Trip through time: a woman in Egypt

by Takashi Sadahiro


Among the ruins in southern Egypt sits Abydos, a quiet town where the Temple of Seti I is located. Seti I was a pharaoh who reigned from 1290BC to 1279BC.

During a two-hour visit to the town recently, I saw only three European groups touring the temple. It seemed more popular with sparrows who flitted around in the sunshine in front of a relief.

Unlike Luxor, a popular tourist destination that is home to the Valley of the Kings, time seems to pass slowly in Abydos.

The town held such a powerful attraction to one free-spirited British woman that she spent the later years of her life, from 1952 to 1981, living near the temple.

Because she named her son Seti, after the pharaoh enshrined in the temple, she became widely known as "Omm Sety," or mother of Seti. She believed she was the reincarnation of a priestess in the temple 3,000 years ago who had fallen in love with the pharaoh and was forced to kill herself because their love affair was forbidden.

Omm Sety’s real name was Dorothy Eady. When she was 3 and living in a London suburb, she fell down some stairs and afterward began to believe she was the reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian priestess.

Temple of Seti I in 360º

Inner Hypostyle Hall, Temple of Seti I, Abydos in Egypt

Source: http://www.360cities.net