October 16, 2025 • 62 mins
Unlock the secrets of ancient Egypt's most celebrated ruler, Ramesses the Great, as we journey through the triumphs and trials of his storied reign. Discover how a young prince, under the influence of his grandfather Horemheb and father Seti I, rose to become a formidable pharaoh amidst the complex geopolitics of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East during the late 14th century BC. Experience the gripping retelling of the Battle of Kadesh, where Ramesses’ leadership and strategic prowess turned the tides against the Hittites and led to the historic Eternal Treaty, a diplomatic milestone that set the stage for a peaceful and prosperous era in Egypt.
Marvel at the architectural grandeur Ramesses II left behind, from the awe-inspiring temples of Abu Simbel to the majestic Ramessium in Thebes. These monumental structures were more than just displays of power; they were sophisticated propaganda tools that cemented his legacy as a master builder and a god in human form. We'll explore the significance of these projects, how they reflect the power dynamics of the time, and their lasting impact on Egypt's cultural heritage and architectural landscape.
Finally, we ponder the complexities of Ramesses' legacy, exploring the fascinating theories that link him to the biblical Pharaoh of the Exodus. Despite the lack of definitive evidence, this narrative has fueled cultural imaginations for centuries. Reflect with us on how Ramesses' image has been shaped by both strategic self-promotion and enduring historical narratives, and consider what his enduring fame tells us about the interplay between history and mythology. Join us as we unravel the layers of one of history’s most enduring figures and invite you to share your thoughts on his place in the annals of time.
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The man known to history as Rameses the Great, known simply
as Rameses in his lifetime, was born in the late 14th century
BC. Scholars turned to hold that he
was most likely born in the year1303 BC, but there is no extant
information as to his exact dateof birth.
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His father was a member of a leading aristocratic and
military family which hailed from the northern part of Egypt,
probably from one of the severalfortified urban centers of the
Nile River Delta. His original name is unclear,
but he would later become known as Seti the 1st.
As we will see, Ramesi's mother was Tuya, the daughter of a
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military officer named Raya, andso a member of the Egyptian
military nobility herself. Rameses was born into a world
that had been going through one of the first golden ages of
ancient times. This was the height of the
Bronze Age, and powerful centralized states had emerged
in many parts of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle
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East. The Greek world was dominated by
powers like the Mycenae on the mainland and the Minoans on the
island of Crete, and throughout this time complex literary and
artistic societies were beginning to emerge in ways
which would shape the ancient world for centuries to come.
In what is now Turkey, the powerful Hittite Empire had
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emerged, centered on the city ofHattusa.
Shortly before Ramese's birth, it had begun conquering parts of
the Levant and Mesopotamia, and was effectively Egypt's most
significant rival for power in the region.
Further to the southeast, a number of significant states
existed in Mesopotamia proper and Persia, notably the
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Babylonian Empire and the Assyrian Empire.
Each of these polities was wealthy, had complex
bureaucracies, and was engaged in extensive trade across this
Bronze Age world. For instance, a trader or
merchant in a city like Tile or Sidon in the Levant in the 14th
century BC could purchase pottery from Knossos in Crete,
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olive oil from Athens in Greece,papyrus from Egypt, and textiles
from Mesopotamia and Persia. All bought and sold in copper,
gold and silver mined in places like western Anatolia under the
Hittites control, or Cyprus, a major center of copper mining, a
necessity in order to make bronze Chariots, weapons and
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other utensils. Egypt itself was no exception to
this story of prosperity. This was an era known as the New
Kingdom period, one which had begun in the 16th century BC and
which would extend beyond Ramsesown time.
The term New Kingdom is a relatively modern construct,
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having been coined in the 19th century, but it is typically
accepted by Egyptologists as accurately describing a distinct
period of Bronze Age culture in Egypt which was more prosperous
than anything which had precededit there, even the Old Kingdom
culture of the Pharaohs who built the Great Pyramids at Giza
a Millennium earlier. During this New Kingdom period,
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the Pharaohs developed a powerful government, overseen by
viziers and many scribes. A large military was also kept
at the ready, powered by new technologies such as Chariots
and weapons made of bronze. With all this in train, the
Pharaohs were not only able to collect a greater amount of
taxes and govern more efficiently at home, but the New
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Kingdom empire expanded in all directions.
With outposts being established further down the River Nile than
ever before into what is now Sudan but which was then known
as Nubia, and a growing amount of territory being acquired on
the Sinai Peninsula and northwards into Canaan and
Lebanon. This empire had reached a
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particular peak in the 15th century BC during the long reign
of Pharaoh Tutmosa the Third, whose conquests extended the
Egyptian Kingdom northeast into parts of modern day Syria and
northern Iraq. Little is known about the
specifics of Ramses own childhood, but the political
developments of the time were extremely significant.
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At the time he was born, Egypt was ruled by Pharaoh Horemheb, a
member of the 18th dynasty of Egyptian Pharaohs.
Horemheb is known for having restored a certain amount of
stability to Egypt's domestic politics after a tumultuous
period during which a near predecessor, Akhenaten, had
attempted to establish a monotheistic cult of the sun,
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replacing the traditional religious and political
structures of Egypt. This caused enormous unrest
within Egypt and LED to its decline as an international
power. Forum Head reversed many of
these decisions and quelled the unrest Akhenaten had created
along the course of the River Nile, but he appears to have had
no surviving sons and no biological successor.
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As such, he decided to designatethe head of his government, the
Grand Vizier Paramesa, as his successor.
Paramesa was Ramessa's grandfather and so the family
ascended to become the 19th dynasty of Egyptian Pharaohs
when Paramesa became the pharaoh, adopting the regnal
name Rameses the first around 12192 BC.
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He ruled for just a few short years before his death, at which
time Rameses father succeeded him as second pharaoh of the
19th dynasty, adopting the name Seti, the first in honour of
Seth, the Egyptian God of War. Rameses was now the heir to the
throne of New Kingdom Egypt, as he was soon appointed as Prince
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Regent by his father, who would reign for just over a decade.
During which time he began to reestablish Egyptian control over
some of the territory which had been held to the northeast in
Canaan and Syria under earlier rulers such as Moser the Third,
but which had been lost as a result of the divided state of
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the Kingdom during Akhenaten's reign.
Religious Reforms Rameses doubtless accompanied his father
in some of his campaigns northeast of the Levant and
gained valuable military experience during his time as
Prince Regent. He would soon need this
experience as he ascended to thethrone as a relatively young
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man. He is known to have become
pharaoh on the 27th day of the season of the harvest in a
particular year of his father's reign, one which is believed to
equate to an accession date of the 31st of May 1279 BC.
He would reign for the next 66 years in what is typically
accounted as the most significant reign of any
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Egyptian pharaoh, adopting the full regional name Uzima Atres
ET dependre, meaning roughly thelaw or harmony of RA.
The Egyptian sun God is powerful.
I am chosen of RA. Rameses first major act as the
new ruler of Egypt was to deal with the threat which had been
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growing in the northern parts ofthe Kingdom for several years.
Even before his accession, sea pirates known as the Sharden Sea
Pirates have been raiding the northern coast of the Kingdom
into the River Nile Delta from the eastern Mediterranean.
This was one of the most prosperous and important parts
of Ramesses Kingdom and it was vital that these encroachments
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be stopped. Thus, beginning in the second
year of his reign, he began establishing forts along the
northern coast of the Kingdom and N eastwards towards Sinai
and Canaan. New ships were also constructed
to patrol the waters of the Eastern Mediterranean and
warning. Posts were set up to signal to
larger settlements. When raiding parties were making
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their way towards the Egyptian Kingdom.
All of this culminated in a major sea battle in which
Rameses and his Navy were victorious.
A steely or memorial stone commemorating this at Tanis in
the North East of the Nile Deltahas survived down to modern
times and. Provides evidence of this
victory today, but the exact details of how it occurred or
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what it involved, other than theRameses scored an early victory
remain unclear. Having stabilized the northern
shores of Egypt and the Nile Delta, Ramesses primary aim
became to restore Egyptian control over Canaan and other
parts of the Levant as had existed in earlier times.
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This was a paramount concern. While Egypt itself was an
affluent land based on the bounteous agriculture practice
along the shores of the River Nile and the production of
pottery and papyrus in cities like Thebes and Memphis, the
most affluent cities in the LateBronze Age world lay in Canaan
cities like Tyre and Saidon, which were at the crossroads of
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all the major empires and were major trading centres as a
result. Consequently, Rameses was
anxious to restore Egyptian ruleover the region as had existed 2
centuries earlier in the time ofMoser the Third.
However, while there was no state with an army sufficient to
withstand Egypt within Canaan and the southern reaches of the
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Levant, the region was also coveted by the Hittite Empire to
the north. Much of Ramses rule would be
concerned with trying to seize control of this region and stave
off counter attacks by the Hittites.
In the course of doing so, he would fight arguably the most
significant battle in the history of the Bronze Age. 1 of
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Ramses first actions early in his reign was to construct a new
capital in the northeastern parts of the Nile Delta in an
effort to increase Egyptian power to the northeast into the
Levant. The capital of Ferronic Egypt
had moved around over the centuries.
For instance, in ancient times during the Old Kingdom period it
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laid Memphis near what is now Cairo.
However, the capital during the New Kingdom period was typically
located well down the River Nileat what was known then as
Thebes, but which we call Luxor today.
Akhenaten, the controversial pharaoh who 1/2 century before
Rameses birth had attempted to establish a monotheistic
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religion centered on the worshipof Arten, had established a new
capital at Amana as a centre of the new religion.
Thus, there was a substantial precedent for moving the capital
of the Pharaonic Kingdom. Rameses named his new capital
Piramis, near what is now the town of Quantia.
Rameses Father Seti the First had previously had a summer
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palace in the region, and it seems likely that Rameses had
spent much of his youth here. Now in the 1270s he established
it as a quasi military capital, with large workshops and
factories erected to begin churning out significant
quantities of weapons, armour and Chariots.
As such, Pyramsees became a kindof administrative capital of
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Lower Egypt. But as we will see from Rameses
building program, he never abandoned the belief that Thebes
or Luxor was the religious and spiritual capital of Egypt.
In the earliest part of his warsagainst the Hittites, Rameses
faced King Muertali the Second, the ruler of the Hittite Empire
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since the mid 1290s. This Muatali had taken advantage
of Egyptian weakness early in his reign and moved his capital
South from the traditional site at Hatusa in what is now central
Turkey. To Tarhun Tusa, in the southeast
of the Konya Plain, it was indicative of how both rulers
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saw Canaan, Syria, and the widerLevant as a contested region
which they needed to be near, that both Rameses and Muatali
moved their capitals to be closer to the Levant.
In the earliest years of his reign, Rameses conducted annual
military campaigns northeast from the Nile Delta, the first
of these around 1275 BC. Resulted in the Pharaoh
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cementing his control over southern Canaan before
campaigning further north to theregion around modern day Beirut.
Here he had a commemorative steely or pylon erected at Naar
El Khalb. The text of this has been
obliterated over time, but it almost certainly proclaimed
Ramesi's successes in campaigning this far north a
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statement of Egypt's claims to control the region.
Similarly, he engaged in furthercampaigns against the Amuru, a
people who occupied much of whatis now Syria as vassals of King
Muertali and the Hittites. However, whatever nominal
control over the in this region Ramesses was able to establish
in 1275 was ephemeral. No sooner had he withdrawn back
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to Pyramesses at the end of the campaigning season than Egyptian
influence in Syria effectively collapsed and the Hittites were
able to reimpose themselves. The war between the Egyptians
and the Hittites at this time has become widely renowned for
battle, which it is generally accepted, occurred in the year
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1274 BC. This was the Battle of Kadesh or
Kadesh, near the city of Kadesh on the banks of the Orontes
River in western Syria. The Battle of Kadesh was clearly
a highly significant one, involving armies of a very
substantial size but the standards of the Late Bronze
Age, but also being regarded as a unique or significant event by
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the parties involved. It is for instance, the best
documented military encounter ofthe second Millennium BC, with
both sides making extensive records concerning it in years
to come in the form of tablets, war paintings and inscriptions
throughout Egypt and other partsof the Late Bronze Age world.
Thus, the Battle of Kadesh was unquestionably believed by
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contemporaries to have been an era defining military
engagement. The background of the battle was
Ramesses new campaign into Syriain 1274 BC.
As with the previous year's campaign, his goal was to extend
Egyptian power further north into Syria at the expense of the
Hittites. Ramesses LED 4 divisions of
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troops into Canaan and then N towards Syria that year.
These were named for some of theparamount Egyptian deities Amun,
RA, Seth and Ptah, and consistedof perhaps as many as 40,000
men, with 2000 Chariots also provided for the campaign.
These were augmented by thousands of Canaanite
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mercenaries who joined the Pharaoh's forces.
However, not all of these forceswere deployed at Kadesh, and it
seems probable that Ramesi's forces did not exceed 30,000 men
in total on the field of battle.A raid against him was Mortali's
army of somewhere between 25,000and 45,000 men, with several
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1000 Chariots also brought S into Syria.
Consequently, the armies of the two sides were relatively evenly
matched. A striking aspect of the
engagement was the number of Chariots deployed, with many
Egyptologists and Hittite scholars speculating since that
this was the largest chariot battle in history in its initial
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stages. Rameses was caught off guard at
Kadesh. He received false intelligence
about the location of the main Hittite army far to the north,
whereas in fact more Atali's armies were stationed near Old
Kadesh, not far from the Egyptian advance party.
As a result, when the Hittites attacked, some of Ramesses main
divisions of troops were far to the South and could not be
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brought into the field of battle.
As a result, the RA division wasscattered by a Hittite chariot
assault in the first stages of the battle near Kadesh.
However, this is the point at which Ramses leadership is
believed to have proved pivotal as he steal the Ammon division
of his troops and counter attacked against the Hittites,
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breaking their chariot assault. Some accounts have it that the
fault also lay with the Hittiteswho, believing that their
initial attack had proved conclusive, had stopped to
plunder the baggage trains and goods of the RA division,
leaving them exposed to Ramses coordinated counter attack.
Thereafter, Muertali ordered histroops to retreat towards the
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Orontes River. Later Egyptian accounts suggest
that the Ptar division now arrive to Kadesh and harried the
Hittites. Muertali ordered a new counter
attack led by his chariot divisions, but this was unable
to break the Egyptian advance. Eventually, the Hittites were
forced to flee northwards over the River Orontes, in many cases
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throwing their weapons and armoraside in order to swim through
the river to safety. It is unclear exactly how
conclusive the alleged Egyptian victory at Kadesh was.
Some Egyptologists believed thatthe battle was a major military
victory for Ramses. He certainly depicted it as
such. For the rest of his long reign
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the pharaoh consistently erectedstelai and had inscriptions and
wall paintings placed in templesand in his palaces, depicting
Kadesh as a great victory for Egypt in Syria.
These include the Kadesh inscriptions or bulletin, and
the Poem of Pentour, A prose account of the Egyptian victory
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which is repeated on the walls of temples all along the course
of the river Nile. The poem is.
Stand in eight different places,while the bulletin is to be
found inscribed in seven different locations around
Egypt. Consequently, it is clearly
something which Rameses tried toestablish as the official
version of his alleged victory at Kadesh, but other scholars of
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the late Bronze Age world. Are more skeptical, with some
arguing that Kadesh was probablymore of a stalemate than a
victory for either side. Certainly, it cannot have been
the kind of comprehensive victory which Ramses attempted
to depict it as, for the battle did not lead to any major shift
in the strategic situation in Syria.
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Rather, the Egyptians and the Hittites continue to contest the
region for many years to come. The Battle of Kadesh did not
bring the war between Egypt and the Hittite Empire to a complete
conclusion, though it did signalthe end of the most intense
initial period of clashes between the Egyptians and the
Hittites. Skirmishes continued for years
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thereafter. For instance, in 1269 BC,
Rameses launched a new campaign into Syria, during which he
conquered the city of Dappur. However, the pattern during the
1260s was that Rameses was able to briefly acquire control over
parts of Syria while he campaigned personally there, but
longer term control over the region could not be maintained
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once the major Egyptian militarypresence was withdrawn.
In recognition of this situation, around 12:59 BC the
Egyptians and the Hittites agreed to what is variously
called either the Egyptian Hittite Treaty or the Eternal
Treaty or Silver Treaty. This was signed between Ramses
the Second and Hutusili the Third, who had succeeded as
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ruler of the Hittite Empire at some point in the 1260s.
The Eternal Treaty effectively brokered a lasting peace, one in
which the 2 powers agreed to cease hostilities as it was
costing both governments exorbitant amounts of money and
achieving little for either. Thus Syria was to become a
sphere of Hittite influence, with Egypt largely confirmed in
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its control of Canaan and other more southerly parts of the
Levant. Bonds were agreed and pledges
made and the gods invoked as overseers of the Eternal Peace.
The Eternal Treaty is one of themost famed international
agreements made in ancient times.
This is owing to the highly unusual survival of multiple
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copies of the text over 3 millennia later in different
languages. Copies of the text of the treaty
in Egyptian hieroglyphics were found inscribed in two separate
locations in Luxor in central Egypt in the first half of the
19th century. Then, in the first years of the
20th century, the German archaeologist Hugo Winkler
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uncovered a copy of the text in the Arcadian language, the
lingua franca of the Hittite Empire and other states of the
Middle East in the 13th century BC, as part of a cache of
approximately 10,000 tablets which were discovered while
excavating the ancient Hittite capital at Hatusa in Turkey.
Thus, we have a remarkable example here of an international
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treaty being copied out and deposited in royal archives and
temples in cities 2000 kilometers away from each other
over 3200 years ago. As to the motives of the
respective parties, it is clear that both Ramses and Hutusili
had both come to believe that peace and the fostering of trade
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in the Levant would be more beneficial than a continuation
of their rivalry, while both states were quite likely wary of
the rise of the Assyrian Empire to the east in Mesopotamia and
believed the United front against this upstart power was
better than ongoing warfare in Syria.
The signing of the eternal Treaty also provided A respite
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for Ramses in order for him to concentrate militarily on
matters to the South of Egypt. For roughly a Millennium between
the middle of the third Millennium BC down to roughly
1500 BC, the region of modern day Sudan had been independent
of Egypt. At the time, it was known as
Nubia and was dominated by the Kerimer culture which produced
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states like the Kingdom of Kush.However, during the New Kingdom
period, and in particular duringthe reign of the most of the
Third, Nubia had gradually been brought more and more under the
control of Feronic Egypt. As with Canaan and Syria,
Egyptian control declined here as a result of the unrest
created by Akhenaten's rule in the 14th century BC.
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But Rameses was now in a position to reverse this
situation. Early in his reign, he had
already campaigned South of the first cataract of the Nile.
These cataracts are a series of locations along the course of
the River Nile where the white water Rapids predominate, and
were used at the time as intermediary points where
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Egyptian arms were extended as far as was possible in campaigns
against the Nubians. By the 1260s, Ramses had
effectively extended Egyptian control as far as the second
cataract, which lies South of Abu Simbel and Wadihalfa in what
is now northern Sudan. For the period following, the
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establishment of the internal treaty with the Hittites
provided a military respite which allowed Rameses to send
forces for the South again to the third cataract.
This lies well into Sudan, at the northern margin of the
Dongola River. Here, Rameses was able to
establish a southern military colony at Tombos, as evidenced
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by the discovery of feronic and royal inscriptions here in tombs
built at the height of the New Kingdom in the 13th century BC.
Thus, by the 1240s BC, Rameses have effectively brought a
significant amount of Nubia under outright Egyptian control.
Ramses was soon campaigning westwards as well.
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Our knowledge of Libya in ancient times is surprisingly
limited for a region which was in close proximity to major
centers of civilization such as Egypt and Crete.
Generally speaking, the main settlement points here were a
series of ports and oases along the North Coast or slightly
inland but proximate to the Mediterranean Sea.
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The land here was known as Jehenu to the Egyptians.
Libya is a name derived from later Greek descriptions of the
region, despite the lack of historical knowledge about the
society that existed here in ancient times.
There was significant contact between the Egyptians and Libya
throughout the New Kingdom period, mostly in the form of
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Berber raids into the western branches of the Nile Delta and
Egyptian efforts to establish coastal colonies along the north
of Libya. Rameses attempted to further
this effort by establishing new forts along the Mediterranean
coastline and reinforcing a Fortat Zoet Umm El Arakam, which his
father Seti the First, had established earlier after
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campaigns reigning against the Libyan tribes of the region.
In the course of Rameses reign, this became the major western
extremity of the Egyptian Kingdom, though trade centers
and vassal states were to be found further to the West in
Libya proper. These accomplishments, as with
nearly everything else to do with Rameses military endeavors,
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were recorded in a series of stili and other monumental
inscriptions in southern and central Egypt later in his
reign. With these campaigns in Nubia
and Libya, and the earlier endeavors in Canaan and Syria,
by the middle of his reign Rameses had succeeded in
extending the Egyptian Kingdom to the greatest point it had
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been at since the days of Footmosa the Third two centuries
earlier. Beyond the Pharaoh's core
control of Egypt, his forces hadmoved S along the River Nile,
effectively repossessing Nubia after it had broadly regained
its independence during the period of instability under
Akhenaten in the 14th century BC.
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Elsewhere, Rameses had campaigned westwards into the
deserts of the Sahara and along the North Coast to bring Libya
into a partial vassalage. However, it was his conquests to
the northeast that were most substantial.
Here Rameses had captured Canaanand much of Syria.
It wasn't simply that this was one of the richest parts of the
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world at the time, with affluenttrading cities like Tyre and
Saidon, but in order to achieve some hegemony here, Rameses had
to defeat one of the most substantial powers of the
ancient world, the Hittite Empire.
In doing so, he carved out one of the largest territorial
empires ever seen up to that time.
Thus, in the Late Bronze Age, Ramses had arguably transformed
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New Kingdom Egypt into the most powerful state in the known
world, a major achievement afterthe period of instability that
had characterized Egypt as recently as the 14th century.
Throughout his military campaigns of the 1270s, twelve
60s and 1250s, Rameses was accompanied by an ever growing
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number of his sons. This is unsurprising when we
consider that Rameses is believed to have had
approximately 100 children, of which a roughly equal amount
were sons and daughters. Such a large brood was a
byproduct of the practice of polygamy by ancient Egyptian
Pharaohs. Rameses had many wives, the
details of several of which are well known.
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For instance, his primary consort was Nefertari, the first
of Rameses great royal wives. Her background is not precisely
known, but some have speculated that she was descended from
Pharaoh I, who had ruled Egypt 4decades prior to Rameses
accession as part of the 18th dynasty.
She and Rameses evidently married quite young, as she
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became Queen Consort as soon as he ascended to the throne around
1279 BC. They had many children together,
and on the strengths of the numerous temples and shrines
which Ramses had built in her honour, there is no doubting
that she was the most revered ofhis wives.
She's also somewhat unique as a Queen Consort of the New Kingdom
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period, for whom we have extant correspondence.
Neffektari wrote on multiple occasions to King Hutusili, the
third ruler of the Hittite Empire, and his wife Pudu HEPA
in the 1260s and 1250s, and tablets of this correspondence
have been unearthed in the Hittite capital Hattusa.
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Nefertari died around 12:55, andsince Rameses lived for many
decades to come, new great wivesemerged in the years that
followed. Paramount amongst these was
Isetnafret. She too seems to have married
Rameses before his accession as pharaoh, but she was clearly a
junior consort while Nefertari lived.
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Her seniority from the mid 1250sis attested to by numerous
inscriptions and records of her which appear on statues and
temple walls across. Egypt Other great wives of the
pharaoh emerged from political arrangements.
For instance, as part of the Eternal Treaty of 1259 BC with
the Hittites, Rameses took one of the daughters of King
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Hatusuli the Third and Queen Paduhepa as his wife.
Although the marriage to Matona Ferreira was not solidized until
the mid 1240s BC, presumably as the Hittite King's daughter was
considered to be too young for the marriage to be formalized in
the early 1250s BC. Curiously enough, some of
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Ramesses other great royal wivesincluded some of his daughters.
Bint Anat, for instance, was born from Ramesi's marriage to
Isetna Threat before later marrying her own father.
Such familial relationships werecommon throughout the history of
Pharonic Egypt and resulted in significant complications of
inbreeding, the most famous example of which had been
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Tutankhamun. 50 years before Ramesi's reign, Tutankhamun
suffered from multiple physical ailments, the exact nature of
which are still debated, but which Egyptologists concur were
most likely owing to the speciesof inbreeding that characterized
Rameses the Second's own familial life in the 13th
century BC. This extensive royal family was
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intimately connected throughout Ramesi's long reign with the
cult of RA, the Sun God and one of the paramount.
Deities in the Egyptian religious system who was also
worshipped as Amun RA in a slightly different form, RA
along with others such as Ptah and Horus were the paramount
deities of the New Kingdom. And as we will see shortly,
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Ramesi's extensive building program across Egypt from the
1260 onwards made continuous efforts to associate the pharaoh
with the cult of these particular deities from the
early 1240s BC onwards. Once Ramses had reigned over 30
years, he was also able to become the center of his own
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species of religious cult in theshape of the said festival or
feast of the tale. This was a religious festival
which was held annually to celebrate the reign of any
pharaoh who had ruled for over 30 years.
It was nominally held in honor of the wolf God.
Said or wept were wet. The origins of the festival are
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somewhat macabre. It may have been the case that
the said festival was originallyheld as a ritual in which a long
lived pharaoh was ritually murdered.
The idea being that once he reached a certain age, it was
time for him to be removed from power.
Over time, the festival changed to one in which the king was
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honored rather than killed. Under Rameses, the said festival
was celebrated at the traditional capital Thebes for
the first time in 1249 BC. Thereafter, it was held every
three years for as long as Ramses lived.
Such was the length of his reignthat he went on to celebrate an
unprecedented number of said festivals.
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If the. First half of Ramses reign was
primarily dominated by warfare and the extension of the realm's
borders. The second-half of it was
remarkable for the extensive building projects which were
undertaken by the Pharaoh. Ancient Egypt is synonymous with
brilliant architectural achievement, but this was
achieved at irregular intervals.For instance, the First
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Intermediate Period of Egyptian history, which occurred in the
late 3rd Millennium BC, prior tothe advent of the subsequent
Middle Kingdom, was a period of lackluster building projects.
Conversely, the New Kingdom period, which had begun in the
16th century BC, saw a new age of major building projects
commissioned by the Pharaohs along the river Nile.
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Rameses 2 was the greatest proponent of this new age of
pharaonic patronage of religiousand Mortuary architecture.
In fact, his reign witnessed themost significant building
program seen since the days of Pharaohs such as Kiosks, who in
the 26th century BC constructed the pyramid complex of Giza near
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modern day Khaya, including the Great Pyramids, the only
surviving wonder of the ancient world.
However, by the New Kingdom period, such monumental
buildings as were constructed byRamses focused more on erecting
great temples, obelisks, and statues to honor the pharaoh and
the gods, rather than on giant pyramids to act as Mortuary
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tombs. One of the most significant
building projects undertaken by Rameses was at Thebes or Luxor
in central Egypt, the traditional capital of New
Kingdom Egypt. Here, Rameses had the Ramessium
built on the Theben Necropolis, an elevated region on the West
Bank of the River Nile in the city where many other Pharaohs
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had erected Mortuary and religious buildings over the
centuries. The Ramesium took roughly 20
years to complete and is effectively a temple with
several courtyards surrounding it.
Large stone pylons and gateways lead from courtyard to
courtyard, with a gigantic statue of Ramses towering over
the inner court. The temple itself consisted of
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three rooms with columns and terror style cells dividing up
the sanctuary. Throughout them stand many
statues of the Egyptian gods andgoddesses.
Several colossal statues of Rameses once adorned the temple.
Unfortunately, several of these were removed from Thebes in the
19th century and are now found in places in Europe such as the
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British Museum. On what remains, reliefs
commemorate Rameses victory at Kadesh and other accomplishments
both inside and outside the temple.
What is particularly interestingabout the Ramesseum is that
there is evidence that a scribalschool was also established
here, while a small royal palacestood next to the courtyard,
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indicating that this was a site with several other uses beyond
its religious functions. It clearly served as a center of
pharaonic government in Thebes when Rameses based himself out
of the traditional New Kingdom capital.
Rameses also ordered some construction work at Sakara.
This is a site not far from the Great Pyramids of Giza and where
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the first major pyramid ever built in ancient Egypt, that of
Phara Joseph of the Third Dynasty, was built in the 27th
century BC, and Sakara remained a major center of monumental
building work over the centuries.
Rameses decides to make his own contributions to the complexes
here in association with one of his eldest sons, Prince HA
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Emweset. For instance, the pair had the
Pyramid of Unas, a pharaoh of the 5th dynasty who had lived in
the 24th century BC, repaired and added an inscription to the
southern facade of the edifice to indicate that they had
overseen this restoration work. Ramses and his son also enlarged
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the temple of Serapis or Serapeum at Sakara, a major
centre of the cult of APIs, the bull God of Egyptian mythology,
who was believed to be the physical manifestation of Ptah,
the Egyptian God of crafts, merchants and the dead.
Recent archaeological discoveries at Sakara have also
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unearthed the tomb of Ptamwiya, who served for time as Grand
Vizier and Treasurer in the government of Ramses the Second.
His was not the only tomb built at Sakara for senior government
officials of Ramses reign, and the site at Sakara highlights
the esteem such bureaucrats wereheld in at the height of the New
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Kingdom in ancient Egypt. One of the most significant
aspects of Ramses building program was the manner in which
he used grand temples and buildings as a way of expressing
the extension of Egyptian power into regions which had largely
become independent of Pharaonic rule in the 14th century BC.
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This was particularly the case to the South towards Nubia,
along the course of the River Nile.
Ramses had many temples constructed here on the way to
what is now Sudan, as an expression of the rejuvenation
of Egyptian rule here. One of the most impressive was
the Temple of Bait Alwali, whichwas built on an island in the
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middle of the River Nile, just afew kilometers from Aswan in
southern Egypt. This was dedicated to some of
the foremost Egyptian deities ofthe New Kingdom period, Amundra,
Reharakti, Khunum and Anuket. It is notable for having some of
the best preserved and most impressive wall painting reliefs
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from ancient Egypt, many of which depict Rameses campaigns
into Nubia and his subjugation of the region.
His campaigns into Syria and Libya are also depicted over 100
kilometers to the South, on the West Bank of the River Nile,
Ramses had the two temples of Wadi S Sabua also constructed,
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renovating one earlier temple inthe process.
The site here was used as a stopoff point for boats traversing
the Nile to and from Nubia. Rameses thus had the temples
constructed in a location where many people visited and
dedicated them both to himself and Amun Rah.
Perhaps the most striking architectural feature here are
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rows of sphinxes, which depictedRameses as individuals entered
and left the temples. Perhaps the greatest building
project undertaken by Rameses, though, lay far to the South of
Luxor, near what is now the border between Egypt and Sudan
at the second Nile Cataract. This was the temple complex near
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what was then known as Ipsambul,but which we know today as Abu
Simbel. Here Rameses had initiated the
construction of two temples backin the mid 1260s.
They would take 20 years to complete, but eventually
resulted in two large temples carved in a sheer rock face near
the village. One of these was dedicated to
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Rameses himself and the smaller one was in honour of the
pharaoh's primary consort, QueenNefertari.
When it was completed in 1244 BC, the great temple was
inscribed as having been built as quote the temple of Rameses,
beloved of Amun. It consisted of a grand entrance
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which led into a temple dedicated to several of the
major Egyptian deities. Sculptures and reliefs adorned
the interior. It is also believed that the
temple was built in such a way that the chamber flooded with
sunlight on the 22nd of October and the 22nd of February every
year, illuminating the statues here.
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It is speculated that these dates are significant as
possibly being the dates of Rameses birth and coronation as
Pharaoh. Moreover, the reliefs and
sculptures are celebratory of Rameses reign, with his military
campaigns and his victories depicted on the walls, notably
the Battle of Kadesh. While the interior of the temple
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of Abu Simbel is impressive, themost notable aspect of the
temple complex is the series of colossal statues, which were
erected on either side of the main entrance outside the
temple. At the Grand Temple, there are
four such colossal statues, 2 toeither side of the entrance.
All four of these depict Ramses and stand approximately 20
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meters tall, making them some ofthe largest pharaonic statues
ever carved during the three millennia of ancient Egyptian
history. It is difficult to get a precise
idea of how vast these statues are from looking at photographs,
but if one stands next to them, an individual only reaches up to
the pharaoh's feet, with the remainder of the statues
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towering well above. On each statue Rameses was
depicted wearing the dual crownsof Upper and Lower Egypt.
A statement here in the border region between Egypt and Nubia
that the Pharaoh was Lord of theland of the river Nile, both to
the South and the north. Thus the temple of Abu Simbel
was meant as a statement of Rameses power and rule over
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Egypt, a proclamation of sorts to those South of Abu Simbel
that the Pharaohs reigned. Here yet again, Abu Simbel is
the pinnacle of Rameses building.
Program Rameses reign is notablefor its length, having most
likely succeeded his father in 1279 BC.
He is believed to have ruled forover 65 years.
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However what is somewhat unusualabout this long reign is how
unremarkable the second-half of it was, and in particular the
last two decades or so of Rameses reign.
All of the notable events of histime as Pharaoh, from the battle
of Kadesh to the Eternal Treaty and the campaigns W to Libya and
South into Nubia all occurred inthe 1st 20 or so years of his
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rule. Even the monumental building
programs which he undertook at Abu Simbel, the.
And elsewhere, although many of them took upwards of 20 years to
complete, were generally finished by the early 1230s BC.
By way of comparison, the last 20 or so years of Rameses the
Second's reign are something of a mystery.
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There is little evidence of major events or what he may have
been doing. This is quite possibly because
the pharaoh spent many years I'll towards the end of his life
and with his health declining. Scientific analysis of his mummy
in recent times has revealed that Ramesses suffered from a
range of ailments in old age, including arthritis,
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atherosclerosis and severe dental issues, but he survived
for an immense amount of time despite these illnesses.
Such evidence as we have indicates Rama Sees the second
did not die until 1213 BC, in the 66th year of his reign,
probably aged around 90, an extraordinarily long life by the
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standards of the time. He was originally interred in
the Valley of the Kings, where many Pharaohs were interred in
the hills outside Thebes, but owing to looting of the graves
here, his body was moved on several occasions.
Like all the ancient Pharaohs, he was mummified, meaning that
his body was partially preservedacross the centuries.
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Rameses was succeeded by his sonMere Neptar, who took the regnal
name BA en re Marinetjiru, whichmeans the soul of RA, beloved of
the gods. This Mere Neptar is believed to
have been the 13th son of Rameses development, which
should have placed him well downthe pecking order of possible
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successes to his father. However, Rameses had lived for
so long that a huge number of his oldest sons had died.
Indeed, Mir Neptar was probably well into his 60s by the time of
his own accession, and his reignwould only last 10 years.
The most significant developmentduring his reign was a victory
which he won over the tribes of Libya at the Battle of Perire in
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12/08 BC. Thereafter, there was a quick
succession of Pharaohs before the 19th dynasty came to an end
with the dying out of Ramesses Direct Line of descent in 1189
BC. Thus, the dynasty lasted for
just over a century and was completely dominated by the
reign of Rameses the Second. However, in recognition of the
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extraordinary reign of Rameses the Great, many Pharaohs of the
20th dynasty adopted his retinalname.
In all, there were eventually 11Rameses, the last being Rameses,
the 11th of the 20th dynasty, who died around 1077 BC.
In death, Rameses the Second hasacquired an even greater
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historical fame over the years, as it has been regularly
speculated that he is the pharaoh of the story of.
The Book of Exodus in the Old Testament This is one of the
earliest sections of the Old Testament and is central to both
Judaism and Christianity. In it, the story of the Jews,
who are effectively living as slaves in what is termed the
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land of Goshen, but which is Pharaonic Egypt, is related.
This picks up from the book of Genesis, which had related how
Joseph, the son of the Hebrew prophet Jacob, had been tricked
by his brothers and sold into slavery in.
Egypt Over the next several generations, a large community
of Jewish slaves came to live inEgypt under the subjugation of
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the Egyptian Pharaohs. In Exodus, we read the story of
how the Jewish prophet Moses is placed in a Reed basket and sent
down the river Nile by his mother Jochebed, after the
Pharaoh had ordered the. Murder of Jewish children
following concern about the number of Jews or Israelites
that were then present in Egypt.Moses is subsequently found and
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adopted into the Pharaoh's household, where he gains the
affection of the Egyptian king, but Moses clashes with the
Pharaoh's biological son. Eventually, he realizes he is
one of the Israelites and leads his people out of Egypt by
parting the Red Sea as the Pharaoh's forces attempt to
chase him. The debate on Rameses is whether
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he could be identified as being either the ruling pharaoh of the
Book of Exodus or his biologicalson who becomes Moses rival.
There is really no substantive case, however, in either
instance for speculating to thiseffect.
The Book of Exodus makes no effort to identify the
historical figures who might have been involved in pharaonic
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Egypt at the time, and the historicity of the events of the
Old Testament are of course opento speculation as well.
Consequently, different writers have speculated that a wide
range of Pharaohs dating from asearly as the 17th century BC and
as late as the 12th century BC may be the Pharaoh of the Book
of Exodus or his biological son.An unusually high proportion of
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people have been anxious to suggest it was Rameses the
Second who was the pharaoh at the time, with this line being
favored in more than one prominent Hollywood treatment of
Moses's life, notably the 10 Commandments of 1956, in which
Rameses was depicted by Yulbrina.
These depictions are largely dueto Rameses being the most
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prominent pharaoh of this age. His reign was lengthy and he was
involved in military conquests in the Levant which would fit
with oppression of the Israelites.
These things aside, though, there is no historical basis for
suggesting that Rameses the Second is the Pharaoh of the
Book of Exodus. Indeed, that Rameses should be
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identified with the biblical Pharaoh of Exodus is perhaps
fitting. After all, much of the tale of
Moses portends doom for Egypt for impeding the destiny of the
Israelites to return to their ancestral homeland and establish
a new Kingdom there. And there is no doubting that
New Kingdom Egypt quickly headedtowards a period of immense
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decline shortly after Ramses reign, beginning around 1200 BC.
The Eastern Mediterranean, the Levant and adjoining areas were
struck by a series of attacks bya mysterious confederation of
warlike people who have typically been identified as the
Sea Peoples. There is no consensus even today
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as to who these people were or where they had come from,
although it has plausibly been speculated that they came
eastwards from the western Mediterranean, possibly from
Italy and parts of southern France or the northwestern
Balkans. Wherever they came from, what we
do know is that the onslaught ofthese newcomers, along with the
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arrival of other warlike people such as the Dorians who came
from northern Greece around thistime, was an immediate threat to
the Late Bronze Age world and began to destabilize societies
such as those of New Kingdom, Egypt in the decades that
followed. What followed is typically
referred to as the Late Bronze Age collapse in the
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historiography of the ancient world, as the powerful states
which had dominated the region for several centuries either
declined dramatically or collapsed.
The Hittite Empire splintered into several smaller states
during the course of the 12th century BC, while Bronze Age
Mycenae and the Minoan civilization of Crete were
almost entirely destroyed. New Kingdom Egypt also entered
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the period of pronounced decline, though it's survived as
a substantial polity, or be it much weakened internally,
divided by civil wars and reduced in terms of its
territorial expanse. This reflected.
Much of what occurred elsewhere.Trade collapsed across the
Bronze Age world for the space of two centuries or more, and
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the economy was so impacted thatwhole cities were abandoned and
famines struck many regions, such that many historians of the
ancient past refer to this as being a Dark age, the age of the
ancient world, similar to what followed the collapse of the
Roman Empire nearly two millennia later.
What is known as the Third Intermediate Period of Egyptian
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history followed the end of the New Kingdom, as new regional
powers began to dominate what remained of Pharaonic Egypt,
some of them hailing from Nubia in the South.
Rameses 2's tomb was discovered during the late 19th century.
This was a time when Egyptology,the study of Pharaonic Egypt,
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was entering its first Golden age.
Following the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphics using the
Rosetta Stone. The great pharaoh's tomb was
discovered at Deir al Bahari in 1881 near Thebes, within a wider
cache of royal tombs dating to the New Kingdom period.
Ramesi's tomb, like nearly all other Pharaohs, had been looted
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at some stage in the past and revealed nothing to rival the
riches of that of Tutankhamun, which would be discovered 40
years later by Howard Carter. However, Ramesi's tomb is
nevertheless significant, particularly a series of
inscriptions on the sarcophagus which listed Ramesi's various
names and titles and also provided an inventory of his
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burial goods. The inscriptions also indicate
that Rameses was not immediatelyinterred at Deir al Bahari, but
rather he was first laid to restin the tomb of his father Seti
the 1st. It remained there for the next
80 years until such time in the mid 12th century that his tomb
was relocated. What is especially strange about
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all of this is that Egyptologists now believe that
the wooden and painted death mask and sarcophagus used in
Rameses new tomb were actually recycled from the tomb of one of
his near successors, Horemheb, the last ruler of the 18th
dynasty. It is also evident that
renovations were carried out on Rameses tomb in subsequent
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years, indicating that the ancient Egyptians did not simply
seal the tombs of dead Pharaohs for all time when they were laid
to rest, but viewed some of these tombs as shrines which
were to be maintained and improved where possible.
Unsurprisingly, given the extentof the building program he
oversaw, Rameses the Second has continued to feature regularly
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in studies of ancient Egypt and new archaeological projects.
Indeed, in the case of Abu Simbel, his temple here was
central to one of the most extraordinary relocation
projects ever undertaken. In the 1950's, the new
government of General Abdel NASA, who had seized power in
Egypt following the Egyptian revolution of 1952, determined
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to build a vast new dam at Aswanin order to henceforth control
the annual flooding or inundation of the River Nile, on
which so much of the country's agriculture depended.
The resulting flooding and the creation of what was to be named
Lake NASA near the dam would have submerged Abu Simbel.
Accordingly, in 1959, the Egyptian government applied to
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UNESCO to move the temple. This petition was granted and
over the next several years several Swedish engineering
firms undertook the project for the Egyptian government.
The work involved was highly complex, as Abu Simbel was not
constructed out of blocks of stone, but was carved into a
Cliff face. Thus, the temple was rescued by
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effectively making a giant incision into the mountainside
and then transplanting the temple piece by piece to a site
several 100 meters inland and much higher above ground.
Thus, Abu Simbel now overlooks the River Nile much as it has
for over 3 millennia, but from adifferent vantage point and
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site. Owing to the length of his reign
and its significance, Rameses has also featured extensively in
modern popular culture. For instance, Norman Mailer's
Ancient Evenings, published in 1983 by the American author, was
an enormous fictional account ofpharaonic Egypt set on one
evening in the late 12th centuryBC, but in which the characters
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repeatedly discussed the reign of Rameses.
The second. The Battle of Kadesh is a major.
Feature of the work Rameses was also the subject of work.
By the noted historical fiction writer Christian Jack.
While he is the central character too of Anne Rice's The
Mummy, so too does he appear in many numerous Hollywood
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treatments of ancient Egypt. But surely the most notable
popular cultural reference to the victor of the Battle of
Kadesh appeared 2 centuries ago in the Romantic poet Percy
Bischelli's poem Ozymandias, theGreek name for Rameses.
Here, Shelley used Rameses as anexample of how all great rulers
are destined for decline or death.
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It was meant to be a reflection by Shelley primarily on Napoleon
Bonaparte, who had fallen from power in France and Europe just
a few years before Shelley's time of writing.
But Shelley used Rameses as his analogy, as news was circulating
around London at the time that the British Museum had just
acquired one of the colossal heads of the Pharaoh from the
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Ramesea Shelley's repetition of the inscription which once
adorned the tomb. My name is Ozymandias, King of
Kings. Look on my works, ye mighty and
despair must rank as amongst some of the most famous lines of
19th century poetry. Rameses the second, or rameses
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the Great was arguably the greatest of all ancient egypt's
Pharaohs, of which there were over 170 across 3 millennia.
His reign is notable for many things from a political and
military perspective. He extended the Egyptian Kingdom
to the greatest point it had seen since the reign of the most
of the Third two centuries earlier, the point at which
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Egypt reached its greatest extremity by conquering much of
the Levant. Syria and parts of Rameses did
this primarily by defeating the Hittites in his nation's ongoing
struggle with them for hegemony over the rich coastal cities of
Canaan and Syria, such as Tyre and Sidon.
The peak of his success in this respect was victory at the
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Battle of Kadesh and the EternalTreaty of 1259.
BC But it was not just here where Rameses was militarily
successful. He also campaigned against the
Shard and Sea Pirates early on in his, which had been plaguing
the northern coast of Egypt for many years prior to his
accession, and later campaigned westwards along the
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Mediterranean coast towards Libya.
Finally, to the South, he extended the Egyptian Kingdom's
influence much further down the course of the River Nile into
what is now Sudan, but which wasthen known as Nubia.
This new Kingdom, Empire of Rameses the Second, was one of
the most formidable empires of ancient times.
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However, there is also the distinct possibility that
Rameses has been accorded the prominence which he has in
studies of ancient Egypt and amongst Egyptologists owing to
his own self promotion. Rameses was one of history's
first great propagandists. There was no success which he
achieved on the battlefield or aspect of his reign that he did
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not commemorate in stone in sucha way as it would be remembered
for centuries or even millennia to come.
Thus, for instance, we find him setting stone Stelai and other
markers in the Nile Delta and the Levant to proclaim his
victories over the Hittites and the Shardan Sea Pirates there to
the world and to future generations.
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But it was his building program in places like Luxor, Sakara,
and above all Abu Simbel way down the Nile near Aswan, which
afforded him his greatest legacy.
Here in stone, he proclaimed to all his magnificence as a ruler,
his ties to the sun God Rah, andhis many military
accomplishments. Yet, while these building works
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may have been acts of propaganda, there is no denying
their brilliance. Accordingly, from the
perspective of the 21st century,surely Rameses greatest
accomplishment was in having these magnificent temples,
statues and obelisks erected across Egypt nearly 3500 years
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ago. What do you think of Rameses the
Great? Was he ancient Egypt's greatest
pharaoh? Or is the greatness of his
legacy partly due to a shrewd policy of propaganda concerning
his building project as well as his promotion of his own
military victories? Please let us know in the
comments section. And in the meantime, thank you
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very much for watching. Yeah.
The man known to history as Rameses the Great, known simply
as Rameses in his lifetime, was born in the late 14th century
BC. Scholars turned to hold that he
was most likely born in the year1303 BC, but there is no extant
information as to his exact dateof birth.
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His father was a member of a leading aristocratic and
military family which hailed from the northern part of Egypt,
probably from one of the severalfortified urban centers of the
Nile River Delta. His original name is unclear,
but he would later become known as Seti the 1st.
As we will see, Ramesi's mother was Tuya, the daughter of a
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military officer named Raya, andso a member of the Egyptian
military nobility herself. Rameses was born into a world
that had been going through one of the first golden ages of
ancient times. This was the height of the
Bronze Age, and powerful centralized states had emerged
in many parts of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle
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East. The Greek world was dominated by
powers like the Mycenae on the mainland and the Minoans on the
island of Crete, and throughout this time complex literary and
artistic societies were beginning to emerge in ways
which would shape the ancient world for centuries to come.
In what is now Turkey, the powerful Hittite Empire had
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emerged, centered on the city ofHattusa.
Shortly before Ramese's birth, it had begun conquering parts of
the Levant and Mesopotamia, and was effectively Egypt's most
significant rival for power in the region.
Further to the southeast, a number of significant states
existed in Mesopotamia proper and Persia, notably the
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Babylonian Empire and the Assyrian Empire.
Each of these polities was wealthy, had complex
bureaucracies, and was engaged in extensive trade across this
Bronze Age world. For instance, a trader or
merchant in a city like Tile or Sidon in the Levant in the 14th
century BC could purchase pottery from Knossos in Crete,
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olive oil from Athens in Greece,papyrus from Egypt, and textiles
from Mesopotamia and Persia. All bought and sold in copper,
gold and silver mined in places like western Anatolia under the
Hittites control, or Cyprus, a major center of copper mining, a
necessity in order to make bronze Chariots, weapons and
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other utensils. Egypt itself was no exception to
this story of prosperity. This was an era known as the New
Kingdom period, one which had begun in the 16th century BC and
which would extend beyond Ramsesown time.
The term New Kingdom is a relatively modern construct,
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having been coined in the 19th century, but it is typically
accepted by Egyptologists as accurately describing a distinct
period of Bronze Age culture in Egypt which was more prosperous
than anything which had precededit there, even the Old Kingdom
culture of the Pharaohs who built the Great Pyramids at Giza
a Millennium earlier. During this New Kingdom period,
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the Pharaohs developed a powerful government, overseen by
viziers and many scribes. A large military was also kept
at the ready, powered by new technologies such as Chariots
and weapons made of bronze. With all this in train, the
Pharaohs were not only able to collect a greater amount of
taxes and govern more efficiently at home, but the New
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Kingdom empire expanded in all directions.
With outposts being established further down the River Nile than
ever before into what is now Sudan but which was then known
as Nubia, and a growing amount of territory being acquired on
the Sinai Peninsula and northwards into Canaan and
Lebanon. This empire had reached a
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particular peak in the 15th century BC during the long reign
of Pharaoh Tutmosa the Third, whose conquests extended the
Egyptian Kingdom northeast into parts of modern day Syria and
northern Iraq. Little is known about the
specifics of Ramses own childhood, but the political
developments of the time were extremely significant.
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At the time he was born, Egypt was ruled by Pharaoh Horemheb, a
member of the 18th dynasty of Egyptian Pharaohs.
Horemheb is known for having restored a certain amount of
stability to Egypt's domestic politics after a tumultuous
period during which a near predecessor, Akhenaten, had
attempted to establish a monotheistic cult of the sun,
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replacing the traditional religious and political
structures of Egypt. This caused enormous unrest
within Egypt and LED to its decline as an international
power. Forum Head reversed many of
these decisions and quelled the unrest Akhenaten had created
along the course of the River Nile, but he appears to have had
no surviving sons and no biological successor.
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As such, he decided to designatethe head of his government, the
Grand Vizier Paramesa, as his successor.
Paramesa was Ramessa's grandfather and so the family
ascended to become the 19th dynasty of Egyptian Pharaohs
when Paramesa became the pharaoh, adopting the regnal
name Rameses the first around 12192 BC.
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He ruled for just a few short years before his death, at which
time Rameses father succeeded him as second pharaoh of the
19th dynasty, adopting the name Seti, the first in honour of
Seth, the Egyptian God of War. Rameses was now the heir to the
throne of New Kingdom Egypt, as he was soon appointed as Prince
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Regent by his father, who would reign for just over a decade.
During which time he began to reestablish Egyptian control over
some of the territory which had been held to the northeast in
Canaan and Syria under earlier rulers such as Moser the Third,
but which had been lost as a result of the divided state of
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the Kingdom during Akhenaten's reign.
Religious Reforms Rameses doubtless accompanied his father
in some of his campaigns northeast of the Levant and
gained valuable military experience during his time as
Prince Regent. He would soon need this
experience as he ascended to thethrone as a relatively young
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man. He is known to have become
pharaoh on the 27th day of the season of the harvest in a
particular year of his father's reign, one which is believed to
equate to an accession date of the 31st of May 1279 BC.
He would reign for the next 66 years in what is typically
accounted as the most significant reign of any
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Egyptian pharaoh, adopting the full regional name Uzima Atres
ET dependre, meaning roughly thelaw or harmony of RA.
The Egyptian sun God is powerful.
I am chosen of RA. Rameses first major act as the
new ruler of Egypt was to deal with the threat which had been
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growing in the northern parts ofthe Kingdom for several years.
Even before his accession, sea pirates known as the Sharden Sea
Pirates have been raiding the northern coast of the Kingdom
into the River Nile Delta from the eastern Mediterranean.
This was one of the most prosperous and important parts
of Ramesses Kingdom and it was vital that these encroachments
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be stopped. Thus, beginning in the second
year of his reign, he began establishing forts along the
northern coast of the Kingdom and N eastwards towards Sinai
and Canaan. New ships were also constructed
to patrol the waters of the Eastern Mediterranean and
warning. Posts were set up to signal to
larger settlements. When raiding parties were making
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their way towards the Egyptian Kingdom.
All of this culminated in a major sea battle in which
Rameses and his Navy were victorious.
A steely or memorial stone commemorating this at Tanis in
the North East of the Nile Deltahas survived down to modern
times and. Provides evidence of this
victory today, but the exact details of how it occurred or
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what it involved, other than theRameses scored an early victory
remain unclear. Having stabilized the northern
shores of Egypt and the Nile Delta, Ramesses primary aim
became to restore Egyptian control over Canaan and other
parts of the Levant as had existed in earlier times.
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This was a paramount concern. While Egypt itself was an
affluent land based on the bounteous agriculture practice
along the shores of the River Nile and the production of
pottery and papyrus in cities like Thebes and Memphis, the
most affluent cities in the LateBronze Age world lay in Canaan
cities like Tyre and Saidon, which were at the crossroads of
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all the major empires and were major trading centres as a
result. Consequently, Rameses was
anxious to restore Egyptian ruleover the region as had existed 2
centuries earlier in the time ofMoser the Third.
However, while there was no state with an army sufficient to
withstand Egypt within Canaan and the southern reaches of the
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Levant, the region was also coveted by the Hittite Empire to
the north. Much of Ramses rule would be
concerned with trying to seize control of this region and stave
off counter attacks by the Hittites.
In the course of doing so, he would fight arguably the most
significant battle in the history of the Bronze Age. 1 of
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Ramses first actions early in his reign was to construct a new
capital in the northeastern parts of the Nile Delta in an
effort to increase Egyptian power to the northeast into the
Levant. The capital of Ferronic Egypt
had moved around over the centuries.
For instance, in ancient times during the Old Kingdom period it
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laid Memphis near what is now Cairo.
However, the capital during the New Kingdom period was typically
located well down the River Nileat what was known then as
Thebes, but which we call Luxor today.
Akhenaten, the controversial pharaoh who 1/2 century before
Rameses birth had attempted to establish a monotheistic
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religion centered on the worshipof Arten, had established a new
capital at Amana as a centre of the new religion.
Thus, there was a substantial precedent for moving the capital
of the Pharaonic Kingdom. Rameses named his new capital
Piramis, near what is now the town of Quantia.
Rameses Father Seti the First had previously had a summer
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palace in the region, and it seems likely that Rameses had
spent much of his youth here. Now in the 1270s he established
it as a quasi military capital, with large workshops and
factories erected to begin churning out significant
quantities of weapons, armour and Chariots.
As such, Pyramsees became a kindof administrative capital of
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Lower Egypt. But as we will see from Rameses
building program, he never abandoned the belief that Thebes
or Luxor was the religious and spiritual capital of Egypt.
In the earliest part of his warsagainst the Hittites, Rameses
faced King Muertali the Second, the ruler of the Hittite Empire
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since the mid 1290s. This Muatali had taken advantage
of Egyptian weakness early in his reign and moved his capital
South from the traditional site at Hatusa in what is now central
Turkey. To Tarhun Tusa, in the southeast
of the Konya Plain, it was indicative of how both rulers
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saw Canaan, Syria, and the widerLevant as a contested region
which they needed to be near, that both Rameses and Muatali
moved their capitals to be closer to the Levant.
In the earliest years of his reign, Rameses conducted annual
military campaigns northeast from the Nile Delta, the first
of these around 1275 BC. Resulted in the Pharaoh
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cementing his control over southern Canaan before
campaigning further north to theregion around modern day Beirut.
Here he had a commemorative steely or pylon erected at Naar
El Khalb. The text of this has been
obliterated over time, but it almost certainly proclaimed
Ramesi's successes in campaigning this far north a
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statement of Egypt's claims to control the region.
Similarly, he engaged in furthercampaigns against the Amuru, a
people who occupied much of whatis now Syria as vassals of King
Muertali and the Hittites. However, whatever nominal
control over the in this region Ramesses was able to establish
in 1275 was ephemeral. No sooner had he withdrawn back
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to Pyramesses at the end of the campaigning season than Egyptian
influence in Syria effectively collapsed and the Hittites were
able to reimpose themselves. The war between the Egyptians
and the Hittites at this time has become widely renowned for
battle, which it is generally accepted, occurred in the year
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1274 BC. This was the Battle of Kadesh or
Kadesh, near the city of Kadesh on the banks of the Orontes
River in western Syria. The Battle of Kadesh was clearly
a highly significant one, involving armies of a very
substantial size but the standards of the Late Bronze
Age, but also being regarded as a unique or significant event by
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the parties involved. It is for instance, the best
documented military encounter ofthe second Millennium BC, with
both sides making extensive records concerning it in years
to come in the form of tablets, war paintings and inscriptions
throughout Egypt and other partsof the Late Bronze Age world.
Thus, the Battle of Kadesh was unquestionably believed by
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contemporaries to have been an era defining military
engagement. The background of the battle was
Ramesses new campaign into Syriain 1274 BC.
As with the previous year's campaign, his goal was to extend
Egyptian power further north into Syria at the expense of the
Hittites. Ramesses LED 4 divisions of
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troops into Canaan and then N towards Syria that year.
These were named for some of theparamount Egyptian deities Amun,
RA, Seth and Ptah, and consistedof perhaps as many as 40,000
men, with 2000 Chariots also provided for the campaign.
These were augmented by thousands of Canaanite
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mercenaries who joined the Pharaoh's forces.
However, not all of these forceswere deployed at Kadesh, and it
seems probable that Ramesi's forces did not exceed 30,000 men
in total on the field of battle.A raid against him was Mortali's
army of somewhere between 25,000and 45,000 men, with several
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1000 Chariots also brought S into Syria.
Consequently, the armies of the two sides were relatively evenly
matched. A striking aspect of the
engagement was the number of Chariots deployed, with many
Egyptologists and Hittite scholars speculating since that
this was the largest chariot battle in history in its initial
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stages. Rameses was caught off guard at
Kadesh. He received false intelligence
about the location of the main Hittite army far to the north,
whereas in fact more Atali's armies were stationed near Old
Kadesh, not far from the Egyptian advance party.
As a result, when the Hittites attacked, some of Ramesses main
divisions of troops were far to the South and could not be
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brought into the field of battle.
As a result, the RA division wasscattered by a Hittite chariot
assault in the first stages of the battle near Kadesh.
However, this is the point at which Ramses leadership is
believed to have proved pivotal as he steal the Ammon division
of his troops and counter attacked against the Hittites,
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breaking their chariot assault. Some accounts have it that the
fault also lay with the Hittiteswho, believing that their
initial attack had proved conclusive, had stopped to
plunder the baggage trains and goods of the RA division,
leaving them exposed to Ramses coordinated counter attack.
Thereafter, Muertali ordered histroops to retreat towards the
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Orontes River. Later Egyptian accounts suggest
that the Ptar division now arrive to Kadesh and harried the
Hittites. Muertali ordered a new counter
attack led by his chariot divisions, but this was unable
to break the Egyptian advance. Eventually, the Hittites were
forced to flee northwards over the River Orontes, in many cases
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throwing their weapons and armoraside in order to swim through
the river to safety. It is unclear exactly how
conclusive the alleged Egyptian victory at Kadesh was.
Some Egyptologists believed thatthe battle was a major military
victory for Ramses. He certainly depicted it as
such. For the rest of his long reign
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the pharaoh consistently erectedstelai and had inscriptions and
wall paintings placed in templesand in his palaces, depicting
Kadesh as a great victory for Egypt in Syria.
These include the Kadesh inscriptions or bulletin, and
the Poem of Pentour, A prose account of the Egyptian victory
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which is repeated on the walls of temples all along the course
of the river Nile. The poem is.
Stand in eight different places,while the bulletin is to be
found inscribed in seven different locations around
Egypt. Consequently, it is clearly
something which Rameses tried toestablish as the official
version of his alleged victory at Kadesh, but other scholars of
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the late Bronze Age world. Are more skeptical, with some
arguing that Kadesh was probablymore of a stalemate than a
victory for either side. Certainly, it cannot have been
the kind of comprehensive victory which Ramses attempted
to depict it as, for the battle did not lead to any major shift
in the strategic situation in Syria.
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Rather, the Egyptians and the Hittites continue to contest the
region for many years to come. The Battle of Kadesh did not
bring the war between Egypt and the Hittite Empire to a complete
conclusion, though it did signalthe end of the most intense
initial period of clashes between the Egyptians and the
Hittites. Skirmishes continued for years
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thereafter. For instance, in 1269 BC,
Rameses launched a new campaign into Syria, during which he
conquered the city of Dappur. However, the pattern during the
1260s was that Rameses was able to briefly acquire control over
parts of Syria while he campaigned personally there, but
longer term control over the region could not be maintained
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once the major Egyptian militarypresence was withdrawn.
In recognition of this situation, around 12:59 BC the
Egyptians and the Hittites agreed to what is variously
called either the Egyptian Hittite Treaty or the Eternal
Treaty or Silver Treaty. This was signed between Ramses
the Second and Hutusili the Third, who had succeeded as
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ruler of the Hittite Empire at some point in the 1260s.
The Eternal Treaty effectively brokered a lasting peace, one in
which the 2 powers agreed to cease hostilities as it was
costing both governments exorbitant amounts of money and
achieving little for either. Thus Syria was to become a
sphere of Hittite influence, with Egypt largely confirmed in
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its control of Canaan and other more southerly parts of the
Levant. Bonds were agreed and pledges
made and the gods invoked as overseers of the Eternal Peace.
The Eternal Treaty is one of themost famed international
agreements made in ancient times.
This is owing to the highly unusual survival of multiple
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copies of the text over 3 millennia later in different
languages. Copies of the text of the treaty
in Egyptian hieroglyphics were found inscribed in two separate
locations in Luxor in central Egypt in the first half of the
19th century. Then, in the first years of the
20th century, the German archaeologist Hugo Winkler
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uncovered a copy of the text in the Arcadian language, the
lingua franca of the Hittite Empire and other states of the
Middle East in the 13th century BC, as part of a cache of
approximately 10,000 tablets which were discovered while
excavating the ancient Hittite capital at Hatusa in Turkey.
Thus, we have a remarkable example here of an international
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treaty being copied out and deposited in royal archives and
temples in cities 2000 kilometers away from each other
over 3200 years ago. As to the motives of the
respective parties, it is clear that both Ramses and Hutusili
had both come to believe that peace and the fostering of trade
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in the Levant would be more beneficial than a continuation
of their rivalry, while both states were quite likely wary of
the rise of the Assyrian Empire to the east in Mesopotamia and
believed the United front against this upstart power was
better than ongoing warfare in Syria.
The signing of the eternal Treaty also provided A respite
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for Ramses in order for him to concentrate militarily on
matters to the South of Egypt. For roughly a Millennium between
the middle of the third Millennium BC down to roughly
1500 BC, the region of modern day Sudan had been independent
of Egypt. At the time, it was known as
Nubia and was dominated by the Kerimer culture which produced
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states like the Kingdom of Kush.However, during the New Kingdom
period, and in particular duringthe reign of the most of the
Third, Nubia had gradually been brought more and more under the
control of Feronic Egypt. As with Canaan and Syria,
Egyptian control declined here as a result of the unrest
created by Akhenaten's rule in the 14th century BC.
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But Rameses was now in a position to reverse this
situation. Early in his reign, he had
already campaigned South of the first cataract of the Nile.
These cataracts are a series of locations along the course of
the River Nile where the white water Rapids predominate, and
were used at the time as intermediary points where
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Egyptian arms were extended as far as was possible in campaigns
against the Nubians. By the 1260s, Ramses had
effectively extended Egyptian control as far as the second
cataract, which lies South of Abu Simbel and Wadihalfa in what
is now northern Sudan. For the period following, the
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establishment of the internal treaty with the Hittites
provided a military respite which allowed Rameses to send
forces for the South again to the third cataract.
This lies well into Sudan, at the northern margin of the
Dongola River. Here, Rameses was able to
establish a southern military colony at Tombos, as evidenced
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by the discovery of feronic and royal inscriptions here in tombs
built at the height of the New Kingdom in the 13th century BC.
Thus, by the 1240s BC, Rameses have effectively brought a
significant amount of Nubia under outright Egyptian control.
Ramses was soon campaigning westwards as well.
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Our knowledge of Libya in ancient times is surprisingly
limited for a region which was in close proximity to major
centers of civilization such as Egypt and Crete.
Generally speaking, the main settlement points here were a
series of ports and oases along the North Coast or slightly
inland but proximate to the Mediterranean Sea.
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The land here was known as Jehenu to the Egyptians.
Libya is a name derived from later Greek descriptions of the
region, despite the lack of historical knowledge about the
society that existed here in ancient times.
There was significant contact between the Egyptians and Libya
throughout the New Kingdom period, mostly in the form of
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Berber raids into the western branches of the Nile Delta and
Egyptian efforts to establish coastal colonies along the north
of Libya. Rameses attempted to further
this effort by establishing new forts along the Mediterranean
coastline and reinforcing a Fortat Zoet Umm El Arakam, which his
father Seti the First, had established earlier after
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campaigns reigning against the Libyan tribes of the region.
In the course of Rameses reign, this became the major western
extremity of the Egyptian Kingdom, though trade centers
and vassal states were to be found further to the West in
Libya proper. These accomplishments, as with
nearly everything else to do with Rameses military endeavors,
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were recorded in a series of stili and other monumental
inscriptions in southern and central Egypt later in his
reign. With these campaigns in Nubia
and Libya, and the earlier endeavors in Canaan and Syria,
by the middle of his reign Rameses had succeeded in
extending the Egyptian Kingdom to the greatest point it had
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been at since the days of Footmosa the Third two centuries
earlier. Beyond the Pharaoh's core
control of Egypt, his forces hadmoved S along the River Nile,
effectively repossessing Nubia after it had broadly regained
its independence during the period of instability under
Akhenaten in the 14th century BC.
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Elsewhere, Rameses had campaigned westwards into the
deserts of the Sahara and along the North Coast to bring Libya
into a partial vassalage. However, it was his conquests to
the northeast that were most substantial.
Here Rameses had captured Canaanand much of Syria.
It wasn't simply that this was one of the richest parts of the
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world at the time, with affluenttrading cities like Tyre and
Saidon, but in order to achieve some hegemony here, Rameses had
to defeat one of the most substantial powers of the
ancient world, the Hittite Empire.
In doing so, he carved out one of the largest territorial
empires ever seen up to that time.
Thus, in the Late Bronze Age, Ramses had arguably transformed
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New Kingdom Egypt into the most powerful state in the known
world, a major achievement afterthe period of instability that
had characterized Egypt as recently as the 14th century.
Throughout his military campaigns of the 1270s, twelve
60s and 1250s, Rameses was accompanied by an ever growing
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number of his sons. This is unsurprising when we
consider that Rameses is believed to have had
approximately 100 children, of which a roughly equal amount
were sons and daughters. Such a large brood was a
byproduct of the practice of polygamy by ancient Egyptian
Pharaohs. Rameses had many wives, the
details of several of which are well known.
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For instance, his primary consort was Nefertari, the first
of Rameses great royal wives. Her background is not precisely
known, but some have speculated that she was descended from
Pharaoh I, who had ruled Egypt 4decades prior to Rameses
accession as part of the 18th dynasty.
She and Rameses evidently married quite young, as she
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became Queen Consort as soon as he ascended to the throne around
1279 BC. They had many children together,
and on the strengths of the numerous temples and shrines
which Ramses had built in her honour, there is no doubting
that she was the most revered ofhis wives.
She's also somewhat unique as a Queen Consort of the New Kingdom
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period, for whom we have extant correspondence.
Neffektari wrote on multiple occasions to King Hutusili, the
third ruler of the Hittite Empire, and his wife Pudu HEPA
in the 1260s and 1250s, and tablets of this correspondence
have been unearthed in the Hittite capital Hattusa.
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Nefertari died around 12:55, andsince Rameses lived for many
decades to come, new great wivesemerged in the years that
followed. Paramount amongst these was
Isetnafret. She too seems to have married
Rameses before his accession as pharaoh, but she was clearly a
junior consort while Nefertari lived.
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Her seniority from the mid 1250sis attested to by numerous
inscriptions and records of her which appear on statues and
temple walls across. Egypt Other great wives of the
pharaoh emerged from political arrangements.
For instance, as part of the Eternal Treaty of 1259 BC with
the Hittites, Rameses took one of the daughters of King
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Hatusuli the Third and Queen Paduhepa as his wife.
Although the marriage to Matona Ferreira was not solidized until
the mid 1240s BC, presumably as the Hittite King's daughter was
considered to be too young for the marriage to be formalized in
the early 1250s BC. Curiously enough, some of
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Ramesses other great royal wivesincluded some of his daughters.
Bint Anat, for instance, was born from Ramesi's marriage to
Isetna Threat before later marrying her own father.
Such familial relationships werecommon throughout the history of
Pharonic Egypt and resulted in significant complications of
inbreeding, the most famous example of which had been
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Tutankhamun. 50 years before Ramesi's reign, Tutankhamun
suffered from multiple physical ailments, the exact nature of
which are still debated, but which Egyptologists concur were
most likely owing to the speciesof inbreeding that characterized
Rameses the Second's own familial life in the 13th
century BC. This extensive royal family was
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intimately connected throughout Ramesi's long reign with the
cult of RA, the Sun God and one of the paramount.
Deities in the Egyptian religious system who was also
worshipped as Amun RA in a slightly different form, RA
along with others such as Ptah and Horus were the paramount
deities of the New Kingdom. And as we will see shortly,
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Ramesi's extensive building program across Egypt from the
1260 onwards made continuous efforts to associate the pharaoh
with the cult of these particular deities from the
early 1240s BC onwards. Once Ramses had reigned over 30
years, he was also able to become the center of his own
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species of religious cult in theshape of the said festival or
feast of the tale. This was a religious festival
which was held annually to celebrate the reign of any
pharaoh who had ruled for over 30 years.
It was nominally held in honor of the wolf God.
Said or wept were wet. The origins of the festival are
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somewhat macabre. It may have been the case that
the said festival was originallyheld as a ritual in which a long
lived pharaoh was ritually murdered.
The idea being that once he reached a certain age, it was
time for him to be removed from power.
Over time, the festival changed to one in which the king was
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honored rather than killed. Under Rameses, the said festival
was celebrated at the traditional capital Thebes for
the first time in 1249 BC. Thereafter, it was held every
three years for as long as Ramses lived.
Such was the length of his reignthat he went on to celebrate an
unprecedented number of said festivals.
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If the. First half of Ramses reign was
primarily dominated by warfare and the extension of the realm's
borders. The second-half of it was
remarkable for the extensive building projects which were
undertaken by the Pharaoh. Ancient Egypt is synonymous with
brilliant architectural achievement, but this was
achieved at irregular intervals.For instance, the First
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Intermediate Period of Egyptian history, which occurred in the
late 3rd Millennium BC, prior tothe advent of the subsequent
Middle Kingdom, was a period of lackluster building projects.
Conversely, the New Kingdom period, which had begun in the
16th century BC, saw a new age of major building projects
commissioned by the Pharaohs along the river Nile.
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Rameses 2 was the greatest proponent of this new age of
pharaonic patronage of religiousand Mortuary architecture.
In fact, his reign witnessed themost significant building
program seen since the days of Pharaohs such as Kiosks, who in
the 26th century BC constructed the pyramid complex of Giza near
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modern day Khaya, including the Great Pyramids, the only
surviving wonder of the ancient world.
However, by the New Kingdom period, such monumental
buildings as were constructed byRamses focused more on erecting
great temples, obelisks, and statues to honor the pharaoh and
the gods, rather than on giant pyramids to act as Mortuary
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tombs. One of the most significant
building projects undertaken by Rameses was at Thebes or Luxor
in central Egypt, the traditional capital of New
Kingdom Egypt. Here, Rameses had the Ramessium
built on the Theben Necropolis, an elevated region on the West
Bank of the River Nile in the city where many other Pharaohs
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had erected Mortuary and religious buildings over the
centuries. The Ramesium took roughly 20
years to complete and is effectively a temple with
several courtyards surrounding it.
Large stone pylons and gateways lead from courtyard to
courtyard, with a gigantic statue of Ramses towering over
the inner court. The temple itself consisted of
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three rooms with columns and terror style cells dividing up
the sanctuary. Throughout them stand many
statues of the Egyptian gods andgoddesses.
Several colossal statues of Rameses once adorned the temple.
Unfortunately, several of these were removed from Thebes in the
19th century and are now found in places in Europe such as the
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British Museum. On what remains, reliefs
commemorate Rameses victory at Kadesh and other accomplishments
both inside and outside the temple.
What is particularly interestingabout the Ramesseum is that
there is evidence that a scribalschool was also established
here, while a small royal palacestood next to the courtyard,
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indicating that this was a site with several other uses beyond
its religious functions. It clearly served as a center of
pharaonic government in Thebes when Rameses based himself out
of the traditional New Kingdom capital.
Rameses also ordered some construction work at Sakara.
This is a site not far from the Great Pyramids of Giza and where
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the first major pyramid ever built in ancient Egypt, that of
Phara Joseph of the Third Dynasty, was built in the 27th
century BC, and Sakara remained a major center of monumental
building work over the centuries.
Rameses decides to make his own contributions to the complexes
here in association with one of his eldest sons, Prince HA
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Emweset. For instance, the pair had the
Pyramid of Unas, a pharaoh of the 5th dynasty who had lived in
the 24th century BC, repaired and added an inscription to the
southern facade of the edifice to indicate that they had
overseen this restoration work. Ramses and his son also enlarged
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the temple of Serapis or Serapeum at Sakara, a major
centre of the cult of APIs, the bull God of Egyptian mythology,
who was believed to be the physical manifestation of Ptah,
the Egyptian God of crafts, merchants and the dead.
Recent archaeological discoveries at Sakara have also
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unearthed the tomb of Ptamwiya, who served for time as Grand
Vizier and Treasurer in the government of Ramses the Second.
His was not the only tomb built at Sakara for senior government
officials of Ramses reign, and the site at Sakara highlights
the esteem such bureaucrats wereheld in at the height of the New
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Kingdom in ancient Egypt. One of the most significant
aspects of Ramses building program was the manner in which
he used grand temples and buildings as a way of expressing
the extension of Egyptian power into regions which had largely
become independent of Pharaonic rule in the 14th century BC.
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This was particularly the case to the South towards Nubia,
along the course of the River Nile.
Ramses had many temples constructed here on the way to
what is now Sudan, as an expression of the rejuvenation
of Egyptian rule here. One of the most impressive was
the Temple of Bait Alwali, whichwas built on an island in the
(38:00):
middle of the River Nile, just afew kilometers from Aswan in
southern Egypt. This was dedicated to some of
the foremost Egyptian deities ofthe New Kingdom period, Amundra,
Reharakti, Khunum and Anuket. It is notable for having some of
the best preserved and most impressive wall painting reliefs
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from ancient Egypt, many of which depict Rameses campaigns
into Nubia and his subjugation of the region.
His campaigns into Syria and Libya are also depicted over 100
kilometers to the South, on the West Bank of the River Nile,
Ramses had the two temples of Wadi S Sabua also constructed,
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renovating one earlier temple inthe process.
The site here was used as a stopoff point for boats traversing
the Nile to and from Nubia. Rameses thus had the temples
constructed in a location where many people visited and
dedicated them both to himself and Amun Rah.
Perhaps the most striking architectural feature here are
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rows of sphinxes, which depictedRameses as individuals entered
and left the temples. Perhaps the greatest building
project undertaken by Rameses, though, lay far to the South of
Luxor, near what is now the border between Egypt and Sudan
at the second Nile Cataract. This was the temple complex near
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what was then known as Ipsambul,but which we know today as Abu
Simbel. Here Rameses had initiated the
construction of two temples backin the mid 1260s.
They would take 20 years to complete, but eventually
resulted in two large temples carved in a sheer rock face near
the village. One of these was dedicated to
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Rameses himself and the smaller one was in honour of the
pharaoh's primary consort, QueenNefertari.
When it was completed in 1244 BC, the great temple was
inscribed as having been built as quote the temple of Rameses,
beloved of Amun. It consisted of a grand entrance
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which led into a temple dedicated to several of the
major Egyptian deities. Sculptures and reliefs adorned
the interior. It is also believed that the
temple was built in such a way that the chamber flooded with
sunlight on the 22nd of October and the 22nd of February every
year, illuminating the statues here.
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It is speculated that these dates are significant as
possibly being the dates of Rameses birth and coronation as
Pharaoh. Moreover, the reliefs and
sculptures are celebratory of Rameses reign, with his military
campaigns and his victories depicted on the walls, notably
the Battle of Kadesh. While the interior of the temple
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of Abu Simbel is impressive, themost notable aspect of the
temple complex is the series of colossal statues, which were
erected on either side of the main entrance outside the
temple. At the Grand Temple, there are
four such colossal statues, 2 toeither side of the entrance.
All four of these depict Ramses and stand approximately 20
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meters tall, making them some ofthe largest pharaonic statues
ever carved during the three millennia of ancient Egyptian
history. It is difficult to get a precise
idea of how vast these statues are from looking at photographs,
but if one stands next to them, an individual only reaches up to
the pharaoh's feet, with the remainder of the statues
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towering well above. On each statue Rameses was
depicted wearing the dual crownsof Upper and Lower Egypt.
A statement here in the border region between Egypt and Nubia
that the Pharaoh was Lord of theland of the river Nile, both to
the South and the north. Thus the temple of Abu Simbel
was meant as a statement of Rameses power and rule over
(41:55):
Egypt, a proclamation of sorts to those South of Abu Simbel
that the Pharaohs reigned. Here yet again, Abu Simbel is
the pinnacle of Rameses building.
Program Rameses reign is notablefor its length, having most
likely succeeded his father in 1279 BC.
He is believed to have ruled forover 65 years.
(42:18):
However what is somewhat unusualabout this long reign is how
unremarkable the second-half of it was, and in particular the
last two decades or so of Rameses reign.
All of the notable events of histime as Pharaoh, from the battle
of Kadesh to the Eternal Treaty and the campaigns W to Libya and
South into Nubia all occurred inthe 1st 20 or so years of his
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rule. Even the monumental building
programs which he undertook at Abu Simbel, the.
And elsewhere, although many of them took upwards of 20 years to
complete, were generally finished by the early 1230s BC.
By way of comparison, the last 20 or so years of Rameses the
Second's reign are something of a mystery.
(43:03):
There is little evidence of major events or what he may have
been doing. This is quite possibly because
the pharaoh spent many years I'll towards the end of his life
and with his health declining. Scientific analysis of his mummy
in recent times has revealed that Ramesses suffered from a
range of ailments in old age, including arthritis,
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atherosclerosis and severe dental issues, but he survived
for an immense amount of time despite these illnesses.
Such evidence as we have indicates Rama Sees the second
did not die until 1213 BC, in the 66th year of his reign,
probably aged around 90, an extraordinarily long life by the
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standards of the time. He was originally interred in
the Valley of the Kings, where many Pharaohs were interred in
the hills outside Thebes, but owing to looting of the graves
here, his body was moved on several occasions.
Like all the ancient Pharaohs, he was mummified, meaning that
his body was partially preservedacross the centuries.
(44:07):
Rameses was succeeded by his sonMere Neptar, who took the regnal
name BA en re Marinetjiru, whichmeans the soul of RA, beloved of
the gods. This Mere Neptar is believed to
have been the 13th son of Rameses development, which
should have placed him well downthe pecking order of possible
(44:28):
successes to his father. However, Rameses had lived for
so long that a huge number of his oldest sons had died.
Indeed, Mir Neptar was probably well into his 60s by the time of
his own accession, and his reignwould only last 10 years.
The most significant developmentduring his reign was a victory
which he won over the tribes of Libya at the Battle of Perire in
(44:52):
12/08 BC. Thereafter, there was a quick
succession of Pharaohs before the 19th dynasty came to an end
with the dying out of Ramesses Direct Line of descent in 1189
BC. Thus, the dynasty lasted for
just over a century and was completely dominated by the
reign of Rameses the Second. However, in recognition of the
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extraordinary reign of Rameses the Great, many Pharaohs of the
20th dynasty adopted his retinalname.
In all, there were eventually 11Rameses, the last being Rameses,
the 11th of the 20th dynasty, who died around 1077 BC.
In death, Rameses the Second hasacquired an even greater
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historical fame over the years, as it has been regularly
speculated that he is the pharaoh of the story of.
The Book of Exodus in the Old Testament This is one of the
earliest sections of the Old Testament and is central to both
Judaism and Christianity. In it, the story of the Jews,
who are effectively living as slaves in what is termed the
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land of Goshen, but which is Pharaonic Egypt, is related.
This picks up from the book of Genesis, which had related how
Joseph, the son of the Hebrew prophet Jacob, had been tricked
by his brothers and sold into slavery in.
Egypt Over the next several generations, a large community
of Jewish slaves came to live inEgypt under the subjugation of
(46:21):
the Egyptian Pharaohs. In Exodus, we read the story of
how the Jewish prophet Moses is placed in a Reed basket and sent
down the river Nile by his mother Jochebed, after the
Pharaoh had ordered the. Murder of Jewish children
following concern about the number of Jews or Israelites
that were then present in Egypt.Moses is subsequently found and
(46:43):
adopted into the Pharaoh's household, where he gains the
affection of the Egyptian king, but Moses clashes with the
Pharaoh's biological son. Eventually, he realizes he is
one of the Israelites and leads his people out of Egypt by
parting the Red Sea as the Pharaoh's forces attempt to
chase him. The debate on Rameses is whether
(47:06):
he could be identified as being either the ruling pharaoh of the
Book of Exodus or his biologicalson who becomes Moses rival.
There is really no substantive case, however, in either
instance for speculating to thiseffect.
The Book of Exodus makes no effort to identify the
historical figures who might have been involved in pharaonic
(47:28):
Egypt at the time, and the historicity of the events of the
Old Testament are of course opento speculation as well.
Consequently, different writers have speculated that a wide
range of Pharaohs dating from asearly as the 17th century BC and
as late as the 12th century BC may be the Pharaoh of the Book
of Exodus or his biological son.An unusually high proportion of
(47:52):
people have been anxious to suggest it was Rameses the
Second who was the pharaoh at the time, with this line being
favored in more than one prominent Hollywood treatment of
Moses's life, notably the 10 Commandments of 1956, in which
Rameses was depicted by Yulbrina.
These depictions are largely dueto Rameses being the most
(48:15):
prominent pharaoh of this age. His reign was lengthy and he was
involved in military conquests in the Levant which would fit
with oppression of the Israelites.
These things aside, though, there is no historical basis for
suggesting that Rameses the Second is the Pharaoh of the
Book of Exodus. Indeed, that Rameses should be
(48:36):
identified with the biblical Pharaoh of Exodus is perhaps
fitting. After all, much of the tale of
Moses portends doom for Egypt for impeding the destiny of the
Israelites to return to their ancestral homeland and establish
a new Kingdom there. And there is no doubting that
New Kingdom Egypt quickly headedtowards a period of immense
(48:58):
decline shortly after Ramses reign, beginning around 1200 BC.
The Eastern Mediterranean, the Levant and adjoining areas were
struck by a series of attacks bya mysterious confederation of
warlike people who have typically been identified as the
Sea Peoples. There is no consensus even today
(49:19):
as to who these people were or where they had come from,
although it has plausibly been speculated that they came
eastwards from the western Mediterranean, possibly from
Italy and parts of southern France or the northwestern
Balkans. Wherever they came from, what we
do know is that the onslaught ofthese newcomers, along with the
(49:40):
arrival of other warlike people such as the Dorians who came
from northern Greece around thistime, was an immediate threat to
the Late Bronze Age world and began to destabilize societies
such as those of New Kingdom, Egypt in the decades that
followed. What followed is typically
referred to as the Late Bronze Age collapse in the
(50:02):
historiography of the ancient world, as the powerful states
which had dominated the region for several centuries either
declined dramatically or collapsed.
The Hittite Empire splintered into several smaller states
during the course of the 12th century BC, while Bronze Age
Mycenae and the Minoan civilization of Crete were
almost entirely destroyed. New Kingdom Egypt also entered
(50:25):
the period of pronounced decline, though it's survived as
a substantial polity, or be it much weakened internally,
divided by civil wars and reduced in terms of its
territorial expanse. This reflected.
Much of what occurred elsewhere.Trade collapsed across the
Bronze Age world for the space of two centuries or more, and
(50:45):
the economy was so impacted thatwhole cities were abandoned and
famines struck many regions, such that many historians of the
ancient past refer to this as being a Dark age, the age of the
ancient world, similar to what followed the collapse of the
Roman Empire nearly two millennia later.
What is known as the Third Intermediate Period of Egyptian
(51:08):
history followed the end of the New Kingdom, as new regional
powers began to dominate what remained of Pharaonic Egypt,
some of them hailing from Nubia in the South.
Rameses 2's tomb was discovered during the late 19th century.
This was a time when Egyptology,the study of Pharaonic Egypt,
(51:28):
was entering its first Golden age.
Following the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphics using the
Rosetta Stone. The great pharaoh's tomb was
discovered at Deir al Bahari in 1881 near Thebes, within a wider
cache of royal tombs dating to the New Kingdom period.
Ramesi's tomb, like nearly all other Pharaohs, had been looted
(51:51):
at some stage in the past and revealed nothing to rival the
riches of that of Tutankhamun, which would be discovered 40
years later by Howard Carter. However, Ramesi's tomb is
nevertheless significant, particularly a series of
inscriptions on the sarcophagus which listed Ramesi's various
names and titles and also provided an inventory of his
(52:13):
burial goods. The inscriptions also indicate
that Rameses was not immediatelyinterred at Deir al Bahari, but
rather he was first laid to restin the tomb of his father Seti
the 1st. It remained there for the next
80 years until such time in the mid 12th century that his tomb
was relocated. What is especially strange about
(52:35):
all of this is that Egyptologists now believe that
the wooden and painted death mask and sarcophagus used in
Rameses new tomb were actually recycled from the tomb of one of
his near successors, Horemheb, the last ruler of the 18th
dynasty. It is also evident that
renovations were carried out on Rameses tomb in subsequent
(52:56):
years, indicating that the ancient Egyptians did not simply
seal the tombs of dead Pharaohs for all time when they were laid
to rest, but viewed some of these tombs as shrines which
were to be maintained and improved where possible.
Unsurprisingly, given the extentof the building program he
oversaw, Rameses the Second has continued to feature regularly
(53:19):
in studies of ancient Egypt and new archaeological projects.
Indeed, in the case of Abu Simbel, his temple here was
central to one of the most extraordinary relocation
projects ever undertaken. In the 1950's, the new
government of General Abdel NASA, who had seized power in
Egypt following the Egyptian revolution of 1952, determined
(53:41):
to build a vast new dam at Aswanin order to henceforth control
the annual flooding or inundation of the River Nile, on
which so much of the country's agriculture depended.
The resulting flooding and the creation of what was to be named
Lake NASA near the dam would have submerged Abu Simbel.
Accordingly, in 1959, the Egyptian government applied to
(54:04):
UNESCO to move the temple. This petition was granted and
over the next several years several Swedish engineering
firms undertook the project for the Egyptian government.
The work involved was highly complex, as Abu Simbel was not
constructed out of blocks of stone, but was carved into a
Cliff face. Thus, the temple was rescued by
(54:26):
effectively making a giant incision into the mountainside
and then transplanting the temple piece by piece to a site
several 100 meters inland and much higher above ground.
Thus, Abu Simbel now overlooks the River Nile much as it has
for over 3 millennia, but from adifferent vantage point and
(54:48):
site. Owing to the length of his reign
and its significance, Rameses has also featured extensively in
modern popular culture. For instance, Norman Mailer's
Ancient Evenings, published in 1983 by the American author, was
an enormous fictional account ofpharaonic Egypt set on one
evening in the late 12th centuryBC, but in which the characters
(55:11):
repeatedly discussed the reign of Rameses.
The second. The Battle of Kadesh is a major.
Feature of the work Rameses was also the subject of work.
By the noted historical fiction writer Christian Jack.
While he is the central character too of Anne Rice's The
Mummy, so too does he appear in many numerous Hollywood
(55:31):
treatments of ancient Egypt. But surely the most notable
popular cultural reference to the victor of the Battle of
Kadesh appeared 2 centuries ago in the Romantic poet Percy
Bischelli's poem Ozymandias, theGreek name for Rameses.
Here, Shelley used Rameses as anexample of how all great rulers
are destined for decline or death.
(55:53):
It was meant to be a reflection by Shelley primarily on Napoleon
Bonaparte, who had fallen from power in France and Europe just
a few years before Shelley's time of writing.
But Shelley used Rameses as his analogy, as news was circulating
around London at the time that the British Museum had just
acquired one of the colossal heads of the Pharaoh from the
(56:15):
Ramesea Shelley's repetition of the inscription which once
adorned the tomb. My name is Ozymandias, King of
Kings. Look on my works, ye mighty and
despair must rank as amongst some of the most famous lines of
19th century poetry. Rameses the second, or rameses
(56:36):
the Great was arguably the greatest of all ancient egypt's
Pharaohs, of which there were over 170 across 3 millennia.
His reign is notable for many things from a political and
military perspective. He extended the Egyptian Kingdom
to the greatest point it had seen since the reign of the most
of the Third two centuries earlier, the point at which
(56:58):
Egypt reached its greatest extremity by conquering much of
the Levant. Syria and parts of Rameses did
this primarily by defeating the Hittites in his nation's ongoing
struggle with them for hegemony over the rich coastal cities of
Canaan and Syria, such as Tyre and Sidon.
The peak of his success in this respect was victory at the
(57:20):
Battle of Kadesh and the EternalTreaty of 1259.
BC But it was not just here where Rameses was militarily
successful. He also campaigned against the
Shard and Sea Pirates early on in his, which had been plaguing
the northern coast of Egypt for many years prior to his
accession, and later campaigned westwards along the
(57:42):
Mediterranean coast towards Libya.
Finally, to the South, he extended the Egyptian Kingdom's
influence much further down the course of the River Nile into
what is now Sudan, but which wasthen known as Nubia.
This new Kingdom, Empire of Rameses the Second, was one of
the most formidable empires of ancient times.
(58:03):
However, there is also the distinct possibility that
Rameses has been accorded the prominence which he has in
studies of ancient Egypt and amongst Egyptologists owing to
his own self promotion. Rameses was one of history's
first great propagandists. There was no success which he
achieved on the battlefield or aspect of his reign that he did
(58:25):
not commemorate in stone in sucha way as it would be remembered
for centuries or even millennia to come.
Thus, for instance, we find him setting stone Stelai and other
markers in the Nile Delta and the Levant to proclaim his
victories over the Hittites and the Shardan Sea Pirates there to
the world and to future generations.
(58:46):
But it was his building program in places like Luxor, Sakara,
and above all Abu Simbel way down the Nile near Aswan, which
afforded him his greatest legacy.
Here in stone, he proclaimed to all his magnificence as a ruler,
his ties to the sun God Rah, andhis many military
accomplishments. Yet, while these building works
(59:09):
may have been acts of propaganda, there is no denying
their brilliance. Accordingly, from the
perspective of the 21st century,surely Rameses greatest
accomplishment was in having these magnificent temples,
statues and obelisks erected across Egypt nearly 3500 years
(59:29):
ago. What do you think of Rameses the
Great? Was he ancient Egypt's greatest
pharaoh? Or is the greatness of his
legacy partly due to a shrewd policy of propaganda concerning
his building project as well as his promotion of his own
military victories? Please let us know in the
comments section. And in the meantime, thank you
(59:51):
very much for watching. Yeah.
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