Ramsees II ruled from 1290-1224 B.C. 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. A battle they
both claimed to have won and which Ramsees 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 Ramsees II. Besides being a campaign commander he was an active entrepreneur.
He built the new residential town in the delta, Pi-Ramsees. Of other
mentionable building activities is his Temple of Death, the Rameesseum,
and other temples in honour of his divinity in the eastern 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 Ramsees II was found in the Valley of the Kings.
Ramsees 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 Ramsees-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.
Ramsees 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 Ramsees-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.