Ramesses II: The Great Pharaoh of the New Kingdom

Ramesses II, often called Ramesses the Great, was the third king of Egypt’s Nineteenth Dynasty and ruled for about 66 years, from 1279 to 1213 BC. He fought the Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh, concluded one of the earliest recorded peace treaties, and built or enlarged temples from the Nile Delta to Nubia, including Abu Simbel. His long reign, huge family and countless statues made him the model of a pharaoh for later Egyptians and for the modern world.

Early life and accession

Ramesses was born around 1303 BC, the son of Seti I and Queen Tuya. His grandfather Ramesses I had been a military officer chosen as heir by the childless king Horemheb, so the family was new to royalty.

Seti I made Ramesses crown prince while he was still young, gave him his own household and harem, and took him on campaigns in Syria and Libya. Ramesses later claimed that his father had crowned him as co-ruler, although historians debate whether this was a formal co-regency. He became sole king in 1279 BC, probably in his mid-twenties.

The early years of the reign set the pattern for what followed. Ramesses toured the country, appointed loyal officials, chose a new high priest of Amun at Thebes and launched building projects at once. He also sent expeditions to Nubia and to the gold-bearing deserts, securing the wealth that would pay for his monuments.

The Battle of Kadesh

The main foreign rival was the Hittite empire of Anatolia, which controlled northern Syria. In his fifth year, 1274 BC, Ramesses led four army divisions north to the city of Kadesh on the Orontes River, in modern Syria. Misled by two Bedouin spies who claimed the Hittite army was far away, he camped near the city with only part of his forces.

The Hittite king Muwatalli II launched a surprise chariot attack, which shattered one division and reached Ramesses’ camp. Egyptian accounts describe the king rallying his guard and charging the enemy until reinforcements arrived. The battle ended without a decisive result, and Kadesh remained in Hittite hands. The full story is told in Battle of Kadesh.

Ramesses nonetheless presented Kadesh as a personal triumph. Texts known as the Poem and the Bulletin, with large battle reliefs, were carved on temples including Abu Simbel, Luxor, Karnak, Abydos and the Ramesseum. They form one of the most detailed records of any ancient battle. Hittite sources, by contrast, treat the campaign as a success, and in its aftermath Muwatalli extended Hittite influence south into the region of Damascus, known to the Egyptians as Upe.

Wars and peace with the Hittites

Fighting in Syria and Canaan continued for more than a decade, with Egyptian campaigns against cities such as Dapur. Neither empire could defeat the other, and both faced new threats, including the rising power of Assyria.

In his 21st year, 1259 BC, Ramesses concluded a treaty with the Hittite king Hattusili III. It established peace, a mutual defence alliance and the return of political fugitives. Copies survive in Egyptian hieroglyphs at Karnak and the Ramesseum and in Akkadian cuneiform on clay tablets from the Hittite capital Hattusa. It is often described as the earliest peace treaty known from the texts of both parties; see the Egyptian-Hittite Peace Treaty.

The peace held for the rest of the reign. In about his 34th year, around 1245 BC, Ramesses married a daughter of Hattusili, who took the Egyptian name Maathorneferure, and a second Hittite princess probably followed later.

Monuments and capital

Ramesses was the most prolific builder of all pharaohs, though he also carved his name over the monuments of earlier kings. He moved the main royal residence to a new city in the eastern Delta, Pi-Ramesses, “House of Ramesses”, near modern Qantir. Its position close to the routes to Canaan suited a king focused on Asian affairs. Excavations at Qantir have revealed palace remains, a large bronze-working industry and stables for hundreds of horses, showing that the city was also a major military base. After the dynasty ended, its stone monuments were carried off to the new northern capital of Tanis.

In Nubia he built at least six temples, the most famous being the two rock-cut temples of Abu Simbel. The Great Temple’s facade has four seated colossi of the king about 20 metres high; the smaller temple honours his queen Nefertari and the goddess Hathor. In the 1960s both were cut into blocks and moved to higher ground to save them from the waters of Lake Nasser.

At Thebes he completed the great hypostyle hall at Karnak, added a court and pylon to Luxor Temple, and built his mortuary temple, the Ramesseum, where a fallen granite colossus once stood. At Abydos he finished his father’s temple and built one of his own. Colossal statues of him stood throughout Egypt, including the limestone giant now lying at Mit Rahina, ancient Memphis, and a granite colossus moved from central Cairo to the Grand Egyptian Museum.

Family

Ramesses had several principal wives. Nefertari was his first and most honoured great royal wife; her painted tomb (QV66) in the Valley of the Queens is among the most beautiful in Egypt. Isetnofret, another great royal wife, was the mother of several important children, including Prince Khaemwaset and the future king Merenptah. After their deaths, some of his daughters, such as Bintanath and Meritamen, also held the title of great royal wife.

Monuments list about 45 to 50 sons and a similar number of daughters. Many sons died before their father, and a number were buried in a vast family tomb in the Valley of the Kings, KV5, rediscovered in the 1990s. Khaemwaset, a high priest of Ptah at Memphis, became famous for restoring old monuments and is sometimes called the first Egyptologist. Ramesses was finally succeeded by his thirteenth son, Merenptah, who was already in his sixties. Nine later kings, from Ramesses III to Ramesses XI, took his name in his honour, and the whole era from about 1292 to 1077 BC is often called the Ramesside period.

Old age, death and mummy

Egyptian kings traditionally held a jubilee festival (Sed festival) after 30 years of rule and then every few years. Ramesses celebrated an unprecedented 13 or 14 jubilees. He died in 1213 BC, probably aged about 90, and was buried in tomb KV7 in the Valley of the Kings.

His tomb was later robbed, and priests moved his mummy several times. It was discovered in 1881 in the royal mummy cache at Deir el-Bahari. Medical studies show an elderly man with arthritis, hardened arteries and dental problems. He probably walked with a stoop in his final years, and CT scans have confirmed the advanced age suggested by the length of his reign. His original tomb, KV7, lies close to KV5 and was badly damaged by floods over the centuries; its clearance by a French-Egyptian team has continued in recent decades, recovering fragments of its once rich decoration. In 1976 the mummy was flown to Paris for conservation treatment against fungal damage. Since April 2021 it has been displayed at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo.

Myths and facts

Myth: Ramesses II was the pharaoh of the Exodus. This identification is popular in films and novels, partly because the Bible mentions a store city named Rameses. The biblical pharaoh is unnamed, and there is no Egyptian evidence connecting Ramesses II to the events described.

Myth: Kadesh was a great Egyptian victory. Egyptian inscriptions claim so, but the Hittites kept Kadesh and the region. Historians regard the battle as a draw at best for Egypt, and Hittite sources present it as a Hittite success.

Fact: Ozymandias is Ramesses II. The Greek historian Diodorus of Sicily described a statue of “Osymandyas”, from the king’s throne name Usermaatre. Shelley’s 1818 sonnet “Ozymandias” turned the image of a shattered royal statue into a symbol of the passing of power.

By the numbers

Timeline

• c. 1303 BC: Ramesses is born, son of Seti I and Tuya.
• 1279 BC: He becomes king on the death of Seti I.
• 1274 BC: Battle of Kadesh against Muwatalli II.
• 1259 BC: Peace treaty with the Hittite king Hattusili III.
• c. 1255 BC: Dedication of the temples at Abu Simbel, in the period of Nefertari’s prominence.
• c. 1245 BC: Marriage to the Hittite princess Maathorneferure.
• 1213 BC: Death of Ramesses II; Merenptah succeeds.
• 1881: His mummy is identified in the Deir el-Bahari royal cache.

Why it matters

Ramesses II ruled Egypt at the height of its New Kingdom power and shaped how later generations imagined a pharaoh. His wars and treaty with the Hittites are central to the history of Late Bronze Age diplomacy, and his temples, from Abu Simbel to the Ramesseum, remain among the most visited monuments of the ancient world.