Ramesses I ruled Egypt for less than two years — too briefly to build himself a mortuary temple of his own. It was his son, Seti I, who gave him one anyway: a shrine and false door folded into a temple otherwise dedicated to Amun-Re, at Qurna on Luxor’s West Bank. This is Seti I’s memorial temple on the West Bank — not to be confused with his better-known cult temple at Abydos, a separate site a full day’s drive to the north. It’s the northernmost of the great Theban temples, and, despite reliefs that specialists from the German Archaeological Institute — which has led excavation and restoration here since 1972 — count among the finest surviving from the period, one of the least visited.
History and Construction
The temple lies just past the road to the Valley of the Kings, near the village of el-Tarif, with today’s entrance through a gate in the northern wall. Seti I named it “Glorious Seti in the West of Thebes” and dedicated it to Amun-Re and to the cult of his deified father. He didn’t live to see it finished — his son Ramesses II completed both the construction and the decoration after his death.
The temple stayed in use for far longer than most of its neighbors. Artisans worked here during the Roman period, and in the Coptic era parts of it were converted into a church and private homes. Since 1972, the German Archaeological Institute has led its restoration and research, and excavation is still ongoing.
Layout: What Survives and What Doesn’t
Two mudbrick pylons originally flanked a row of sphinxes leading through the courtyards in a ceremonial approach. Almost nothing remains of the first pylon beyond two sphinxes still standing near the entrance; the second has all but vanished, likely a casualty of mudbrick’s poor odds against seasonal flooding. South of the first courtyard once stood a royal palace — notably, the first known example of a ritual palace built as part of a temple complex.
A portico of ten columns fronts the temple. On the back wall’s southern half, reliefs show Seti I, the deified Queen Ahmose-Nefertari, and the barques of the Theban Triad, alongside images of Seti and Ramesses II together. The northern half depicts both kings making offerings to various gods, along with a later inscription added in the reign of Ramesses III. Flanking the entrance to the hypostyle hall are two stelae raised by Amenemesse, a short-lived and controversial ruler — later usurped and re-inscribed by his successor Siptah (who took the throne name Merenptah-Siptah). It’s one example of a broader pattern here: every king of the 19th Dynasty visited this temple and left an inscription of his own, using it as a site of royal legitimacy-building throughout the dynasty.
The Hypostyle Hall and Sanctuary
Six papyrus columns support the hypostyle hall, decorated with reliefs from Seti I’s reign completed during his co-regency with his son — among the finest quality work anywhere in the temple. Six chambers flank the hall, dedicated to the Theban Triad and to Osirian mortuary deities. In the second chamber on the right, a goddess personifies the temple itself, set within a small vestibule whose lintels name fifteen deities from Egyptian mythology.
Behind the hypostyle, a triple shrine housed the barques of Amun, Mut, and Khons during the “Beautiful Feast of the Valley,” Thebes’s great annual festival — Amun’s pedestal still stands in place. At the rear, the “holy of holies” shows the king performing temple rituals, with a partly reconstructed false door on the western wall.
The Chapels That Answer the Hook
South of the hypostyle hall, a series of chapels served the royal mortuary cult. The central one is dedicated to Ramesses I — the same king who never had a temple of his own — and holds one of the site’s best-preserved reliefs: a false door showing him seated in a kiosk beneath a hovering falcon.
North of the hypostyle, a solar-cult court decorated by Ramesses II originally held ten pillars and a large altar, now broken. Niches that once displayed royal statues show Ramesses II making offerings to the gods. The arrangement — a solar court paired with mortuary chapels — closely echoes the upper terrace of Hatshepsut’s temple at Deir el-Bahri, worth a mental comparison if you’re visiting both. The same template would echo forward, too: Merenptah’s mortuary temple, built a generation later a short distance south, borrows directly from this layout. Behind this court, the remains of a staircase once led to a now-lost roof sanctuary.
Recent excavation has extended understanding of the temple’s outer complex, with reconstructed walls and plinths now visible in the courtyards. A small sacred lake — currently dry — survives on the south side.
Visiting the Temple of Seti I
This is one of the quietest of the major West Bank sites, largely because it sits slightly apart from the standard Valley of the Kings loop. Recent listings put the foreign-visitor ticket at roughly EGP 200, with hours around 6:00 am to 5:00 pm — check current pricing before you go, since site fees are revised periodically. For up-to-date ticket information, see our Luxor ticket offices guide.
