He also usurped many existing statues by inscribing his own cartouche on them. Ramesses II also erected more colossal statues of himself than any other pharaoh. Ramesses used art as a means of propaganda for his victories over foreigners and are depicted on numerous temple reliefs. He built on a monumental scale to ensure that his legacy would survive the ravages of time. Ramesses constructed many large monuments, including the archeological complex of Abu Simbel, and the Mortuary temple known as the Ramesseum. Ramesses insisted that his carvings be deeply engraved in the stone, which made them not only less susceptible to later alteration, but also made them more prominent in the Egyptian sun, reflecting his relationship with the sun god, Ra. 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 decided to eternalize himself in stone, and so he ordered changes to the methods used by his masons. In Thebes, the ancient temples were transformed, so that each one of them reflected honor to Ramesses as a symbol of this divine nature and power. The population was put to work on changing the face of Egypt. In the third year of his reign Ramesses started the most ambitious building project after the pyramids, that were built 1,500 years earlier. When he built, he built on a scale unlike almost anything before. His memorial temple Ramesseum, was just the beginning of the pharaoh's obsession with building. He also founded a new capital city in the Delta during his reign called Pi-Ramesses it had previously served as a summer palace during Seti I's reign. He covered the land from the Delta to Nubia with buildings in a way no king before him had done. There are accounts of his honor hewn on stone, statues, remains of palaces and temples, most notably the Ramesseum in the western Thebes and the rock temples of Abu Simbel. Ramesses built extensively throughout Egypt and Nubia, and his cartouches are prominently displayed even in buildings that he did not actually construct. Lost temple of Ramses II is discovered in Giza: Incredible find sheds light on the ruler who fathered more children than any other pharaoh Ramesses II had 200 wives and concubines, 96 sons and 60 daughters. He is also known as Ozymandias in the Greek sources, from a transliteration into Greek of a part of Ramesses's throne name, Usermaatre Setepenre, "Ra's mighty truth, chosen of Ra". 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 main Temple of Set. He established the city of Pi-Ramesses in the Nile Delta as his new capital and main base for his campaigns in Syria. The early part of his reign was focused on building cities, temples and monuments. On his death, he was buried in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings - his body was later moved to a royal cache where it was discovered in 1881, and is now on display in the Cairo Museum. Ramesses II celebrated an unprecedented 14 sed festivals (the first held after thirty years of a pharaoh's reign, and then every three years) during his reign - more than any other pharaoh. If he became Pharaoh in 1279 BC, as most Egyptologists today believe, he would have assumed the throne on BC, based on his known accession date of III Shemu day 27. He was once said to have lived to age 99, but it is more likely that he died in his 90th or 91st year. He is believed to have taken the throne in his late teens and is known to have ruled Egypt from 1279 BC to 1213 BC for 66 years and 2 months, according to both Manetho and Egypt's contemporary historical records. He also led expeditions to the south, into Nubia, commemorated in inscriptions at Beit el-Wali and Gerf Hussein.Īt age fourteen, Ramesses was appointed Prince Regent by his father Seti I. Ramesses II led several military expeditions into the Levant, re-asserting Egyptian control over Canaan. His successors and later Egyptians called him the "Great Ancestor". He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire. 1303 BC - July or August 1213 BC), referred to as Ramesses the Great, was the third Egyptian pharaoh (reigned 1279 BC - 1213 BC) of the Nineteenth Dynasty.
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