Caulfeild, A. St. G. (1902)
The Temple of the Kings at Abydos (Sety I). London: Egyptian Research Account describes the hidden chambers as follows:
"At the N.W. corner of the temple is an incomprehensible chamber; it had two stone floors, one on a level with the chapel floors, the other about 2' 50 m. higher, carried on two square pillars. The pillars continued upwards from the higher floor and may have carried a roof; but if so, it must have been higher than the chapel roofs, or have left very little head room. There are no doors, no windows, and no steps. One can only imagine that there may have been an opening in the first floor (which is now partly broken), through which prisoners were dropped into the lower chamber; but how the upper chamber was approached, or what the whole contrivance was used for, there is no evidence to show, now that the top has been broken away. Mariette suggests the wells mentioned by Strabo: I suggest a dungeon; and it may equally well have been a corn-bin or a treasury. It was evidently arranged with some care, as it is recessed 25 cm. into the west and north main walls of the temple. The upper chamber is 10' 60 m. long and 6' 40 m, wide. The upper stone floor is of lime. stone slabs about 20 cm. thick, carried on beams running in a north and south direction, which are supported at their middles by the pillars, and let into the walls on either side. The stones of the lower chamber are left rough, the walls of the upper chamber are smooth."
The detail from Plate XXIV, below, illustrates their location and profile.
While I am here, I will also quote from Mariette-Bey, Auguste (1869) Abydos -
Description des Fouilles. Tome Premier: Paris: Libraire A. Franck
"105. - SALLE K'. Nous joindrons ici la description d'une salle dont il est bien difficile de déterminer l'usage.
Qu'on se figure une salle de la hauteur de toutes les autres, nue, sans légendes, les pierres des murs à l'état brut. D'immenses blocs horizontaux formant plancher la coupent par le milieu. Pas d'air, pas de fenêtres, pas de portes. Il en résulte deux caves superposées.
Dans chaque cave deux piliers supportent le plafond. Dans l'angle est de la cave d'en bas, quelques marches d'un escalier abandonné côtoient le mur.
La salle K' fut-elle construite seulement pour carrer le plan du temple? On trouve dans quelques temples des souterrains qu'on murait après y avoir enfermé certains objets sacrés; la salle K' serait-elle un de ces souterrains, d'une forme particulière? C'est ce qu'il est difficile de décider.
Quand nous en avons commencé le déblayement, nous étions persuadé que nous avions mis la main sur l'orifice du puits de Strabon (qui aurait été utilisé plus tard par les habitants des villages environnants). Les décombres qui emplissaient la salle étaient, en effet, formées, pour les trois quarts, d'éclats de jarres et d'autres vases à porter de l'eau, ce qui ne s'explique que par le voisinage d'un dépôt de ce liquide. Mais la salle, déblayée jusqu'au fond et explorée jusqu'au-dessous de son dallage inférieur, n'a pas répondu à notre attente."
A machine translation gives:
"105 - ROOM K'. Here, we will join the description of a room which it is difficult to determine the use.
It is figure the height of all room, naked, without legends, the stones of the walls in the rough. Huge horizontal blocks forming floor cut through the middle. No air, no windows, no doors. As a result two superimposed cellars.
In each cellar two pillars support the ceiling. In the angle is the cave of down, a few steps of a staircase abandoned alongside the wall.
K' Hall was built only to square the plan of the temple? It is found in a few temples of the underground were walled after there have locked certain sacred objects; room K' would it be one of these underground, of a particular form? It is what it is hard to decide.
When we first started shovelling, we were convinced that we had put the hand on the hole of the well of Strabo (which would have been used later by the inhabitants of the surrounding villages). The rubble that filled the room were, indeed, formed, for three quarters, of slivers of jars and other vessels to carry water, which is explained by the vicinity of a deposit of this liquid. But the room, cleared the way and explored to below its lower floor, did not respond to our expectation."