Ancient Egypt – Pharaoh Ramesses II
- dwworldhistory
- 19 hours ago
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DW | Ancient Egypt
20– Pharaoh Ramesses II
Welcome to the DW World History Series. In the last episode we discussed the rise of the 19th Dynasty and left off with Pharaoh Seti I. His son, Ramesses II, would lead Egypt into one of its most glorious periods of Egyptian History. This biography highlights Ramesses II, his campaigns against the Hittites, and his incredible building projects.
20.1 – The Early Years
The son of Seti I and Queen Tuya, Prince Ramesses spent most of his childhood in the shadow of his father. He was appointed prince regent at 14 years old. At around 15 years old, young Ramesses took two wives – Nefertari and Isisnofret. They would have five sons and two daughters.
Nefertari, 'The Great Wife', bore the crown prince Amunhirkepshef – his name means 'Amun is upon my sword'. This was a strong military name. He would, however, not live longer than his father.
Isisnofret bore Khaemwaset, who becomes with world's first archaeologist. He was concerned that the people would forget who created the pyramids and went around labeling them. He is responsible for the hieroglyphic inscriptions on most tombs that label the pharaoh responsible for its creation. He is also responsible for building the Serapeum at Memphis, the burial place of the Apis Bull. He becomes a High Priest of Memphis, and obviously a very intellectual person. He too, would not live longer than his father.
Isisofret bore Merneptah, the 13th son of Ramesses' 52 sons, who would eventually become pharaoh. He will be the topic of the next episode.
Seti I often referred to his son, Ramesses II, in inscriptions, while overseeing the cutting of obelisks from the granite quarries at Aswan, while involved in great building projects, and while participating in campaigns against the Hittites. Their father-son relationship was very close.
The great dedication stele in Seti I's Temple at Abydos, the longest inscription of Ramesses II's reign, is a prime example of his relationship with his father. In 116 lines, the stele recounts how Ramesses II sailed to Abydos to find the Temple of Seti I in ruins. Being under construction at the time of Seti I's death, it remained unfinished, thus suspending his endowments from the goldmines in the Eastern Desert. Ramesses II tells how he summoned the court, making known his intention to complete his father's temple. He then began to recount his appointment to co-regent:
'The All-Lord [Seti I] himself made me great, while I was
a child... I was installed as eldest son, as hereditary prince
upon the throne... He equipped me with women, a Royal
Harem, as beautiful as those of the Palace, those of the
South and North were under my feet...'
-Ramesses II's Dedication Stele to Seti I
20.2 - Queen Nefertari
During his long reign, from 1279-1213 BC, Ramesses II would take eight principal wives, but Nefertari would be first and favorite among them. She married Ramesses II before he ascended the throne. Although Nefertari's family background is unknown, the discovery in her tomb of a knob inscribed with the cartouche of Pharaoh Ay has led people to speculate she was related to him. She could have been a great-granddaughter. There is no conclusive evidence linking Nefertari to the royal family of the 18th Dynasty.
Nefertari is shown at the inaugural festivities at Abu Simbel in year 24. Her daughter Meritamun is depicted taking part in place of her mother in some of the scenes, and this may indicate that she was in failing health at this point. After her death she was buried in tomb QV66 in the Valley of the Queens.
Her tomb, (QV66), is the finest in the Valley of the Queens, and is often referred to as the Sistine Chapel of Ancient Egypt. Although the tomb was looted in ancient times, two-thirds of the 5200 square feet of wall art remain. These paintings highlight the Queen's life and record her death.
A flight of steps cut out of the rock gives access to the antechamber (chamber A), which is decorated with paintings based on Chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead. This astronomical ceiling represents the heavens and is painted in dark blue, with a myriad of golden five-pointed stars. The eastern wall of the antechamber (chamber A) is interrupted by a large opening (chamber B) which flanked by representation of Osiris on the left and Anubis on the right. Along its north and west sides, at a height of just over 1 meter, is a rock-cut bench or long table, originally intended for offerings and possibly funerary equipment. This in turn leads to the side chamber (chamber C), decorated with offering scenes, preceded by a vestibule in which the paintings portray Nefertari being presented to the gods who welcome her. On the north wall of the antechamber is the stairway that goes down to the burial chamber.
The burial chamber (chamber F) is a vast quadrangular room covering a surface area about 90 square meters, the astronomical ceiling of which is supported by four pillars entirely covered with decoration. Originally, the queen's red granite sarcophagus lay in the middle of this chamber. According to religious doctrines of the time, it was in this chamber, which the ancient Egyptians called the "golden hall" that the regeneration of the deceased took place. This decorative pictogram of the walls in the burial chamber drew inspirations from chapters 144 and 146 of the Book of the Dead: in the left half of the chamber, there are passages from chapter 144 concerning the gates and doors of the kingdom of Osiris, their guardians, and the magic formulas that had to be uttered by the deceased in order to go past the doors.
One of the most famous scenes is a portrayal of her playing the game of Senet. Ramesses II deeply loved her and shared his poetry on the walls of her tomb:
'My love is unique, no one can rival her, for she is the
most beautiful woman alive. Just by passing, she has
stolen my heart away.'
-Ramesses II's Poem to Nefertari
Nefertari would die in Year 25 of his long reign, but not before seeing herself associated with her husband in his greatest work to her at Abu Simbel. Ramesses II would go on to create one of the most cosmopolitan harems of any pharaoh. This would eventually include women from the rival Hittite Empire, but not before military action.
20.3 - The Sea Peoples
In Year 2 of his reign, Ramesses II began the first military campaign as Pharaoh against the Sea Peoples. These pirates originated from Ionia and were attacking cargo-laden vessels traveling the sea routes to Egypt. Ramesses II posted troops and ships at strategic points along the coast and patiently allowed the pirates to attack their perceived prey before skillfully catching them by surprise in a sea battle and capturing them all in a single action. A stele from Tanis speaks of their having come
'in their warships from the midst of the sea, and none were able to stand before them.'
This confederacy of naval raiders harassed the coastal towns and cities of the Mediterranean region between 1276-1178 B.C., concentrating their efforts especially on Egypt. The nationality of the Sea Peoples remains a mystery as the existing records of their activities are mainly Egyptian sources.
Outside Egypt, they also assaulted the regions of the Hittie Empire, the Levant, and other areas around the Mediterranean coast. Their origin and identity has been suggested (and debated) to be Trojan, Philistine, Mycenaean, and Minoan. But no accounts discovered thus far shed any more light on the question than what is presently known; any such claims must remain mere conjecture.
No ancient inscription names the coalition as “Sea Peoples”. This is a modern-day designation first coined by the French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero in 1881. Maspero came up with the term because the ancient reports claim that these tribes came “from the sea” or from “the islands”, but they never say which sea or which islands and so the 'Sea Peoples' origin remains unknown.
The three great pharaohs who record their conflicts and victories over the Sea Peoples are Ramesses II, his son and successor Merneptah, and Ramesses III. After their defeat by Ramesses III, the Sea Peoples vanish from history. The survivors of the battle were perhaps assimilated into Egyptian culture. For almost 100 years, they were the most feared sea raiders in the Mediterranean region and a constant challenge to the might and prosperity of Egypt.
Ramesses II integrates these warriors into his bodyguard, and on the inscriptions of the Battle of Kadesh, they standout by their horned helmets, round shields, and large swords.
20.4 - The Battle of Kadesh
The buildup to the battle of Kadesh involved his early campaigns into Canaan. This first took place in Year 4 and involved a Canaanite prince who was mortally wounded by an Egyptian archer. This Canaanite army was subsequently routed, and these princes were carried off as prisoners to Egypt. During this campaign, Ramesses II captured the Hittite vassal state of Amurru. In response, the king of the Hittites, Muwatallis II, marched south into Kadesh to confront the Egyptians.
In Year 5, Ramesses gathered together one of the greatest forces of Egyptian troops ever seen: about 20,000 men who were organized into four divisions of 5000 each, named respectively after the gods Amun, Ra, Ptah, and Seth. His chariot force numbered around 2,000. Muwatallis II assembled an even greater army with about 20,000 – 40,000 men and 3,000 chariots.
Ramesses II set out from his new capital of Pi-Ramesses and, following in Tuthmosis III's footsteps of some 200 years earlier, moved up through the Gaza strip. With such a large army, which included the baggage trains and camp followers, the movement north was slow and extended over a vast area. About 7 miles south from Kadesh, Ramesses II and the advance guard captured two spies who reported that the Hittite army was over 100 miles to the north. Ramesses II, therefore, moved forward confidently with the first division, Amun, crossing the Orontes River and camping to the west of Kadesh. He was soon shaken, however, when two more spies were caught, who revealed under torture, that the Hittite army was just on the other side of Kadesh.
Without time to react, Hittite chariots crossed the river and charged the middle of the Ra Division and began making their way to his location. The Ra Division was caught in the open and scattered in all directions. The Hittite chariotry then rounded north and attacked the Egyptian camp, crashing through the Amun Division causing panic. Ramesses II described the scene of being deserted and left to deal with the enemy alone:
'...No officer was with me, no charioteer, no soldier of the army,
no shield-bearer... I was before them like Seth in his moment.
I found the mass of the chariots in whose midst I was,
scattering them before my horses.'
-Ramesses II's Inscription at Temple Karnak
Although dramatized, Ramesses II did personally lead several charges into the Hittite ranks together with his personal guard, some of the chariots from the Amun Division, and survivors from the routed Division of Ra. The Hittites, who believed their enemies to be totally routed, stopped to plunder the Egyptian camp, and in doing so, became easy targets for Ramesses II's counter attack. They drove the looters back towards the Orontes River, while in the ensuing pursuit, the heavier Hittite chariots were easily overtaken and dispatched by the lighter, faster Egyptian chariots. The Prince of Aleppo, fighting with the Hittites, nearly drowned, and his predicament was ridiculed in Egyptian records.
Muwatallis II ordered a second attack after quickly regrouping, but abandoned the idea upon observing the Ptah Division, which had finally arrived from the south. By this point, nightfall had set in. Like most other ancient armies, they did not fight at night and so both armies settled into their respective camps.
The next day, the Egyptians and Hittites fought to a standoff. The Hittite army was ultimately forced to retreat, but the Egyptians were unsuccessful in capturing Kadesh. Logistically unable to support a long siege of the walled city of Kadesh, Ramesses II returned to Egypt. Further campaigns were undertaken against the Hittites in subsequent years, but eventually Ramesses II realized that he could not hold the northern reaches of Syria, just as the Hittites could not control the south.
Internal troubles and growing Assyrian threats to the East made the now Hittite king, Hattusilis III, cease the annual attacks against Egypt. The running borderland conflicts were finally ended some 15 years after the Battle of Kadesh by an official peace treaty in the 21st Year of Ramesses II's reign, roughly 1258 B.C. The treaty survives carved on the walls of Karnak and the Ramesseum, in Egypt. The Hittite version has also been discovered, by one of those coincidences of fate, in the Hittite capital at Hattusas. An enlarged replica of the Kadesh Agreement would later hang on the wall of the United Nations Headquarters as the earliest international peace treaty known to historians.
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The relationship between the two countries seems to have become somewhat peaceful after this time. Hatusallis III asked Ramesses for an Egyptian physician for his sister who couldn't have children. Egyptian medicine had such specialists as gynecologists and eye doctors which were highly sought after throughout the ancient world. In a return letter, Ramesses joked that this sister was past the age of child bearing, but sent the physician anyway.
During his early reign, Ramesses II also campaigned south of the First Cataract in Nubia. Not surprisingly, a wall in one the Ramesses' temples says he had to fight one battle with the Nubians without help from his soldiers. In reality, by the time of Ramesses II, Nubia had been an Egyptian colony for over 200 years.
20.5 - The City of Pi-Ramesses
Ramesses II built extensively throughout Egypt and Nubia, and his cartouches were found even in buildings he did not construct. He created one of the most ambitious building projects not seen since the pyramids, which were built 1500 years earlier. He set the population to work on changing the face of Egypt.
One of these projects was the city of Pi-Ramesses. Originally the site of a summer palace under Seti I, it became a home to more than 300,000 people. Pi-Ramesses was built on an island in the Pelusiac Branch of the Nile and flourished as the new administrative capital during Ramesses II's reign, as well as for another hundred years afterward. The city consisted of a large central temple, with a significant stretch of mansions that bordered the river on the west side and a disorganized collection of workshops and houses to the east.
The city was constructed early in Ramesses II's reign because it was close to the vassal states in Asia and to the border with the hostile Hittite Empire. Intelligence and diplomats could reach the pharaoh more quickly and the main corps of the army was also encamped in the city for faster mobilization. When the Pelusiac Branch of the Nile began silting up and established a new course to the west, at roughly 1060 B.C., it left the city without water. The 21st Dynasty moved the city to the new branch at Tanis, transporting all the old temples, obelisks, and statues from Pi-Ramesses to the new site. Stone from the less important buildings were revised for the creation of new temples and buildings.
20.6 - The Ramesseum
On the west bank of Thebes, Ramesses constructed his giant mortuary temple, called the Ramesseum. Records indicate that work began shortly after the start of his reign and continued for 20 years. At least 3000 workmen were employed to construct the temple which comprised of two stone pylons, some 60 meters wide, one after the other, each leading to a courtyard.
Beyond the second courtyard, as the center of the complex, a 48 column Hypostyle Hall was constructed, surrounding the inner sanctuary. An enormous pylon stood before the first court, with the royal palace at the left and a gigantic statue of the king at the back. The pylons and outer walls were decorated with scenes from the Battle of Kadesh, while leaving record of his dedication to the gods.
Adjacent to the north of the Hypostyle Hall, was a smaller temple that was dedicated to his mother, Tuya, and his wife, Nefertari. A temple to his father, Seti I, stood to the right of the hall. The complex was surrounded by various storerooms, granaries, workshops, and other ancillary buildings; some built as late as the Roman times.
20.7 - The Temples at Abu Simbel
Ramesses II began construction of two temples at Abu Simbel, in Nubia. This project lasted 20 years and became his most famous construction. Carved out of a mountain, it was a great piece of architectural propaganda for the Nubians sailing north on the Nile, as its walls were shown depicting bound Nubian captives. The front of the great temple consisted of four colossal 60 foot high seated figures of the king that flanked the entrance in two pairs. One of the heads of the colossal 60 foot statues of Ramesses fell during his lifetime from an earthquake.
A wonder of ancient engineering, its orientation was so exact that the rising sun at the equinox on the 22nd of February and the 22nd of October flooded directly through the great entrance to illuminate 3 of the 4 gods carved seated in the sanctuary over 200 feet inside the mountain. These were the gods Ra-Horakhty, the deified King Ramesses II, and Amun-Ra. The fourth of the seated gods, Ptah, does not become illuminated because he is the god associated with the underworld.
The smaller temple was dedicated to Hathor and his wife, Nefertari. Remarkably, the small temple was one of the few instances in Egyptian art where the statues of the king and his consort were the same size. He also inscribed above the doorway to her temple:
'She for whom the sun does shine'.
These temples would later be moved to higher ground by UNESCO in the 1960s when the Aswan Dam was built. They were dismantled and reassembled exactly as they would have appeared in ancient times, fallen statues and all. During the move, there was an interesting conversation about what to do with the fallen colossal head of Ramesses. They could have repaired the head with rods and made it look just as it was when it was built. A decision was made to place the head on the ground just as it was in ancient times.
After the death of Nefertari, Ramesses II's personality seems to have changed from the warrior-builder to a more sedentary pharaoh. He went from building temples to building tombs. By this point, Ramesses had experienced several major deaths in his family. His Chief Wife no doubt being a major blow to him in year 25, but he also lost many others during his long reign. His crown prince and first born son, Amunhirkepshef, died before Nefertari in Year 17. At some point, his other beloved son, Khaemwaset, the archaeologist and High Priest of Memphis, died and is perhaps buried in the Serapeum. Ramesses II outlived many of his wives and children and in doing so, left great memorials all over Egypt. By the time of his death, at about 92 years old, Egypt had become one of the richest Empires in the world.
20.8 - Tomb KV7
Ramesses II was originally buried in tomb (KV7) in the Valley of the Kings. This tomb was as large, if not larger, than his father's, although not so well decorated. KV7 follows the bent-axis plan of tombs of the earlier Eighteenth Dynasty: the entrance to the tomb is dug into the Theban limestone hillside near the valley floor. The first gate, Gate B, has decorations on the lintel and representations of Ma'at kneeling above the plants of Lower and Upper Egypt with door jambs that contain the various names of the Pharaoh.
The passage descends for about 190 feet into the bedrock at an angle that varies between 12 and 22 degrees. Gates C and D are painted with texts from the Litany of Ra and images of the four sons of Horus.
The passage opens into a small well chamber, then into a pillared chamber (chamber F). F has two directions. Turning right, are two more chambers. Going straight, the passage continues approximately level for another 39 feet, then turns to the right and terminates in the burial chamber (chamber J). This burial chamber has doorways leading to four small (Ja and Jb) and two larger rooms (Jc and Jd), the last of these having two offshoots of its own.
Other decorations in the tomb include images of funerary objects intended to help the pharaoh in the afterlife, and scenes and passages from the Book of Gates, the Book of the Dead, the Book of the Heavenly Cow, the Amduat, the Litany of Re and the Opening of the Mouth Ceremony.
Unlike other tombs in the area, Tomb KV7 was placed in an unusual location. Now it is much damaged and virtually inaccessible. The splendor of the contents of this tomb must have been incredible. Few items, however, survive. These include a wooden statue of the king, four canopic jars, the half of a flattened ushabti, and two large wooden ushabtis.
The mummy of Ramesses II was later removed from the tomb by priests because of looting. He was later discovered in the great cache of mummies at Deir el-Bahari in 1881. Microscopic inspection of the roots of Ramesses II's hair proved that the king's hair was originally red. This has more than just cosmetic significance. In ancient Egypt, people with red hair were associated with the god Seth, the slayer of Osiris. Coming from a family of redheads, this adds an interesting element when considering his father's name, Seti I, which means 'Follower of Seth'.
20.9 - Tomb KV5
Now known as the largest tomb in all of Egypt, (KV5) was built for the sons of Ramesses II. Standing near the entrance to the Valley, this tomb was robbed in antiquity. In addition, over the centuries, it suffered the fate of other low-lying tombs. It was filled with rubble that was washed down from flash floods that accompany thunderstorms over the Valley. This tomb has hundreds of rooms on different levels and is unique in ancient Egyptian architecture. At least six royal sons are known to have been interred in KV 5. Since there are more than twenty representations of sons carved on its walls, there may have been that many sons interred in the tomb.
Though KV5 was partially excavated as early as 1825, its true extent was discovered in 1995 by Kent R. Weeks and his exploration team. Weeks' discovery is widely considered the most dramatic in the valley since the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922.
Further excavations have revealed that the tomb is even larger than was first thought, as it contains more corridors, with more rooms, branching off from previously discovered parts of the tomb. At least 130 rooms or chambers have been discovered as of 2006 (only about 7% of which have been cleared), and work is still continuing on clearing the rest of the tomb.
Ramesses II would outlive many of his sons throughout his long reign, but rule would eventually pass on to his 13th son, Merneptah, who we begin with in the next episode.
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