Seti I (Menma’atré, Meryen-Ptah)

Seti I (Menma’atré, Meryen-Ptah) (d. 1290 B.C.E.)
Second ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty
He reigned from 1306 B.C.E. until his death. Seti I’s reign
was heralded as a “Repeating of Births,” a term denoting
divine inspiration and used originally in the Twelfth
Dynasty (1991–1783 B.C.E.). He was the son of RAMESSES I
and Queen SITRÉ.
A commoner at birth, Seti I was raised in the military
commands of Egypt and came to the throne as a tough
campaigner bent on restoring Egypt’s empire. He marched
out of Tjel, a border FORTRESS, with three divisions and
overran Palestine, Syria, and the surrounding territories.

Seti I reoccupied strategic forts and garrisons on the
Mediterranean coast and returned to Egypt with prisoners
and treasures. In the KARNAK temple at THEBES (modern
Luxor), Seti I had reliefs inscribed on the entire north
wall to commemorate this campaign. He is depicted
marching to Palestine and conducting battles. In subsequent
campaigns he advanced on the Amorite coastlands,
captured the region of the Orontes River, and confronted
the HITTITES. He received the whole of Palestine and the
Syrian coastal regions as a result of his military efforts.
Seti I also met a Libyan invasion of the Delta with
equal vigor, and he fought two battles to rid the northern
area of the invaders. He led campaigns in NUBIA (modern
Sudan), founding AMARA and SHAAT-ER-REQAL between
the second and third cataracts. A site on SAL ISLAND, Shatt
became the administrative base for the viceroy of Nubia,
an individual named Amenemope. The Nubian campaigns
were conducted by Seti I to put down a revolt by
the Irem people. Seti I plundered the region as a result.
In Egypt he restarted reclamation of the natural
resources, digging wells in strategic places to benefit miners
and quarry workers. He administered the land from
MEMPHIS, AVARIS, and THEBES and restored temples damaged
in the ’AMARNA Period. At Karnak, Seti I completed
his father’s plan to convert the area between the second
and third pylons into a vast HYPOSTYLE HALL. His son,
RAMESSES II, was coruler at the time, and he aided his
father in the Karnak building. The vast hall arose with
the roof supported by 134 sandstone columns, inscribed
with reliefs. Seti I also built a temple in ABYDOS, called
“the House of Millions of Years of Menma’atré, Joyful in
the Heart of Abydos.” He died before completing the
CENOTAPH, now called the OSIREION, and Ramesses II finished
the temple, endowing it for continued rituals.
Seti I’s tomb in the VALLEY OF THE KINGS at Thebes is
the largest one constructed there, dug some 300 feet into
the cliffs. Passages and elaborate columns were designed
with painted reliefs, some using “the sun and shadow”
style. An alabaster coffin was inscribed with the text of
the Book of the Gates. An astronomical ceiling and more
than 700 SHABTIS figures, made of stone, wood, and
faience, were discovered in the tomb.
Seti I’s mummified remains were found in the cache
at DEIR EL-BAHRI in 1881. He was a handsome elderly
man, with good teeth and his heart still in his body. His
wife was Queen TUYA, and he had two sons. The eldest
died young, leaving the throne to Ramesses II. His daughters,
HENUTMIRÉ and TIA (1), survived him.
Source:Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt