Abstract
The question explored here is that of access to Osiris within the confines of a non-funerary sanctuary. It considers both the spatial dimension of the link between the world of the living and the afterlife through access to the douat, the underworld, and the geographical dimension of Osirian cults, their expansion from their original centers to the entire territory, and how Osirian implantation in temples proceeds by transposing archetypal contexts imported from these reference centers. Using the Karnak site as a case study, we followed the history of the progressive establishment of the Osirian necropolis and its satellites in the northeast sector of Karnak, as well as that of the importation of Abydenian cults to Thebes, to the funerary temples on the west bank, and then to Karnak. Our analysis confirms our hypothesis that the chapel of Osiris, Master of Life, was one of the gateways to the afterlife, allowing direct access to divine powers.
