Some of his monuments were began by his father Seti I and completed by him, whilst some were completely of his own conception.Īmongst the most magnificent of these architectural feats are the Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak, the Ramesseum, his funerary temple on the West Bank of the Nile at Thebes (today Luxor), the Great Temple of Osiris at Abydos, and the temples at Abu Simbel. His military fame is, however, largely based on his own boastful words, his accounts of his courageous exploits surviving on the walls of nearly every temple dating back to his reign. His favourite wife was Nefertari who appears by his side in most of his monuments. A tall man with a mane of red hair, he ate and drank too much and had a huge harem. During his opulent rule he waged the famous battle of Qadesh (1285 BC) against the Hittites, signed one of the first recorded treaties in history, sired over a 100 children, and put up Egypt’s largest and most extravagant buildings.
Ruling for 67 years, his reign was one of the longest in Egyptian history. He did everything on a grand scale and with enormous enthusiasm. Ramses II belonged to the 19th Dynasty during the New Kingdom. A man whose mummy lies in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, a silent smile playing around his lips, somehow aware that he had achieved the sustaining principle of Egyptian civilisation-everlasting life. A king of kings who is still remembered 3,300 years after his death. However, one stands out above all others. The poem was inspired by a statue of Ramses II in the Ramesseum, Ramses II’s funerary temple in LuxorĪncient Egypt had many remarkable pharaohs. ~ Extract from the poem ‘Ozymandias’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley, an English Poet in the 19th Century. Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’”
Colossal statues of Ramses II flank the facade of the Great Temple of Abu Simbel
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