing corner of the northern and eastern walls. You can see from the new bricks on the wall to the left that it is in the process of being rebuilt. Also, notice the piles of sandbags near the center of the image. They are forming temporary supports for weakened sections of wall, until excavation and rebuilding can be completed.

That is all for the funerary enclosure of Khasekhemwhy. I will continue my posts of the Abydos excavation sites with images of a funerary chapel and a stone temple for King Ramses II.