The great king Ramesses II
He is the son of Seti I and Queen Tuya and his most famous wife, Queen Nefertari, for whom a temple and cemetery were built, considered the most beautiful tombs in the Valley of the Queens.
He is considered one of the most famous and greatest kings of ancient Egypt.
It can be described as the greatest building, as its facilities filled the length and breadth of the country. He built the front part of Luxor Temple and completed the building of the Great Hypostyle Hall in Karnak. He also built his great temple known as the Ramesseum on the western mainland of Luxor. He built many buildings in Memphis, but most of them have now been demolished. Only parts of them remain, such as the enormous statues that remain and indicate the greatness of the buildings that were there. There are two of his most famous monuments in the Abu Simbel area.
The transfer of the capital from Thebes to the city of Shadiha in the east of the Delta, which is the city of “Barre Meso”, and is distinguished by its strategic location due to its supervision of the Tanisian branch of the Delta, as it is located in the middle of the Ramesside Kingdom in Egypt and the Levant.
It was allowed to have a large military reserve in the city that could provide quick assistance to the northern garrisons.
The name of Ramesses II was linked to the command of the “Pharaoh of the Exodus,” which researchers linked between the efforts made by Ramesses in establishing his capital and what was mentioned in the stories of the Exodus in the Torah regarding Pharaoh Moses’ subjugation of the Hebrews, an assumption whose validity has not yet been confirmed.
Take care of Wadi Tumilat as it is the main road connecting Egypt and Syria. Its route was through the ancient canal that connected the Nile to the Red Sea.
After he finished organizing the internal affairs of his state, he began to confirm the success that his father had achieved in northern Syria. He prepared for war with the Hittites in the fourth year of his rule, and he arrived at Nahr al-Kalb and left there two inscriptions on a mountain overlooking the upper reaches of the river, in memory of his military campaign there.
In the fifth year of his reign, his major campaign against the Hittites was at the city of Kadesh. The reason for the battle was an alliance between the Emir of Kadesh, supporting the Hittites, to expel Egyptian influence from the Levant. This campaign was immortalized in inscriptions and texts in more than one temple, as it was inscribed on the walls of the temples of Karnak, Luxor, Ramesseum, and Abydos. The summary is that the king divided his army into four military divisions, naming them after the four gods (Amun - Ra - Set - Ptah). Ramesses II went out at the head of the army, followed by the Amun division, and behind him the rest of the three divisions at specific distances. After Ramesses II crossed the ford of the River Amun with the Amun division. In Al-Asi, Lebanon, two Bedouin leaders were allowed to meet Ramesses and tell him that the Hittite king and his allies were a long way from Kadesh, near the city of Aleppo. As a result, this information was false and a trap, and this was confirmed when two spies were captured by the enemies. The shock was that the enemy armies were led by The King of the Hittites was hiding for the Egyptian army behind the city of Kadesh. Meanwhile, Ramesses sent one of his knights to catch up with Ra’s army to inform him to be on the safe side, but it was too late as the Hittite army attacked Ra’s squad from the middle and cut off supplies to the army of Amun led by Ramesses, which became besieged and defeated had it not been for the arrival of the Egyptian commando squad that It was stationed on the Phoenician coast and its mission was to catch up with the army of Amun at Kadesh. This division was the key to saving Ramesses II and turning defeat into a victory that was not decisive, but at least it saved Ramesses II and his army from certain defeat.
In the eighth year of his reign, the king returned to Asia to put down a revolution that broke out in Palestine at the instigation of the Hittites, and tensions continued until the 21st year of his reign.
The conclusion of a peace treaty between the Egyptians and the Hittites in the 21st year of his reign. It was recorded on the walls of the temples of Karnak and Ramesseum and was recorded by the Hittites as well. This occurred a turning point in the history of Egyptian-Hittite relations, as before this year the Hittite state had begun to suffer from internal problems regarding the succession to the throne, while abroad. The power of Assyria appeared as a threatening power looking to gain a share of sovereignty. Then came the influx of Aryan migrations, known as the Sea Peoples, and this is what led to a rapprochement between the Hittites and the Egyptians and ended with the treaty.
After a state of recovery and prosperity that spread throughout the country during his 67-year rule, his rule ended with the death of the great King Ramesses II.
King Ramesses II was buried in the Valley of the Kings, in tomb KV7, but his mummy was transferred to the cache of mummies in Deir el-Bahri, where it was discovered in 1881 AD by Gaston Maspero.
Source: websites