Ozymandias Site 1

Ramesses II was the third king of the 19th dynasty, and the second child of Seti I and his Queen Tuya.

The most memorable of Ramesses' wives was Nefertari. During his long reign, eight women held the title Great Royal Wife (often simultaneously): Nefertari and Isetnofret, whom he married early in his reign; Bintanath, Meritamen and Nebettawy, his own daughters who replaced their mothers Nefertari and Isetnofret when they died or retired; Henutmire; Maathorneferure, Princess of Hatti; another Hittite princess whose name did not survive.

In his second year, Ramesses II decisively defeated the Shardana or Sherden sea pirates who were wreaking havoc along Egypt's Mediterranean coast by attacking cargo-ladden vessels travelling the sea routes to Egypt. Ramesses posted troops and ships at strategic points along the coast and patiently allowed the pirates to attack their prey before skillfully catching them by surprise in a sea battle and capturing them all in one fell swoop. Ramesses would soon incorporate these skilled mercenaries into his army where they were to play a pivotal role at the battle of Kadesh. As king, Ramesses II led several expeditions north into the lands east of the Mediterranean (the location of the modern Israel, Lebanon and Syria).

Ramesses the Great accomplished many things in his life. His main focus before the Battle of Kadesh was building temples, monuments and cities. He built the city of Per-Ramesses in the Nile Delta as his new capital and main base for the Hittite war. This city was built on the remains of the city of Avaris, the capital of the Hyksos when they took over. This is also where the Temple of Set was located. This was a very significant place for Ramesses because this is where he supposedly harnesed the power of Set, Horus, Re, Amun, and his father Seti.

In contrast to the buildings of other pharaohs, many of the monuments from the reign of Ramesses II are well preserved. There are accounts of his glory hewn on stone, statues, remains of palaces and temples, most notable the Ramesseum in the western Thebes and the rock temples of Abu Simbel. He covered the land from the Delta to Nubia with buildings in a way no king before him had done. 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 constructed many impressive monuments, including the renowned archeological complex of Abu Simbel, and the mortuary temple known as the Ramesseum. It is said that there are more statues of him in existence than of any other Egyptian pharaoh, not surprising as he was the second-longest reigning Pharaoh of Egypt after Pepi II. Rameses may have used art as a means of propaganda and his victories over foreigners are depicted on numerous temple reliefs while he had more colossal statues than any other pharaoh.

Ever since the 19th century, the temple complex known as the Ramesseum, which was built by Ramesses II between Qurna and the desert, has been known by this name. The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus marveled at his gigantic and famous temple which is now no more than a few ruins.

Scattered remains of the two statues of the seated king can also be seen, one in pink granite and the other in black granite, which once flanked the entrance to the temple. Thirty-nine out of the forty-eight columns in the great hypostyle hall ( 41x 31m) still stand in the central rows. They are decorated with the usual scenes of the king before various gods. Part of the ceiling decorated with gold stars on a blue ground has also been preserved.The sons and daughters of Ramesses appear in the procession on the few walls left. The sanctuary was composed of three consecutive rooms, with eight columns and the tetrastyle cell. Part of the first room, with the ceiling decorated with astral scenes, and few remains of the second room are all that is left. Vast storerooms built in mud bricks stretched out around the temple. Traces of a school for scribes were found among the ruins.

A temple of Seti I, of which nothing is now left but the foundations, once stood to the right of the hypostyle hall. It consisted of a peristyle court with two chapel shrines. The entire complex was enclosed in mud brick walls which started at the gigantic southeast pylon.

The great temple of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel was discovered in 1813 by the famous Swiss Orientalist and traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. However, four years passed before anyone could enter the temple, because an enormous pile of sand almost completely covered the facade and its colossal statues, blocking the entranceway. This feat was achieved by the great Paduan explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni, who managed to penetrate the interior on 4 August 1817.

The pharaoh's mummy features a hooked nose and strong jaw, and is of above average height for an ancient Egyptian, standing some five feet, seven inches.In 1974, Cairo Museum Egyptologists noticed that the mummy's condition was rapidly deteriorating. They decided to fly Rameses II's mummy to Paris for examination. Ramesses II was issued an Egyptian passport that listed his occupation as "King (deceased)." In Paris, Ramesses' mummy was diagnosed and treated for a fungal infection. During the examination, scientific analysis revealed battle wounds and old fractures, as well as the pharaoh's arthritis and poor circulation.