Ramses II (Fir'aun)

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Ramses II (Fir'aun)

Ramses II (also known as Ramses the Great and Ramesses II) was an Egyptian pharaoh (lived c. 1314 BC to 1224 BC), reigned 1290 BC - 1224 BC(66 years). He became pharaoh at the age of 24, and died in this 90th year. He was known to the Ancient Greeks as Sesostris.

He was the third king of the 19th dynasty, and the son of Seti I and his Queen Tuya. The most memorable of Ramses' wives was Nefertari. Anothers of his wives was Istnofret and Maetnefrure, Princess of Khatti. It is said that Ramses II had over 200 children. Some of his children were Bintah (Bintanath) (Princess and her father's wife), Setakht (Sethnakhte), the Pharaoh Merenptah, and Kha'emweset (Prince).

Ramses led several expeditions north into the lands east of the Mediterranean (the location of the modern Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria). At the Battle of Qadesh in the fourth year of his reign (1286 BC), Egyptian forces under Rameses II engaged the forces of Muwatallis, king of the Hittites. Over the following years, neither power could effectively defeat the other, so in the 21st year of his reign (1269 BC), Ramses concluded an agreement with Hattusilis III, the earliest known surviving peace treaty.

Ramses also campaigned south of the first cataract into Nubia. He constructed many impressive monuments, and more statues of him exist than of any other Egyptian Pharaoh. Ramses was indeed a strong believer in the work of those living in Deir el Medina.

At least as early as Eusebius of Caesarea, he was identified with the Pharaoh of whom the biblical figure Moses is popularly believed to have demanded that his people be released from slavery.

His mummy was found at Deir-al-Bahari in 1881 and placed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo 5 years later, where it is still exhibited with pride by the Egyptian people.