Temple of Seti I at Qurna

A father's temple

The Temple of Seti I stands at the northern end of the Theban necropolis on Luxor's west bank, near the road to the Valley of the Kings. It was built as the mortuary temple of Seti I, second king of the Nineteenth Dynasty in the late fourteenth and early thirteenth centuries BC and father of Ramesses II, and dedicated both to his cult and to that of his father Ramesses I and to the god Amun. Seti died before it was finished, and Ramesses II completed and decorated parts of it, adding scenes of his own.

Refined reliefs

Seti I's reign is renowned for the quality of its relief sculpture, seen at its finest in his temple at Abydos and his tomb in the Valley of the Kings. The temple at Qurna shares that refinement: its surviving portico of papyrus columns and its inner halls preserve finely carved reliefs of the king making offerings to the gods, of the sacred barques of Amun, and of the deified Ramesses I. Much of the temple's front courts and pylons, built of mud brick, has disappeared, but the stone core remains impressively intact.

Restoration

The temple has been excavated and restored by the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo over several decades. It was one of the stations of the Beautiful Festival of the Valley, when the sacred barque of Amun crossed from Karnak to visit the temples of the west bank. Visited by few tourists, it offers a quiet and contemplative introduction to the west bank and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis.

The temple stands at the northern end of the West Bank necropolis, near the start of the road up to the Valley of the Kings; ask a taxi for Ma'bad Seti in Qurna. The ticket is checked at the gate, and the stone portico and inner halls are straight ahead behind the remains of the mud-brick courts.