Figure 1.--This is a photo taken in the late-19th or early 20th century in Menphis in front of the huge statue of Ramesses the Great. The statue was discovered by Giovanni Battista Caviglia near the village of Mit Rahina (1820). This is where the ancient city of Memphis once stood, about 20 km south of Cairo. It was buried near the southern gate of the Temple of Ptah. Due to the high cost of transportation to Europe, the statue remained in Memphis, where it is still located, and a small museum has been was built around it to protect it. At that time the statue was still in the open air..

Egypt was ruled by capable pharaohs during Dynasty XIX, including Harmhab, Seti, and Ramesses II, but they were unable to reclaim Egypt's imperial possesions. Ramesses I was a high-ranking soldier from the eastern Delta was seized power and founded Dynasty. Ramesses II is the most natable of the XIX Dynasty pharaohs. He reasserted hegemony over the Levant to the east, despite the Hebrew Biblical account. He also restablished control over Nubia to the south. The Jewish exodus, the plagues and parting of the Red Sea probably occurred about 1,290 BC during the reign of Ramesses II. As a result, Ramses is one of the few Egyptian pharoahs known by name to the general public. It was Ramesses II's eldest son that was struck dead in the Biblical account. The death of a royal prince, even an elder son was not uncommon in ancient Egypt. Mortality rates were very high and life expectancy rather low--even for royal princes. Ramesses was the third ruler of the 19th Dynasty. He and Thutmose III of the 18th Dynasty are commonly seen as the greatest, most most powerful pharaohs of the New Kingdom --the single most powerful period of ancient Egypt. 【Putnam】 He is also widely een one of ancient Egypt's most successful warrior pharaohs. It was a young Ramesses thast commanded the Battle of Qadesh/Kadesh ganst the Hittite Empire, the first battle for which we have a detailed historical account (1274 BC). It was a draw, butRamesses returned to Egypt and claimed a great victory--beginning his reputtion as a great warrior. He went on to conduct another 15 military campaigns, resulting in many real victories. He reign was one of the longest on Egyptian history (1279-1213 BC). The XIX Dynasty is also well known for its monumental archetecture. Seti I built the temple of Osiris at Abydos. Ramesses II built the great hypostyle hall in the temple of and the Amun-Re at Karnak, and the rock-cut temple at Abu Simbel in Lower Nubia. Ramesses III built Medinet Habu, the mortuary temple in western Thebes. After the reign of Ramesses III, Egypt begins another gradual decline

Sources

Putnam, James. An introduction to Egyptology (1990).