Abstract Fix a prime number $$ell $$ ? . Graphs of isogenies of degree a power of $$ell $$ ? are well-understood for elliptic curves, but not for higher-dimensional abelian varieties. We study the case of absolutely simple ordinary abelian varieties over a finite field. We analyse graphs of so-called $$mathfrak l$$ l -isogenies, resolving that, in arbitrary dimension, their structure is similar, but not identical, to the “volcanoes” occurring as graphs of isogenies of elliptic curves. Specializing to the case of principally polarizable abelian surfaces, we then exploit this structure to describe graphs of a particular class of isogenies known as $$(ell , ell )$$ ( ? , ? ) -isogenies: those whose kernels are maximal isotropic subgroups of the $$ell $$ ? -torsion for the Weil pairing. We use these two results to write an algorithm giving a path of computable isogenies from an arbitrary absolutely simple ordinary abelian surface towards one with maximal endomorphism ring, which has immediate consequences for the CM-method in genus 2, for computing explicit isogenies, and for the random self-reducibility of the discrete logarithm problem in genus 2 cryptography.
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