Ramses II

New Kingdom (1552–1069 b.c.)

Dynasty XIX (1279–1212 b.c.)

Known to modern Egyptians as Ramses the Great, this monarch’s mummified body today lies in state in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. He was arguably Egypt’s greatest pharaoh. He was certainly its most prolific builder, which is in part due to the longevity of his reign. Ramses II was also known for usurping the monuments of his predecessors in large numbers. At a time when life expectancy was around thirty-five years, Ramses II lived into his eighties. He sat on the throne of Egypt for sixty-seven years, an astonishing length of time in the ancient world.

Already a mature man upon ascension to the throne, Ramses set out in due course to make a mark militarily. Heading north into the Levant, he passed Canaan and Galilee, up through the Beqa’a Valley and on to Qadesh. It was here that one of the most famous battles of the ancient Near East took place.

Ramses II considered this battle to be one of the highlights of his reign. He had it documented on many of his temples and on a number of surviving papyri. He tells of being abandoned by most of his troops as the enemy bears down on him. Displaying superior courage,

"His Majesty rose like his father Montu (a god of war). He seized his weapons of war; he girded his coat of mail; he was like Baal in his hour. …Then His Majesty drove at a gallop and charged the forces of the foe…being alone by himself, none other with him."

The king turned to Amun for help. Galvanized by the presence of the god, the king hacked the enemy to pieces and castigated the cowardice of his troops. He declared a victory but in fact the real event was at best a draw. The Egyptians withdrew and their enemies, the Hittites, were shortly beset by the Assyrians and couldn’t put any resources towards disturbing Ramses for the time being. Ramses then turned his attentions to suppressing incursions by the Libyans to his west.

Among Ramses’ building projects is the magnificent Great Hypostyle Hall in the Temple of Amun at Karnak. He also built a remarkable Sun Temple at present day Abu Simbel in southern Egypt. This massive temple was cut into the living rock of a cliff face. In 1967 the rising waters of newly formed Lake Nasser were threatening to submerge the mountain. UNICEF, along with a number of nations (including the U.S. and USSR), embarked on a project that would have astounded even Ramses the Great. They cut the mountain at Abu Simbel into 7,000 pieces, moved it onto higher ground, and reassembled the temple, creating a false mountain behind it. At the entrance to the temple sit four colossal statues of Ramses II, each over sixty feet tall.

Ramses’ chief wife was Nefertari whose name means "the most beautiful one" and who was called "the girl that pharaoh loved." Ramses built a temple dedicated to Nefertari next to his own temple at Abu Simbel. And he built her a tomb in Thebes that is today the most beautiful tomb in Egypt.

There has been speculation that Ramses II was the pharaoh of the biblical Exodus of the Hebrews, although there is no surviving Egyptian source describing such an event. In recent years an enormous tomb that was designed for the burial of possibly as many as fifty of Ramses’ sons was rediscovered in the Valley of the Kings. Will there be evidence found to show the cause

of death of Ramses' first born son, supporting the biblical account? American archeologist Kent Weeks, the excavator of the tomb, has found nothing to date that would answer this question. And it is unlikely to find such evidence since the Egyptians did not disclose causes of death in the tombs of the deceased.

Ramses left the country at the peak of its strength and international influence. But there was a problem. Despite the fact that tradition credits him with about one hundred children, by the time he had celebrated fourteen jubilee festivals he had outlived many of his sons. It was left to his son, Merneptah, to take over the throne, but the dynasty begun by Ramses’ grandfather would only survive for a generation after his death.

Related exhibit piece:Part of the Book of the Dead of Neferrenpet (catalog p. 258).