Pharaoh Ramses II

Pharaoh Ramses II was both a warlord and an entrepreneur. Many of the monuments he ordered built still stand today. The best known are the Temples of Abu Simbel.

The Life of a Pharaoh

Pharaoh Ramses II was born around 1303 B.C. and at age fourteen, Ramesses was appointed Prince Regent by his father Seti I. He is believed to have taken the throne in his early 20s and to have ruled Egypt from 1278 B.C. to 1213 B.C. for a total of 66 years and 2 months.

He was once said to have lived to be 99 years old, but it is more likely that he died in his 90th or 91st year. Pharaoh Ramses II celebrated an unprecedented 14 sed festivals during his reign - more than any other ancient Egyptian pharaoh.

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 Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The Campaign Commander

Pharaoh Ramses II ruled in the 19th dynasty. He lead several campaigns to Asia; among others he fought the Battle of Kadesh in 1285 B.C. against the King of the Hittites, Muwatalli. It was a battle they both claimed to have won, and which Ramses had reproduced both in text and pictures in his temples.

A final peace treaty with the Hittites was made with King Hattushili the 3rd and was sealed with a marriage between the king's daughter and Ramses II.

The Entrepreneur

Besides being a campaign commander Pharaoh Ramses II was an active entrepreneur. He built the new residential town in the delta, Pi-Ramses. Of other mentionable building activities is his Temple of Death, the Rameesseum, and other temples in honour of his divinity in the eastern Nile delta and in Nubia. His tomb is in the Valley of the Kings and his mummy was found in Deir al-Bahri.

The most famous of his queens was Nefertari, and he is known to have had at least 40 daughters and 45 sons. In 1994 a large common grave for the children of Ramses II was found in the Valley of the Kings.

Ramses was a name given to 11 Egyptian pharaohs in a time period of nearly 300 years during the 19th and 20th dynasty. Under the last Ramses-pharaohs the power was no longer in the hands of the kings but had been taken by the powerful high priests of the god Amun.