Re: Anything on acient egypttians religion/Ramses II/ and the pyramids PLEASE!
Posted by Leonardo Grajales on November 21, 1999 at 23:09:41:
In Reply to: Re: Anything on acient egypttians religion/Ramses II/ and the pyramids PLEASE! posted by hema joshi on October 28, 1998 at 21:12:22:
Egyptian Pharaoh, ruling from 1304 to 1237 BC, and being the 3rd
Pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty.
Ramses II greatest achievements were enlarging the territory deeper
into Africa, south into Nubia, and strengthening his position against
the Libyans, conquering the western Asia Minor, which had been under
Egyptian control two centuries earlier. In the Levant, his greatest
opponents were the Hittites. Ramses II is remembered by some of the
most exquisite monuments, which often were already erected, but which
he usurped, like the temple at Abu Simbel and the Ramesseum at
Thebes, and he completed the temple at Abydos, that was started by
his father, Seti I. Ramses II had more than 100 children.
BIOGRAPHY
1304: Ramses II becomes king of Egypt.
1300-1299: Ramses II performs the first military actions against the
Hittites, but he looses. The loss of prestige, results in revolts in
Egypt.
1294: After suppressing the unrest in Egypt, Ramses II can resume the
actions against the Hittites.
1283: Peace treaty with the Hittites, and Ramses marries the daughter
of the Hittite king.
1237: Ramses II dies, and is succeeded by his 12th oldest son,
Merenptah.
Egypt's army was probably strongest under the warlike Pharaoh Ramses
II (reigned 1304-1237 BC), who commanded four Egyptian infantry
divisions, bands of Nubian archers, and many other mercenaries--a
total of 20,000 men.
Ramses II (reigned 1279-1212 BC), ancient Egyptian king, third ruler
of the 19th Dynasty. During his early reign Ramses fought a long war
against the Hittites to regain former Egyptian territories in Africa
and western Asia. In 1258 BC a treaty was signed whereby the
contested lands were divided and Ramses agreed to marry the daughter
of the Hittite king. The remaining years of his rule were
distinguished by the construction of great monuments.
Prosperity during his reign
One measure of Egypt's prosperity is the amount of temple building
the kings could afford to carry out, and on that basis the reign of
Ramses II is the most notable in Egyptian history, even making
allowance for its great length. It was that, combined with his
prowess in war as depicted in the temples, that led the Egyptologists
of the 19th century to dub him "the Great," and that, in effect, is
how his subjects and posterity viewed him; to them he was the king
par excellence. Nine kings of the 20th dynasty called themselves by
his name; even in the period of decline that followed, it was an
honour to be able to claim descent from him, and his subjects called
him by the affectionate abbreviation Sese.
In Egypt he completed the great hypostyle hall at Karnak (Thebes) and
continued work on the temple built by Seti I at Abydos, both of which
were left incomplete at the latter's death. Ramses also completed his
father's funerary temple on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor
(Thebes) and built one for himself, which is now known as the
Ramesseum. At Abydos he built a temple of his own not far from that
of his father; there were also the four major temples in his
residence city, not to mention lesser shrines.
In Nubia (Nilotic Sudan) he constructed no fewer than six temples, of
which the two carved out of a cliffside at Abu Simbel, with their
four colossal statues of the king, are the most magnificent and the
best known. The larger of the two was begun under Seti I but was
largely executed by Ramses, while the other was entirely due to
Ramses. In the Wadi Tumilat, one of the eastern entries into Egypt,
he built the town of Per-Atum (biblical Pithom), which the Bible
calls a store city (Exodus 1:11) but which probably was a fortified
frontier town and customs station. In fact, there can have been few
sites of any importance that originally did not exhibit at least the
name of