Ramses Pylon Gate at Luxor May Be Considered an Early Example of Art Used as Propaganda Because It

"Ramses II" redirects here. For the armored vehicle, see Ramses II tank.

Ramesses Two
Ramesses the Dandy
Ramesses Two: one of iv external seated statues at Abu Simbel
Pharaoh of Egypt
Reign	1279–1213 BC,19th Dynasty
Predecessor	Seti I
Successor	Merneptah
Regal titulary[show]
Consort(s)	Nefertari, Isetnofret,Maathorneferure, Meritamen,Bintanath, Nebettawy,Henutmire
Children	Amun-her-khepsef Prince Ramesses Pareherwenemef Khaemweset Merneptah Meryatum Bintanath Meritamen Nebettawy See too: Listing of children of Ramesses II
Father	Seti I
Mother	Queen Tuya
Born	c. 1300s BC
Died	1213 BC
Burial	KV7
Monuments	Abu Simbel, Abydos,^[three]Ramesseum, Luxor andKarnak temples^[four]

Ramesses II (c. 1303 BC – July or August 1213 BC; Egyptian: *Riʻmīsisu , alternatively transcribed equallyRameses pron.:/ ˈ r æ g ə south iː z / ^[5]andRamses / ˈ r æ yard s iː z / or / ˈ r æ grand z iː z / ),^[half-dozen] referred to equallyRamesses the Great, was the third Egyptian pharaoh (reigned 1279 BC – 1213 BC) of the Nineteenth dynasty. He is often regarded as the greatest, near historic, and nearly powerful pharaoh of theEgyptian Empire.^[7] His successors and later Egyptians chosen him the "Corking Ancestor." Ramesses 2 led several military expeditions into the Levant, re-asserting Egyptian control over Canaan. He also led expeditions to the s, into Nubia, commemorated in inscriptions at Beit el-Wali and Gerf Hussein.

At historic period 14, Ramesses was appointed Prince Regent past his begetter Seti I.^[seven] He is believed to have taken the throne in his belatedly teens and is known to accept ruled Arab republic of egypt from 1279 BC to 1213 BC^[eight] for 66 years and 2 months, according to both Manetho and Egypt's contemporary historical records. He was once said to have lived to be 99 years old, just information technology is more likely that he died in his 90th or 91st year. If he became Pharaoh in 1279 BC as most Egyptologists today believe, he would accept assumed the throne on May 31, 1279 BC, based on his known accretion date of Iii Shemu day 27.^[9] ^[10] Ramesses II celebrated an unprecedented 14 sed festivals (the starting time held after thirty years of a pharaoh'due south reign, and and so every three years) during his reign—more than any other pharaoh.^[11] On his death, he was cached in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings;^[12] his torso was after moved to a royal enshroud where information technology was discovered in 1881, and is now on brandish in the Cairo Museum.^[thirteen]

The early part of his reign was focused on building cities, temples and monuments. He established the city of Pi-Ramesses in the Nile Delta as his new capital letter and principal base for his campaigns in Syria. This city was built on the remains of the city of Avaris, the capital of the Hyksos when they took over, and was the location of the chief Temple of Set. He is also known asOzymandias in the Greek sources,^[14] from a transliteration into Greek of a office of Ramesses'southward throne name, Usermaatre Setepenre , "Ra's mighty truth, called of Ra".^[15]

1Campaigns and battles
- 1.1Battle against Sherden sea pirates
- 1.twoShowtime Syrian entrada
- 1.3Second Syrian entrada
- ane.fourThird Syrian campaign
- 1.5Later campaigns in Syria
- one.sixPeace treaty with the Hittites
- 1.viiCampaigns in Nubia
- 1.8Campaigns in Libya
2Religious impact
- 2.1Sed festival
3Edifice activeness and monuments
- iii.anePi-Ramesses
- 3.2Ramesseum
- three.threeAbu Simbel
- 3.4Other Nubian monuments
- 3.5Tomb of Nefertari
- three.sixTomb KV5
- iii.sevenJumbo statue
4Decease and legacy
5Mummy
half-dozenPopular culture
7See also
8Notes and references
- 8.1Notes
- 8.2Bibliography
9Further reading
tenExternal links

Campaigns and battles

Early on in his life, Ramesses Two embarked on numerous campaigns to return previously held territories back from Nubian and Hittite hands and to secure Egypt'southward borders. He was as well responsible for suppressing some Nubian revolts and carrying out a entrada in Great socialist people's libyan arab jamahiriya. Although the famous Battle of Kadesh oft dominates the scholarly view of Ramesses II's armed services prowess and ability, he nevertheless enjoyed more than than a few outright victories over the enemies of Egypt. During Ramesses Two's reign, the Egyptian regular army is estimated to accept totaled about 100,000 men; a formidable force that he used to strengthen Egyptian influence.^[16]

Battle confronting Sherden bounding main pirates

In his second year, Ramesses II decisively defeated the Shardana or Sherden body of water pirates who were wreaking havoc along Egypt'south Mediterranean coast by attacking cargo-laden vessels travelling the sea routes to Egypt.^[17] The Sherden people probably came from the coast of Ionia or possibly south-due west Turkey. Ramesses posted troops and ships at strategic points along the coast and patiently allowed the pirates to attack their prey earlier skillfully catching them past surprise in a sea battle and capturing them all in a single action.^[18] A stele fromTanis speaks of their having come "in their war-ships from the midst of the sea, and none were able to stand up before them". There must have been a naval battle somewhere near the oral cavity of the Nile, as shortly subsequently many Sherden are seen in the Pharaoh'southward body-baby-sit where they are conspicuous by their horned helmets with a ball projecting from the middle, their round shields and the dandy Naue Two swords with which they are depicted in inscriptions of the Boxing of Kadesh.^[19] In that ocean battle, together with the Shardana, the pharaoh likewise defeated the Lukka (L'kkw, possibly the later Lycians), and the Šqrsšw (Shekelesh) peoples.

First Syrian entrada

The firsthand antecedents to the Boxing of Kadesh were the early campaigns of Ramesses 2 into Canaan. His first entrada seems to take taken place in the quaternary year of his reign and was commemorated by the erection of a stele near modernistic Beirut. The inscription is virtually totally illegible due to weathering. His records tell the states that he was forced to fight a Canaanite prince who was mortally wounded by an Egyptian archer, and whose army was subsequently routed. Ramesses carried off the princes of Canaan as live prisoners to Arab republic of egypt. Ramesses so plundered the chiefs of the Asiatics in their own lands, returning every year to his headquarters at Riblah to verbal tribute. In the fourth year of his reign, he captured the Hittite vassal land of Amurru during his campaign in Syrian arab republic.^[20]

2nd Syrian campaign

The Battle of Kadesh in his 5th regnal year was the climactic engagement in a campaign that Ramesses fought in Syria, confronting the resurgent Hittite forces of Muwatallis. The pharaoh wanted a victory at Kadesh both to expand Egypt'south frontiers into Syria and to emulate his father Seti I'due south triumphal entry into the city just a decade or so earlier. He also synthetic his new majuscule, Pi-Ramesses where he built factories to industry weapons, chariots, and shields. Of course, they followed his wishes and manufactured some one,000 weapons in a week, near 250 chariots in ii weeks, and 1,000 shields in a calendar week and a half. After these preparations, Ramesses moved to attack territory in the Levant which belonged to a more substantial enemy than any he had ever faced before: the Hittite Empire.^[21]

Although Ramesses's forces were caught in a Hittite ambush and outnumbered at Kadesh, the pharaoh fought the battle to a stalemate and returned home a hero. Ramesses 2'south forces suffered major losses particularly among the 'Ra' division which was routed by the initial accuse of the Hittite chariots during the battle. Once back in Egypt, Ramesses proclaimed that he had won a neat victory.^[22] He had amazed everybody past almost winning a lost battle. The Battle of Kadesh was a personal triumph for Ramesses, equally after blundering into a devastating Hittite ambush, the young king courageously rallied his scattered troops to fight on the battlefield while escaping death or capture. Still, many historians regard the battle equally a strategic defeat for the Egyptians as they were unable to occupy the metropolis or territory around Kadesh. Ramesses decorated his monuments with reliefs and inscriptions describing the entrada as a whole, and the battle in particular as a major victory. Inscriptions of his victory decorate the Ramesseum,^[23] Abydos, Karnak, Luxor and Abu Simbel. For case, on the temple walls of Luxor the about catastrophe was turned into an act of heroism:

His majesty slaughtered the war machine of the Hittites in their entirety, their great rulers and all their brothers ... their infantry and chariot troops vicious prostrate, i on top of the other. His majesty killed them ... and they lay stretched out in front of their horses. But his majesty was alone, nobody accompanied him ...^[24]

Third Syrian campaign

Egypt'due south sphere of influence was now restricted to Canaan while Syria fell into Hittite hands. Canaanite princes, seemingly influenced by the Egyptian incapacity to impose their will, and goaded on by the Hittites, began revolts against Egypt. In the 7th yr of his reign, Ramesses II returned to Syria one time again. This time he proved more than successful against his Hittite foes. During this campaign he split his army into two forces. One was led by his son, Amun-her-khepeshef, and it chased warriors of the Šhasu tribes across theNegev as far as the Expressionless Ocean, and captured Edom-Seir. It and so marched on to capture Moab. The other force, led by Ramesses, attacked Jerusalem and Jericho. He, also, then entered Moab, where he rejoined his son. The reunited regular army then marched on Hesbon, Damascus, on to Kumidi, and finally recaptured Upi, reestablishing Arab republic of egypt's former sphere of influence.^[25]

After campaigns in Syria

Ramesses extended his military successes in his eighth and ninth years. He crossed the Canis familiaris River (Nahr el-Kelb) and pushed northward into Amurru. His armies managed to march as far north as Dapur,^[26] where he erected a statue of himself. The Egyptian pharaoh thus institute himself in northern Amurru, well past Kadesh, in Tunip, where no Egyptian soldier had been seen since the fourth dimension of Thutmose Three almost 120 years earlier. He laid siege to the urban center earlier capturing it. His victory proved to be ephemeral. In year nine, Ramesses erected a stele at Beth Shean. Subsequently having reasserted his power over Canaan, Ramesses led his army northward. A by and large illegible stele about Beirut, which appears to be dated to the king's second year, was probably prepare up there in his tenth.^[27] The thin strip of territory pinched between Amurru and Kadesh did non brand for a stable possession. Within a year, they had returned to the Hittite fold, so that Ramesses had to march against Dapur over again in his tenth twelvemonth. This time he claimed to accept fought the battle without fifty-fifty bothering to put on his corslet until two hours after the fighting began. Six of Ramesses's sons, still wearing their side locks, took part in this conquest. He took towns in Retenu,^[28] and Tunip in Naharin,^[29] later recorded on the walls of the Ramesseum.^[xxx] This second success hither was equally every bit meaningless equally his outset, as neither power could decisively defeat the other in battle.^[31]

Peace treaty with the Hittites

The deposed Hittite king, Mursili III fled to Egypt, the land of his country's enemy, afterwards the failure of his plots to oust his uncle from the throne. Hattusili Three responded by demanding that Ramesses Two extradite his nephew back to Hatti.^[32]

This need precipitated a crisis in relations between Egypt and Hatti when Ramesses denied whatsoever knowledge of Mursili's whereabouts in his country, and the 2 Empires came dangerously shut to war. Eventually, in the twenty-first year of his reign (1258 BC), Ramesses decided to conclude an agreement with the new Hittite rex at Kadesh, Hattusili Three, to cease the conflict. The ensuing document is the earliest known peace treaty in earth history.^[33]

The peace treaty was recorded in two versions, ane in Egyptian hieroglyphs, the other in Akkadian, using cuneiform script; both versions survive. Such dual-language recording is common to many subsequent treaties. This treaty differs from others however, in that the two linguistic communication versions are differently worded. Although the bulk of the text is identical, the Hittite version claims that the Egyptians came suing for peace, while the Egyptian version claims the reverse.^[34] The treaty was given to the Egyptians in the form of a silver plaque, and this "pocket-book" version was taken back to Egypt and carved into the Temple of Karnak.

The treaty was concluded between Ramesses 2 and Hattusili III in Yr 21 of Ramesses's reign.^[35] (c. 1258 BC) Its 18 manufactures call for peace betwixt Egypt and Hatti and and then gain to maintain that their respective gods also demand peace. The frontiers are not laid downward in this treaty just can exist inferred from other documents. The Anastasy A papyrus describes Canaan during the latter role of the reign of Ramesses II and enumerates and names the Phoenician littoral towns under Egyptian command. The harbour town of Sumur north of Byblos is mentioned as being the northern-most town belonging to Egypt, which points to it having contained an Egyptian garrison.^[36]

No further Egyptian campaigns in Canaan are mentioned after the decision of the peace treaty. The northern edge seems to have been safe and placidity, so the rule of the pharaoh was strong until Ramesses II'southward death, and the waning of the dynasty.^[37] When the King of Mira attempted to involve Ramesses in a hostile act against the Hittites, the Egyptian responded that the times of intrigue in back up of Mursili III, had passed. Hattusili Three wrote to Kadashman-Enlil Ii, Rex of Karduniash (Babylon) in the same spirit, reminding him of the fourth dimension when his father, Kadashman-Turgu, had offered to fight Ramesses II, the king of Egypt. The Hittite rex encouraged the Babylonian to oppose another enemy, which must have been the rex of Assyria whose allies had killed the messenger of the Egyptian king. Hattusili encouraged Kadashman-Enlil to come to his aid and prevent the Assyrians from cutting the link between the Canaanite province of Egypt and Mursili III, the ally of Ramesses.

Campaigns in Nubia

Ramesses Ii in his war chariot charging into boxing against the Nubians

Photo of the complimentary standing office of Gerf Hussein temple, originally in Nubia

Ramesses Ii too campaigned south of the first cataract into Nubia. When Ramesses was near 22, ii of his ain sons, including Amun-her-khepeshef, accompanied him in at least one of those campaigns. By the time of Ramesses, Nubia had been a colony for 2 hundred years, but its conquest was recalled in ornamentation from the temples Ramesses Two built at Beit el-Wali^[38] (which was the bailiwick of epigraphic work by the Oriental Institute during the Nubian salvage campaign of the 1960s),^[39] Gerf Hussein and Kalabsha in northern Nubia. On the due south wall of the Beit el-Wali temple, Ramesses 2 is depicted charging into battle against the Nubians in a war chariot, while his two young sons Amun-her-khepsef and Khaemwaset are shown existence present behind him, also in war chariots. On one of the walls of Ramesses's temples it says that in 1 of the battles with the Nubians he had to fight the whole boxing alone without any help from his soldiers.

Campaigns in Great socialist people's libyan arab jamahiriya

During the reign of Ramesses Ii, at that place is evidence that the Egyptians were active on a 300-kilometre (190 mi) stretch along the Mediterranean coast, at least as far as Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham.^[forty] Although the exact events surrounding the foundation of the littoral forts and fortresses is not articulate, some degree of political and military control must accept been held over the region to allow their structure.

There are no detailed accounts of Ramesses 2'due south undertaking large military deportment against the Libyans, but generalised records of his conquering and burdensome them, which may or may not refer to specific events that were otherwise unrecorded. It may be that some of the records, such as the Aswan Stele of his year two, are harking back to Ramesses's presence on his male parent'due south Libyan campaigns. Perhaps information technology was Seti I who accomplished this supposed control over the region, and who planned to establish the defensive organization, in a mode similar to how he rebuilt those to the east, the Ways of Horus across Northern Sinai.

Religious impact

Ramesses was the pharaoh most responsible for erasing the Amarna Period from history.^{[ citation needed ]} He, more than whatsoever other pharaoh, sought deliberately to deface the Amarnamonuments and change the nature of the religious structure and the construction of the priesthood, in order to try to bring it back to where it had been prior to the reign ofAkhenaten.^{[ citation needed ]}

Sed festival

After reigning for 30 years, Ramesses joined a selected group that included only a handful of Egypt's longest-lived kings. Past tradition, in the 30th year of his reign Ramesses celebrated a jubilee called theSed festival, during which the king was ritually transformed into a god.^[41] Only halfway through what would be a 66-yr reign, Ramesses had already eclipsed all only a few greatest kings in his achievements. He had brought peace, maintained Egyptian borders and built swell and numerous monuments across the empire. His state was more prosperous and powerful than information technology had been in near a century. Past becoming a god, Ramesses dramatically inverse not only his role as ruler of Arab republic of egypt, only also the part of his firstborn son, Amun-her-khepsef. Every bit the chosen heir and commander and principal of Egyptian armies, his son effectively became ruler in all just name.

Building activeness and monuments

Ramesses built extensively throughout Egypt and Nubia, and his cartouches are prominently displayed even in buildings that he did non actually construct.^[42] There are accounts of his honor hewn on rock, statues, remains of palaces and temples, well-nigh notably theRamesseum in the western Thebes and the rock temples of Abu Simbel. He covered the state from the Delta to Nubia with buildings in a way no male monarch before him had washed.^[43] He also founded a new upper-case letter city in the Delta during his reign called Pi-Ramesses; it had previously served every bit a summer palace during Seti I's reign.^[44]

His memorial temple Ramesseum, was merely the starting time of the pharaoh's obsession with edifice. When he built, he congenital on a scale different near anything earlier. In the tertiary year of his reign Ramesses started the most aggressive edifice project after the pyramids, that were built 1,500 years earlier. The population was put to work on changing the face of Arab republic of egypt. In Thebes, the ancient temples were transformed, so that each one of them reflected honour to Ramesses as a symbol of this divine nature and ability. Ramesses decided to eternalize himself in stone, and and so he ordered changes to the methods used past his masons. The elegant but shallow reliefs of previous pharaohs were easily transformed, and so their images and words could easily be obliterated by their successors. Ramesses insisted that his carvings be securely engraved in the rock, which made them not only less susceptible to later amending, but too made them more than prominent in the Egyptian sun, reflecting his relationship with the sunday god, Ra.

Ramesses constructed many large monuments, including the archeological circuitous of Abu Simbel, and the Mortuary temple known as the Ramesseum. He built on a monumental scale to ensure that his legacy would survive the ravages of time. Ramesses used fine art as a ways of propaganda for his victories over foreigners and are depicted on numerous temple reliefs. Ramesses II also erected more colossal statues of himself than any other pharaoh. He also usurped many existing statues past inscribing his own cartouche on them.

Pi-Ramesses

Ramesses Ii moved the capital of his kingdom from Thebes in the Nile valley to a new site in the eastern Delta. His motives are uncertain, though he possibly wished to be closer to his territories in Canaan and Syria. The new city of Pi-Ramesses (or to give the full name,Pi-Ramesses Aa-nakhtu, pregnant "Domain of Ramesses, Great in Victory")^[45] was dominated by huge temples and the rex'due south vast residential palace, complete with its own zoo. For a time the site was misidentified as that of Tanis, due to the amount of statuary and other cloth from Pi-Ramesses plant there, but it is now recognised that the Ramasside remains at Tanis were brought there from elsewhere, and the existent Pi-Ramesses lies about 30 km south, near mod Qantir.^[46] The jumbo anxiety of the statue of Ramesses are almost all that remains above ground today, the remainder is buried in the fields.^[45]

Ramesseum

The Younger Memnon digitally restored with its base nonetheless in the Ramesseum

The temple complex built by Ramesses Two between Qurna and the desert has been known as the Ramesseum since the 19th century. The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus marveled at the gigantic and famous temple, at present no more than than a few ruins.^[47]

Oriented northwest and southeast, the temple itself was preceded by two courts. An enormous pylon stood earlier the starting time court, with the royal palace at the left and the gigantic statue of the rex looming up at the back. Only fragments of the base and torso remain of thesyenite statue of the enthroned pharaoh, 17 metres (56 ft) loftier and weighing more one,000 tonnes (980 long tons; ane,100 short tons). The scenes of the great pharaoh and his army triumphing over the Hittite forces fleeing before Kadesh, represented on the pylon. Remains of the 2nd court include role of the internal facade of the pylon and a portion of the Osiride portico on the right. Scenes of war and the declared rout of the Hittites at Kadesh are repeated on the walls. In the upper registers, banquet and honor of the phallic god Min, god of fertility. On the opposite side of the courtroom the few Osiride pillars and columns withal left can replenish an idea of the original grandeur.^[48]

Scattered remains of the two statues of the seated king can as well exist seen, one in pink granite and the other in black granite, which one time flanked the archway to the temple. Thirty-nine out of the forty-viii columns in the swell hypostyle hall (m 41x 31) withal stand in the primal rows. They are decorated with the usual scenes of the male monarch before diverse gods.^[23] Part of the ceiling decorated with gold stars on a blueish basis has also been preserved. Ramesses's children appear in the procession on the few walls left. The sanctuary was composed of three consecutive rooms, with eight columns and the tetrastyle cell. Part of the first room, with the ceiling decorated with astral scenes, and few remains of the 2nd room are all that is left. Vast storerooms built in mud bricks stretched out effectually the temple.^[48] Traces of a schoolhouse for scribes were found among the ruins.^[49]

A temple of Seti I, of which nothing is now left merely the foundations, once stood to the right of the hypostyle hall.^[23]

Abu Simbel

In 1255 BC Ramesses and his queen Nefertari had traveled into Nubia to inaugurate a new temple, the great Abu Simbel. It is an ego bandage in stone; the man who congenital it intended not merely to become Egypt'due south greatest pharaoh but besides ane of its gods.^[fifty]

The groovy temple of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel was discovered in 1813 by the famous Swiss Orientalist and traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. However, four years passed before anyone could enter the temple, because an enormous pile of sand almost completely covered the facade and its colossal statues, blocking the archway. This feat was achieved past the great Paduan explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni, who managed to accomplish the interior on four Baronial 1817.^[51]

Other Nubian monuments

As well as the famous temples of Abu Simbel, Ramesses left other monuments to himself in Nubia. His early campaigns are illustrated on the walls of Beit el-Wali (now relocated to New Kalabsha). Other temples dedicated to Ramesses are Derr and Gerf Hussein (also relocated to New Kalabsha).

Tomb of Nefertari

The well-nigh important and famous of Ramesses's consorts was discovered by Ernesto Schiaparelli in 1904.^[48] ^[51] Although it had been looted in ancient times, the tomb of Nefertari is extremely of import, because its magnificent wall painting ornamentation is regarded as one of the greatest achievements of ancient Egyptian art. A flight of steps cutting out of the stone gives access to the antechamber, which is decorated with paintings based on affiliate 17 of the Book of the Dead. This astronomical ceiling represents the heavens and is painted in dark bluish, with a myriad of golden five-pointed stars. The due east wall of the antechamber is interrupted past a big opening flanked past representation of Osiris at left and Anubis at right; this in plow leads to the side bedroom, decorated with offering scenes, preceded by a entrance hall in which the paintings portray Nefertari beingness presented to the gods who welcome her. On the north wall of the antechamber is the stairway that goes down to the burial chamber. This latter is a vast quadrangular room covering a area of nearly xc square metres (970 sq ft), the astronomical ceiling of which is supported past four pillars entirely covered with decoration. Originally, the queen'southward red granite sarcophagus lay in the center of this chamber. Co-ordinate to religious doctrines of the time, it was in this chamber, which the ancient Egyptians called the gold hall that the regeneration of the deceased took identify. This decorative pictogram of the walls in the burial sleeping accommodation drew inspirations from chapters 144 and 146 of the Book of the Expressionless: in the left half of the chamber, in that location are passages from chapter 144 concerning the gates and doors of the kingdom of Osiris, their guardians, and the magic formulas that had to exist uttered by the deceased in order to get past the doors.^[51]

Tomb KV5

Further information: KV5

In 1995, Professor Kent Weeks, head of the Theban Mapping Project rediscovered Tomb KV5. It has proven to exist the largest tomb in the Valley of the Kings, and originally contained the mummified remains of some of this king's estimated 52 sons. Approximately 150 corridors and tomb chambers have been located in this tomb every bit of 2006 and the tomb may comprise every bit many as 200 corridors and chambers.^[52] It is believed that at to the lowest degree 4 of Ramesses's sons including Meryatum, Sety, Amun-her-khepeshef (Ramesses's first built-in son) and "the King'due south Chief Son of His Body, the Generalissimo Ramesses, justified" (i.east.: deceased) were buried at that place from inscriptions, ostracas or canopic jars discovered in the tomb.^[53] Joyce Tyldesley writes that thus far

"no intact burials accept been discovered and there have been little substantial funeral debris: thousands of potsherds, faienceushabti figures, chaplet, amulets, fragments of Canopic jars, of wooden coffins ... but no intact sarcophagi, mummies or mummy cases, suggesting that much of the tomb may have been unused. Those burials which were fabricated in KV5 were thoroughly looted in antiquity, leaving niggling or no remains."^[53]

Colossal statue

Giant statue of Ramesses Two in Memphis.

The colossal statue of Ramesses Two was reconstructed and erected in Ramesses Square in Cairo in 1955. In August 2006, contractors moved his 3,200-year-erstwhile statue from Ramesses Square, to save it from frazzle fumes that were causing the 83-tonne (82-long-ton; 91-short-ton) statue to deteriorate.^[54] The statue was originally taken from a temple in Memphis. The new site will be located near the future Chiliad Egyptian Museum.^[55]

Decease and legacy

By the time of his death, aged almost ninety years, Ramesses was suffering from astringent dental problems and was plagued by arthritisand hardening of the arteries.^[56] He had made Egypt rich from all the supplies and riches he had collected from other empires. He had outlived many of his wives and children and left great memorials all over Egypt, specially to his dearest first queen Nefertari. Nine more than pharaohs took the name Ramesses in his accolade, only none equalled his greatness.^{[ according to whom? ]} Nearly all of his subjects had been born during his reign. Ramesses Two did become the legendary figure he so desperately wanted to exist, simply this was not enough to protect Egypt. New enemies were attacking the empire, which too suffered internal problems and could not final indefinitely. Less than 150 years later on Ramesses died the Egyptian empire barbarous and the New Kingdom came to an stop.

Mummy

Ramesses Ii was originally buried in the tomb KV7 in the Valley of the Kings but, because of annexation, priests later transferred the body to a holding surface area, re-wrapped it, and placed it inside the tomb of queen Inhapy. 72 hours later information technology was again moved, to the tomb of the high priest Pinudjem II. All of this is recorded in hieroglyphics on the linen roofing the body.^[57] His mummy is today in Cairo's Egyptian Museum.

The pharaoh'due south mummy reveals a hooked nose and strong jaw, and stands at some 1.seven metres (v ft 7 in).^[58] His ultimate successor was his thirteenth son, Merneptah.

In 1974 Egyptologists visiting his tomb noticed that the mummy'south condition was rapidly deteriorating and flew it to Paris for exam.^[59] Ramesses II was issued an Egyptian passport that listed his occupation every bit "King (deceased)".^[60] The mummy was received at Le Bourget airport, just outside Paris, with the full armed forces honours befitting a king.^[61]

In Paris, it was found that Ramesses'southward mummy was being attacked by fungus, which it was treated for. During the test, scientific analysis revealed boxing wounds and old fractures, every bit well as the pharaoh's arthritis and poor circulation.

Egyptologists were too interested by the mummy'southward noticeably thin neck. An Ten-ray revealed that the neck had a piece of wood lodged into the upper breast, essentially keeping the head in place. It is believed that during the mummification procedure the caput had accidentally been knocked off by those performing the mummification. In Egyptian culture if any role of the body were to come up off, the soul of the body would not go on to exist in the afterlife, then those performing the mummification carefully placed the head back and lodged a wooden stick into the cervix in lodge to keep the caput in identify.^{[ citation needed ]}

It is believed that Ramesses Ii was essentially bedridden with arthritis and walked with a hunched dorsum for the last decades of his life.^[62] A recent study excluded ankylosing spondylitis as a possible cause of the pharaoh's arthritis.^[63] A significant hole in the pharaoh's mandible was detected. Researchers observed "an abscess past his teeth (which) was serious enough to accept caused expiry by infection, although this cannot be determined with certainty." Microscopic inspection of the roots of Ramesses Two's pilus proved that the king's hair was originally red, which suggests that he came from a family unit of redheads.^[64] This has more just cosmetic significance: in ancient Egypt people with red hair were associated with the god Seth, the slayer of Osiris, and the name of Ramesses II'south father, Seti I, means "follower of Seth."^[65] After Ramesses's mummy returned to Egypt it was visited past President Anwar Sadat and his married woman.

Popular civilization

Ramesses was considered the inspiration for Percy Bysshe Shelley's famous poem "Ozymandias". Diodorus Siculus gives an inscription on the base of one of his sculptures as: "King of Kings am I, Osymandias. If anyone would know how smashing I am and where I prevarication, let him surpass one of my works."^[66] This is paraphrased in Shelley's poem.

Ramesses II as he is depicted inThe Prince of Egypt.

The life of Ramesses 2 has inspired a large number of fictional representations, including the historical novels of the French writer Christian Jacq, theRamsès serial; the graphic novelWatchmen, in which the character of Adrian Veidt uses Ramesses II to form part of the inspiration for his change-ego known as 'Ozymandias'; Norman Mailer's novelAncient Evenings, which is largely concerned with the life of Ramesses Ii, though from the perspective of Egyptians living during the reign of Ramesses 9; and the Anne Rice bookThe Mummy, orRamses the Damned (1989), in which Ramesses was the main character. Ramesses II is i of the more popular candidates for the Pharaoh of the Exodus. He is cast in this function in the 1944 novellaDas Gesetz ("The Police force") by Thomas Mann. Although not a major character, Ramesses appears in Joan Grant'sAnd so Moses Was Born, a first person business relationship from Nebunefer, the brother of Ramoses, which paints a picture of the life of Ramoses from the death of Seti, replete with the power play, intrigue, and assassination plots of the historical tape, and depicting the relationships with Bintanath, Queen Tuya, Nefertari, and Moses. In motion-picture show, Ramesses was played past Yul Brynner in Cecil B. DeMille's classicThe Ten Commandments (1956). Here Ramesses was portrayed every bit a vengeful tyrant also as the main antagonist of the film, e'er scornful of his male parent'southward preference for Moses over "the son of [his] body".^[67] The blithe filmThe Prince of Arab republic of egypt (1998), also featured a depiction of Ramesses (voiced by Ralph Fiennes), portrayed equally Moses' adoptive brother, and ultimately equally the movie's de facto villain.The X Commandments: The Musical (2006) co-starred Kevin Earley as Ramesses. InThe Kane Chronicles Ramesses is an antecedent of the master characters Sadie and Carter Kane.

Notes and references

Notes

^^a^b Clayton (1994) p. 146
^^a^b^c Tyldesly (2001) p. xxiv
^ "Mortuary temple of Ramesses Two at Abydos". Retrieved 2008-10-28.
^ Anneke Bart. "Temples of Ramesses II". Retrieved 2008-04-23.
^ "Rameses".Webster'due south New Globe College Lexicon. Wiley Publishing. 2004.
^ "Ramses".Webster's New Earth College Lexicon. Wiley Publishing. 2004.
^^a^b Putnan (1990)
^ Rice (1999) p.165
^ von Beckerath (1997), pp.108 and 190
^ Make (2000), pp.302-305
^ O'Connor & Cline (1998) p.16
^ Christian Leblanc. "Gerard". Archived from the original on 2007-12-04. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
^ Rice (1999) p.166
^ (Greek Text) Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, ane.47.4 at the Perseus Projection
^ "Ozymandias". Retrieved 2008-03-30.
^ R. Gabriel,The Dandy Armies of Antiquity, 6
^ Grimal (1992) pp.250–253
^ Tyldesley (2000), pp.53
^ "The Naue Blazon Two Sword". Retrieved 2008-05-xxx.
^ Grimal (1994) pp. 253ff
^ Tyldesley,Ramesses, p.68
^ Kuhrt (1995) p.258
^^a^b^c Guy Lecuyot. "The Ramesseum (Arab republic of egypt), Recent Archaeological Research". Retrieved 2008-04-10.
^ Lichtheim (1976) p.62
^ Grimal (1992) p.256
^ Kitchen (1996) p.26
^ Kitchen (1979) p.223–224
^ Kitchen (1996) p.33
^ Kitchen (1996) p.47
^ Kitchen (1996) p.46
^ Kitchen (1982) p.68
^ Kitchen (1982) p.74
^ Grimal, op. cit., p.256
^ Kitchen (1983) p.73–79 & 62–64
^ Grimal, (1992) p.257
^ Stieglitz (1991) p.45
^ Kitchen (1982) p.215
^ "Beit el-Wali". University of Chicago. Retrieved 2008-04-21.
^ Ricke & Wente (1967)
^ Geoff Edwards. "Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham". Retrieved 2008-04-07.
^ "Sed festival". The Global Egyptian Museum. Retrieved 2008-04-07.
^ Amelia Ann Blandford Edwards. "Chapter Fifteen: Rameses the Great". Retrieved 2008-04-23.
^ Wolfhart Westendorf, Das alte Ägypten, 1969
^ Kitchen (1982) p.119
^^a^b Kitchen (2003) p.255
^ John Van Seters, "The Geography of the Exodus", in John Andrew Dearman, Matt Patrick Graham, (eds), "The state that I volition show yous: essays on the history and archeology of the Aboriginal Nearly East in honor of J. Maxwell Miller" (Sheffield Academic Press, 2001), pp.265
^ Diodorus Siculus (1814).The Historical Library of Diodorus the Sicilian. Printed by W. MʻDowall for J. Davis. pp. Ch.xi, p.33.
^^a^b^c Skliar (2005)
^ "À fifty'école des Scribes" (in fr). Retrieved 2008-04-21.
^ Kitchen (1982) p.64–v
^^a^b^c Siliotti (1994)
^ Tomb of Ramses 2 sons
^^a^b Tyldesley (2000) p.161–162
^ "Behemothic Ramses statue gets new home". BBC NEWS. 2006-08-25. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
^ Hawass, Zahi. "The removal of Ramses Ii Statue". Retrieved 2007-03-17.
^ La Momie de Ramsès II: Contribution Scientifique à l'Égyptologie
^ Pharoahs of Ancient Egypt: Ramesses II
^ Tyldesley (2000) p.14
^ John Ray. "Ramesses the Great". BBC. Retrieved 2008-05-15.
^ "Engineering Arab republic of egypt".National Geographic . Retrieved July 22, 2010.
^ Stephanie Pain. "Ramesses rides again". New Scientist. Retrieved 2008-05-15.
^ Bob Brier, The Encyclopedia of Mummies, Checkmark Books, 1998., p.153
^ Can. Assoc. Radiol. J. 2004 Oct;55(four):211–7, PMID 15362343
^ Bramble, p.153
^ Bob Brier, Egyptian Mummies: Unravelling the Secrets of an Aboriginal Art, William Morrow & Co. Inc, New York. 1994. pp.200-201
^ RPO Editors. "Percy Bysshe Shelley: Ozymandias".University of TorontoDepartment of English. University of Toronto Libraries, Academy of Toronto Press. Retrieved 2006-09-18.
^ John Ray. "Ramesses the Dandy". BBC history. Retrieved 2008-05-30.

Bibliography

Balout, L., Roubet, C. and Desroches-Noblecourt, C. (1985).La Momie de Ramsès Two: Contribution Scientifique à l'Égyptologie.
Bietak, Manfred (1995).Avaris: Capital of the Hyksos - Recent Excavations. London: British Museum Press. ISBN 0-7141-0968-one.
von Beckerath, Jürgen (1997).Chronologie des Pharaonischen Ägypten. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.
Brand, Peter J. (2000).The Monuments of Seti I: Epigraphic, Historical and Fine art Historical Analysis. NV Leiden: Brill. ISBN 90-04-11770-9.
Brier, Bob (1998).The Encyclopedia of Mummies. Checkmark Books.
Clayton, Peter (1994).Chronology of the Pharaohs. Thames & Hudson.
Dodson, Aidan; Dyan Hilton (2004).The Complete Majestic Families of Aboriginal Egypt. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05128-3.
Grajetzki, Wolfram (2005).Ancient Egyptian Queens– a hieroglyphic dictionary. London: Golden Business firm Publications. ISBN 0-9547218-9-6.
Grimal, Nicholas (1992).A History of Aboriginal Egypt. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-17472-9.
Kitchen, Kenneth (1983).Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II, King of Egypt. London: Aris & Phillips. ISBN 0-85668-215-2.
Kitchen, Kenneth Anderson (2003).On the Reliability of the One-time Testament. Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8028-4960-1.
Kitchen, Kenneth Anderson (1996).Ramesside Inscriptions Translated and Annotated: Translations. Book 2: Ramesses II; Royal Inscriptions. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.ISBN 0-631-18427-9. Translations and (in the 1999 volume below) notes on all contemporary royal inscriptions naming the rex.
Kitchen, Kenneth Anderson (1999).Ramesside Inscriptions Translated and Annotated: Notes and Comments. Book 2: Ramesses Ii; Royal Inscriptions. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Kuhrt, Amelie (1995).The Ancient Well-nigh E c.3000–330 BC.Vol. ane. London: Routledge.
O'Connor, David; Eric Cline (1998).Amenhotep III: Perspectives on his reign. University of Michigan Press.
Putnan, James (1990).An introduction to Egyptology.
Rice, Michael (1999).Who'southward Who in Ancient Arab republic of egypt. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-15448-0.
Herbert Ricke; George R. Hughes; Edward F. Wente (1967).The Beit el-Wali Temple of Ramesses Ii.
RPO Editors. "Percy Bysshe Shelley: Ozymandias".University of Toronto Department of English. Academy of Toronto Libraries, University of Toronto Printing. Retrieved 2006-09-18.
Siliotti, Alberto (1994).Egypt: temples, people, gods.
Skliar, Ania (2005).Grosse kulturen der welt-Ägypten.
Stieglitz, Robert R. (1991). "The City of Amurru".Journal of Almost Eastern Studies (The University of Chicago Press)fifty.1.
Tyldesley, Joyce (2000).Ramesses: Arab republic of egypt'due south Greatest Pharaoh. London: Viking/Penguin Books.
Westendorf, Wolfhart (1969) (in de).Das alte Ägypten.
Tin. Assoc. Radiol. J. 2004 October;55(4):211–7, PMID 15362343
The Epigraphic Survey, Reliefs and Inscriptions at Karnak III: The Bubastite Portal, Oriental Institute Publications, vol. 74 (Chicago: Academy of Chicago Press, 1954

[show] v t due east Pharaohs(list)

pikemathe1997.blogspot.com

Source: https://qmplus.qmul.ac.uk/mod/page/view.php?id=161772