Some scenes from the Ramesseum show the pharaoh together with various gods of the Egyptian pantheon, and even himself is represented as a god. Likewise, he reproduced the parade of some of his many sons and daughters. This is reflected in the decoration engraved on the Ramesseum, both on the exterior and interior walls: scenes of battles abound, with the king leading his army victoriously and defeating the forces of evil, personified by his enemies.Īs in other temples, Ramesses had episodes of the Battle of Kadesh and other confrontations against foreign peoples recorded in the Ramesseum. On the one hand, the king wanted his subjects to know that he was the strong and dominating arm, the one that could not be defeated. Ramesses’s constructive fever might seem like a form of megalomania or self-centeredness but in reality it responded to deeper motivations.

This building, created with the best materials, built in stone and destined to remain standing forever, was badly damaged by an earthquake. It is known that some blocks of temples from the 18th dynasty were reused for the construction. Its almost six hectares of surface include the main temple, a temple dedicated to his wife Nefertari and his mother Tuya, a palace and the annexes dedicated to the administration of the sanctuary. They both designed it to be one of the largest temples in western Thebes. The best specialists in the country participated in the construction, under the command of the master builders Penra and Amoneminet, two trusted ministers of the pharaoh. The works of the Ramesseum lasted almost twenty years, from the beginning of the reign of Ramses until its conclusion in the year 21. User-Maat-Ra Setepenre was the name that Ramesses took when he ascended to the throne. In the time of Ramesses, however, it was known as “House of millions of years of User-maat-ra-setepenra that unites with Thebes-the-city in the domain of Amun”. Today we know it as Ramesseum, since Jean-François Champollion baptized it that way when he identified a cartouche with the king’s name. It was erected precisely in Thebes, on the western bank of the Nile, near the tomb of the pharaoh in the Valley of the Kings. The temple of millions of yearsĪmong all the buildings of Ramesses II there was one that was especially dear to him. Pi-Ramesses came to accommodate some 300,000 inhabitants and Thebes was relegated to religious capital. To keep an eye on the northern frontier, always threatened by incursions of Libyans or peoples of the Near East, and to get away from the powerful clergy of Amun in Thebes, he moved the capital of Egypt to Pi-Ramesses, a small city in the Delta founded by his grandfather, Ramesses I. Ramesses was a master at the use of propaganda, and in order to magnify himself he did not hesitate to usurp buildings, inscriptions and statues of former pharaohs, including his own father, Seti I. He also had stelae and inscriptions carved, obelisks erected, and statues carved, which he planted throughout his domain, beyond the Nile Valley, from Nubia to Libya and Palestine.

There, in Abu Simbel, he dedicated a smaller temple to his wife Nefertari, associated with Hathor. To consolidate his presence in Nubia he built several temples there, among which Abu Simbel stands out, this one dedicated to Amun, Ra-Horakhty, Ptah and to the deified Ramesses himself. It seems that in Egypt there was no corner where the king was not immortalized in stone to ensure his memory beyond death.Īt Abydos he completed the work of his father Seti and built his own temple he founded and enlarged sanctuaries in various places, including Thebes, Karnak, and Luxor. The country was filled with new religious buildings, in which the various names of the sovereign appeared, as well as the image of the king dispensing justice, honoring the gods or on the battlefield, as the architect of real or supposed victories.

Ramesses II, third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty, was crowned in 1279 BC “as King of Egypt on the throne of Horus”, according to the sources of the time.ĭuring his reign he undertook an unprecedented constructive program. Driven by the desire to perpetuate his glory for eternity, Ramesses II erected monuments throughout Egypt, including his magnificent funerary temple, the Ramesseum, on the west bank of Thebes.

Pharaoh ramses ii was known as a