Ramses II (circa 1303 BC - July or August 1213 BC), also referred to as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty (r. 1279 - 1213 BC). He is seen as the most famous and most powerful pharaoh throughout the era of the Egyptian Empire. His successors and subsequent rulers called him the greatest grandfather. Ramses II led several military campaigns to the Levant and restored Egyptian control over Canaan. He also led campaigns south to Nubia, where two of his sons went with him, as noted inscribed on the walls of the temple of Beit al-Wali.
At the age of fourteen, Ramses was appointed crown prince by his father, Seti I. He is believed to have sat on the throne in his late teens and is known to have ruled Egypt from 1291 BC to 1213 BC for a period of 78 years and two months, according to both Manetho and contemporary historical records of Egypt. He was said to have lived 99 years, but it is likely that he died at the age of 90 or 91. If he had become a pharaoh in 1279 BC, as most Egyptologists believe today, he would have taken the throne at the age of 31 1279 BC, based on the date of his ascension to the throne. In the third harvest season on the 27th. Ramses II celebrated fourteen "Sad" feasts (first celebrated after thirty years of the pharaoh's rule, and then every three years) during his reign, thus surpassing any other pharaoh. At his death, he was buried in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings; His body was later transferred to the royal cache, where it was discovered in 1881, and is now on display in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.
The first period of his reign focused on the construction of cities, temples, and monuments. He established the city of "Pe Ramses" in the Nile Delta as his new capital and the main base for his campaigns to Syria. This city was built on the ruins of the city of Avaris, the capital of the Hyksos when he took power, and was the site of the main temple for a group. He is also known as Ozymenides in Greek sources, literally translated into Greek for part of Ramesses' coronation name, "the great truth of Ra, the choice of Ra".
his family
Ramses II is the son of Pharaoh Seti I and Queen Tuya, and was called the co-ruler of his father. He accompanied his father during his military campaigns on Nubia, Bilad al-Sham and Libya at the age of fourteen. Before the age of 22 he himself was leading expeditions to Nubia with his sons. Ramses appointed in extensive restoration projects and construction of a new palace in Auris. After the death of Seti I in 1290 BC, Ramses took power. Ramses II ruled for nearly 67 years and married many women, as well as many concubines and secondary wives. He married some of the princesses of the royal family, such as Nefertari and Estnefert. He also married the daughter of the king of Kheta and gave her the Egyptian name "Maatneferu Ra". He is also known to have married three of his daughters. His male sons occupied important positions in the state, the most important of whom was his son Khamawes, whose father thought in the thirtieth year of his reign to make him the crown prince, but he died in the 55th year of his father's reign. Most of his first sons died in his life, so he was succeeded by his thirteenth son Merneptah from his wife Estnefert on the throne, and his father had chosen him as crown prince after the death of Khums. spice
Custody
Ramses assumed power after the death of his father, Seti I, after he had chosen him as crown prince and involved him in managing the state. The age of Ramses is not known when his father died, but it is likely that he was less than 25 years old. Ramses did not begin his reign by revoking the friendship treaty that his father had concluded with the Hittites, but rather directed his attention to the consolidation of his rule, so he ordered the end of all the unfinished works that his father had started as the temple of Abydos. He then thought about exploiting the desert mines, following his father's policy. In about the fourth year of his reign, he went on a campaign to the outskirts of Asia to consolidate Egyptian influence and reassure the ports and communications. After that, during his fifth year of rule, he returned there, mobilizing his armies to clash with the Hittites, and that was in the Battle of Kadesh. He stated that during the reign of Ramses II, the number of members of the Egyptian army reached about 100,000 men; It was a formidable force that he used to enhance Egyptian influence.
Campaigns and battles
Ramses II led several campaigns north to the Levant, and in the second battle of Kadesh in the fourth year of his reign (1274 BC. M.), the Egyptian forces under his command clashed with the forces of Moatalis, king of the Hittites, which lasted for fifteen years, but neither side was able to defeat the other party. Thus, in the twenty-first year of his reign (1258 BC), Ramses II concluded a treaty between Egypt and the Hittites with Khatushili III, which is the oldest peace treaty in history.
Ramses II attacks Africans
Ramses II also led several campaigns south of the first waterfall to the country of Nubia, and Ramses established the city (Bar Ramisu) in the east of the delta, from which he conducted his battles with the Hittites, and some claimed that he had taken it as the new capital of the country, and this is of course not true. And the greatest left of the temples and monuments left there. Ramses II was distinguished in martial arts and wars, and he was clever in thinking and came up with a solution at the same moment. He was also skilled in horse riding, fighting with swords, fencing, and shooting arrows. He was also kind, with a moral spirit, and a lover of his people.
The battle against the Sheridans "Pirates of the Sea"
Ramses II decisively defeated the Sheridanian sea pirates, as they plundered Egyptian cargo ships along Egypt's Mediterranean coast. The Shridan peoples probably came from the coast of Ionia or perhaps southwestern Anatolia. Ramses deployed troops and ships at strategic points along the coast, waited for the pirates to attack passing ships, then skillfully attacked them by surprise in a sea battle, capturing them all at once. A memorial plaque found in Tansis testifies that they came "in their warships from the midst of the sea, and nothing could stand before them." There must have been a naval battle somewhere near the mouth of the Nile, and the Sheridans are depicted among the pharaoh's guards, prominent through their horned helmets with balls protruding from the center, and their round shields and large swords. The inscriptions describe the Battle of Kadesh.
excitement
During his reign, Ramses built a large number of buildings more than any other Egyptian king. He began by completing the temple that his father had started in Abydos, then built a small temple of his own next to his father's temple, but it was destroyed and only ruins remain. In Karnak, he completed the construction of the temple that he had begun. His grandfather, Ramses I, lived in Thebes of the Ramesseum (the nineteenth century scholars called this funerary temple the name Ramesses II), a huge funerary temple built by Ramses for Amun and himself, and has a huge head taken from this temple and transferred to the British Museum.
Ramses also built the wonderful masterpiece, the temples of Abu Simbel, the great temple of him carved in rock. The entrance to the temple is guarded by four huge statues of Ramses II while he is seated, and the height of each statue is more than 20 meters. The small temple also carved in the rock for his wife Nefertari was dedicated to the worship of the goddess Hathor, his god of love, which depicted With a cow's head, and there are 6 huge statues standing in the front of the temple, 4 of them are of Ramses II and 2 of Queen Nefertari. The height of the statue is about 10 meters.1
The presence of all these monuments to him in the south refutes the claim of some that the capital of the government during his reign was in the delta in the city (Bar Ramis), because all the great monuments and temples left behind were in southern Egypt, where the capital is as good.
The monuments of Nubia were threatened by drowning under the waters of Lake Nasser, but they were saved with the help of UNESCO, and the rescue operation of the Abu Simbel temple was the largest and most complex of its kind. At a distance of one hundred and eighty metres
Ramses II built many obelisks, including one that still exists in Luxor Temple, and another obelisk that is currently in France in the Place de la Concorde in Paris, which was moved by a French engineer named Lebas.
his death
King Ramses II was buried in the Valley of the Kings, in tomb kv7, but his mummy was transferred to the mummy cache in Deir el-Bahari, where it was discovered in 1881 AD by Gaston Maspero and transferred to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Five years later, Ramses was 170 cm tall, and medical examinations on His mummy shows traces of red or pigmented hair, and it is believed that he suffered from severe rheumatism in the joints in his last years, as well as suffering from diseases of the gums.
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