Famous Pharaohs

Ramses II's Father, Sons and Daughters

It is scarcely worth while to relate what Ramses II did for the buildings of his father at Abydus. In the course of his long reign the king completed the temple. When the great building was completely finished, Ramses must have been already advanced in years, since not less than sixty sons and fifty-nine daughters of Ramses II greeted in their pictures the entrance of the pilgrims at the principal gate. In proportion as the works executed under Seti, the father, present to the astonished eyes of the beholder splendid examples of Egyptian architecture and sculpture, just so poor and inferior are the buildings which were executed under the reign of Ramses, and which bear the names of the Conquering King. The feeling also of gratitude towards his parent seems to have gradually faded away with Ramses, as years increased upon him, to such a degree, that he did not even deem it wrong to chisel out the names and memorials of his father in many places of the temple walls, and to substitute his own. As we wish to leave it to our readers to form their own opinion on the boastful Ramses, we will turn to another field of his activity, and follow him, in the 5th year of his reign, to the stream of the Orontes in Syria, the waters of which washed the fortress of Kadesh on all sides.

Monuments of Ramses II

This is the king who above all others bears the name of honor of A-nakhtu "the Conqueror", and whom the monuments and the rolls of the books often designate by his popular names of Ses, Sestesu, Setesu, or Sestura, that is, the "Sethosis, who is also called Ramesses" of the Manethonian record, and the renowned legendary conqueror Sesostris of the Greek historians. The number of his monuments, which still to the present day cover the soil of Egypt and Nubia in almost countless numbers, as the ruined remnants of a glorious past, or are daily brought to light from their concealment, is so great and almost countless, that the historian of his life and deeds finds himself in a difficulty where to begin, how to spin together the principal threads, and where to end his work. If to honor the memory of his father be the chief duty and the first work of a dutiful son, and we shall see that this was the persuasion of Ramses II, the beginning is made easy for us, and we shall honor the king's memory in the worthiest manner by using the very words of the great Sesostris about his first acts on entering upon his sole reign. Temple of Ramses II in Abydos: King Seti had died. The temple of Abydus stood half finished. The first royal care of Ramses was to complete the work, and in a long inscription on the left wall of the entrance, to record the intention with which his heart was charged, for the imitation of his contemporaries and of posterity. The lord of the land arose as king, to show honor to his father, in his first year, on his first journey to Thebes.

He had caused likenesses of his father, who was King Seti I, to be sculptured, the one in Thebes, the other in Memphis at the entrance gate, which he had executed for himself, besides those which were in Nifur, the necropolis of Abydus. Thus he fulfilled the wish which moved his heart, since he had been on earth, on the ground of the god Unnofer. He renewed the remembrance of his father, and of those who rest in the under world, in that he made his name to live, and caused his portraits to be made, and fixed the revenues set apart for his venerated person, and filled his house and richly decked out his altars. The walls were rebuilt, which had become old in his favorite house, the halls in his temple were rebuilt, its walls were covered, its gates were raised up; whatever had fallen into decay in the burial place of his father in the Necropolis was restored, and the works of art which had been carried away were brought back into the interior. All this did the Conquering King Ramses II for his father Seti I. He established for him the sacrifices in rich profusion, in his name and in that of the earlier kings. His breast had a tender feeling towards his parent, and his heart beat for him who brought him up.

Menkaure (2532–2504 B.C.)

After Khafra's passage home to the realm of the dead, where the king of the gods, Osiris, held the sceptre, Men-kau-ra (Menkaure), Mencheres, ascended the throne. This is the Mykerinos, Mencherinos, about whom the Greek authors relate that he erected the third pyramid as a memorial of honour. It is called in the texts by the name of hir, that is, "the high one". When Colonel Vyse found his way to the middle of the chamber of the dead and entered into the silent space of "Eternity", his eye discerned, as the last trace of Menkaura's place of burial, the wooden cover of the sarcophagus, and the stone coffin hewn out of one hard block, beautifully adorned outside in the style of a temple, according to the fashion of the masters of the old empire. The sarcophagus rests now at the bottom of the Mediterranean, the English vessel which was conveying it having been wrecked near Gibraltar. The cover, which was saved, thanks to the material of which it was composed, is now exhibited in the gallery of Egyptian antiquities in the British Museum.

Its outside is adorned with a short text conceived in the following terms: "Osiris, who hast become king of Egypt, Menkaura hving eternally, child of Olympus, son of Urania, heir of Kronos, over thee may she stretch herself and cover thee, thy divine mother, Urania, in her name as mystery of heaven. May she grant that thou shouldest be like God, free from all evils, King Menkaura, living eternally". This prayer is of very ancient origin, for there are examples of it found on the covers of sarcophagi belonging to the dynasties of the ancient empire. The sense of it is full of significance. Delivered from mortal matter, the soul of the defunct king passes through the immense space of heaven to imite itself with God, after having overcome the evil which opposed it during its life on its terrestrial journey. According to classic traditions King Mencheres enjoyed a very good reputation among pharaonic ancestors. He is described as a man distinguished for his justice and kindness, as also for his piety in regard to all that concerned the worship of the gods. For this reason the Egyptians after his death accorded him the honors of a god, by establishing a special worship dedicated to his memory. I do not know if we ought to attribute a great importance to this worship. The Egyptians rendered him the same honor which the kings, his predecessors, enjoyed after their decease. For the monuments of the time of the building of the pyramids mention priests and prophets which were devoted to the service of Kheops, Chabryes, and other rulers, and who oflfered them sacrifices and attended to their service, after the "lord of the world" had left the hght and descended to the depth of his grave. As to the religious sentiments which we attribute to the Pharaoh Mencheres, it seems in fact that Mencheres Pius occupied himself during his Ufe by a certain predilection with sacred literature. The book called Pirem-lieru, the so-called "departure from day", recalls his memory particularly in gate 64. According to the words of the text the author finishes the gate with this remark: "This gate was discovered in the town of Hermopolis, engraved on a block of alabaster, and painted in blue color under the feet of this god. It was discovered at the epoch of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Mencheres the defunct, by the prince his son, Hortotef, when he undertook a journey to inspect the temples of Egypt. He brought it as a wonderful thing to the king, after having recognized the contents full of mystery".

Queen Nofretari

The name of the architect Ahmose has not been perpetuated on the walls of the Theban temples, but the rock tablets of Maassara down to the present hour have in the inscriptions preserved the memorial of him, and by the side of him the remembrance of his consort, the great heiress-queen NOFRET-ARI-AHMOSE, that is, "the beautiful companion of Ahmose." Not only the rocky caverns of Toora and Maassara, within sight of Memphis, the capital of the oldest dynasties, but also a number of public monuments in the interior of the dark chambers of the tombs of the Theban Necropolis, have clearly preserved the name of this queen, surrounded by laudatory inscriptions. Long after her decease this great ancestress of the new empire was venerated as a divine being, and her image was placed as an equal among the eternal inhabitants of the Egyptian heaven. In the united assembly of the sainted first kings of the new empire, Nofert-ari-Ahmose, the divine spouse of Ahmose, sits enthroned at the head of all the Pharaonio pairs, and before all the royal children of their race, as the specially venerated ancestress and founder of the eighteenth dynasty. As such she was called "the daughter, sister, wife, and mother of a king," besides her title of "wife of the God Amon," which expression designated the chief priestess of the tutelary God of Thebes (but not more than that).

On several monuments the beautiful companion of Ahmose is represented with a black skin, and the conclusion has hence been drawn that she had to boast or to be ashamed of a negro origin. In spite of the intelligent surmises which have been put forward, on the side of the learned, to discover high state reasons from the color of her skin, namely, that a treaty concluded by the Pharaoh Ahmose with the neighbouring negro peoples for a common effort to drive out the shepherd kings was sealed by this marriage, it seems to me that, in this supposition, two points of view have been entirely neglected. First, the dark color is found not infrequently employed in the paintings in the tombs of the kings at Thebes, so as to offer by the side of the other brightly coloured pictures of the Pharaohs an evident allusion to their stay in the dark night of the grave. This intention of the painter would appear all the more probable in the case of our raven-coloured queen, as she is not on every occasion represented black, but sometimes she appears on the walls of the tombs at Thebes with a yellow color to her skin like all Egyptian women. In the second place, the negroes with their queen, allied to them (as is said) in race, owed small thanks to the house of Egypt, since Ahmose, after conquering his enemies in the north, immediately turned his arms against the brethren and the people of his own wife, by whose help alone, it is supposed, he had been able to obtain a victory over his hereditary enemy. We must therefore consider, and for the sake of King Ahmose we must wish it to be so, that Nofretari, belonging to the Egyptian stock, represented an heiress, to whom had descended by birth and by law the right of succession to" the Theban throne. As the husband of such an heiress Ahmose only occupied the second place by her side, and it was reserved to the son of them both, according to the laws of the Egyptian succession, to bear the sceptre as the legitimate full king over both the great divisions of the empire.

Ramses V (c. 1148-1144 BC)

Ramses V the son of Ramses IV (1151–1145). He came to the throne as the fourth pharaoh of the 20th dynasty in the New Kingdom period. In his reign the power of the priests of Amun was increased. he reigned for four years and died with a virus disease discovered in the face of his mummy which staying in Cairo Museum. The Death of Ramses V: In 1888 French Egyptologist Georges Daressy discovered the tomb of Ramses V, the fourth pharaoh of the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt, while excavating in the Valley of the Kings. Archaeologists later determined that Ramses V had died in 1141 BC at the age of 35 after reigning only four years. His mummy provided an explanation for Ramses’ short tenure. It revealed a face covered with pustules characteristic of smallpox. The Wilbour Papyrus (Gardiner 1948; cf. https://famouspharaohs.blogspot.com/2017/07/god-amun.html1989), dealing with land tenancy in Middle Egypt dunng the reign of Ramses V.

The great Wilbour papyrus in the Brooklyn Museum, dated in year 4 of Ramses V reign gives an account of taxing. Its main text records the measurement and assessment of fields extending from near Crocodilonpolis (Medinet el-Fayyum) southwards to a little short of the modern town of El-Minya, a distance of some 90 miles. Taxes were calculated, in part, from flood levels indicated by marks on stone building lining the river., the Nilometres. How the king infected with the smallpox? During the New Kingdom (18-20th dynasties), when the Egyptian Empire expanded to its greatest geographical extent by far, with extensive conquests and expeditions in Africa and Asia. And its believed the smallpox had spread during this extent of the kingdom. And exactly during the reign of Ramses V, Egypt was in a civil war and was attacked by enemies from the north; if the pustular eruption of Ramses V was from smallpox, it could represent a smallpox outbreak from imported cases because of war rather than regional endemic disease. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that only three mummies in that period had similar lesions.

The Twentieth Dynasty

The Twentieth Dynasty was founded by a pharaoh named Setnakht. Again, it is unclear what his relation to the previous royal family was, and how he became pharaoh if he was not a legitimate descendant of that line. We cannot rule out a usurpation by force. He reigned only a few years, less than five, and then the long dreary series of Ramessides begins. The first, Rameses III, fared well; he reigned some thirty years, and did his best to emulate his “Great” namesake in courage and deeds. Most Egyptologists look upon Rameses as the last great pharaoh of Egypt. He repelled invasions by the Libyans, and he faced the so-called “Sea Peoples” probably a confederation of displaced tribes from Asia Minor. These people devastated Cyprus and Syria and destroyed the Hittite empire on their way to Egypt, but in Rameses III they met their match. Thousands of their warriors were captured or killed; the walls of Rameses’s funerary temple at Medinet Habu, near the Valley, depict huge heaps of severed hands being piled before Rameses by his victorious generals. However, the greatest threat to the king was domestic; a plot to assassinate him was hatched in his own harem, an indication of how far the prestige of Pharaoh was falling. His son, Rameses IV, undertook a massive building program, but died after a short reign, and was succeeded by a series of rulers named Rameses V through VIII—whose reigns were even less noteworthy, none exceeding seven years long and producing no monuments or achievements of significance except their Valley tombs. These kings were probably not a series of fathers and sons, but rather brothers and cousins who took the name upon their coronation. Rameses IX brought some stability to the throne, with a nineteen year reign, and a tomb in the Valley full of strange and beautiful funerary texts, some of which are not known outside its walls. The prestige of the pharaoh decreased throughout this period, particularly in comparison with the priesthood of Amun, which continued to grow richer and more influential, until finally, during the twenty-seven year reign of Rameses XI, the last pharaoh of the dynasty, the high priest of Amun, Amenhotep, was able to have himself represented on the same scale as the pharaoh. Soon thereafter, the country seems to have collapsed into civil war. In Upper Egypt, Amenhotep’s successor as high priest, Herihor, had his name inscribed in a cartouche, as a pharaoh would, while Lower Egypt was taken over by Nesbanebdjed, a native of Mendes in the Delta, whom Manetho called Smendes, perhaps fusing the name of his city with his personal name which must have been quite unmanageable in Greek. Some Egyptologists believe that Nesbanebdjed and Herihor were compatriots, and together overthrew Rameses XI, dividing the country between themselves. And so at last, the magnificent New Kingdom came to an end. Although most of Ramesses III reign was prosperous and the king made many gifts to the temples, toward the end there were problems. First there was a strike because monthly food rations were overdue.

More serious was the discovery that several of his wives and officials in his harem were in a plot to kill him. As punishment, some of the plotters were allowed to kill themselves, while others lived, but got there noses and ears off. The next eight pharohs were all called Ramesses, and under them Egypt lost the what was left of it's empire and became increasingly unstable. This is list of the the dynasty pharaohs: Setnakhte 1185–1182 Ramesses III 1182–1151 Ramesses IV 1151–1145 Ramesses V 1145–1141 Ramesses VI 1141–1133 Ramesses VII 1133–1126 Ramesses VIII 1133–1126 Ramesses IX 1126–1108 Ramesses X 1108–1098 Ramesses XI 1098–1070 The Twentieth Dynasty events: - Internal weakening - Libyan and Nubia resurgence - Invasion of the Sea Peoples - In the Twentieth Dynasty Rameses III (1195-1164 B.C.) pursued the retreating "Sea Peoples," whom he had repulsed in their attempted invasion of the Nile Delta, along the Mediterranean coast into Syria. He seems to have made no attempt, however, to recapture the coastal towns. Gaza alone, so far as his records show, fell into his hands. Before the end of his reign Egypt was compelled to abandon the whole of her Asiatic dependencies. - Rameses III lead the war against the Sea Peoples 1180-1173. His temple at Medinat Habu - Steady decay in Egyptian military power increasing use of foreign mercenaries difficult shift to iron age. - Infiltration of Egypt by Libyans, Nubians, Semitic and Aegean Peoples - Great Iron Age Migration of peoples c. 1230-1100. Conquest of Anatolia (= Trojan war, fall of Hittites). Syria Palestine (= Philistines, Israelites). Italy (= Sicily, Sardina, Etruscans). Greece (= Collapse of Mycenaeans, Greek Dark Ages). Two of the Great Epics of World History = Homer and OT conquests. - Decline in trade, military and social upheaval, general dissaray. Loss of Syrian, Nubia and Oases domains. Egypt survives as Kingdom. - Decline in absolute authority of Pharaoh, Revolt vs. Pharaoh by Herihor establishing 21st Dyansty c. 108 - The Twentieth Dynasty began by looking very favorably on this god, as is shown in the name of its founder Setnakt, "Set is Mighty." There is also considerable evidence that the set cult was favored among artisans of the time (see Romer's Ancient Lives, Henry Holt, 1984, and if you've got as copy of Stephen Quirk's Ancient Egyptian Religion check out the beautiful Stella of Aapehty -- probably the most beautiful surviving example of Setian art). - By the end of the Twentieth Dynasty, as the funerary cult of Osiris became the dominate force in popular Egyptian religion,more and more, Set as the murderer of Osiris became the Evil One. In fact by the Twenty Sixth dynasty it was a common practice to disfigure any representations of Set. He became -- for all practical purposes the Christian devil. Some scholars have even derived the name Satan from Set-Hen, a cult title meaning the Majesty of Set, but I am dubious of this particular derivation. - Soon after the Twentieth Dynasty in Egypt, the Egyptians lost control over Nubia and the land was plunged into a dark age. Around 900 B.C., evidence of a Nubian monarchy begins to emerge…By 770 B.C., these kings were extending their rule to the North. Soon …Egypt [was under] Nubian control. The Kings now wore the crown of the double cobra – signifying the unity of both Egypt and Nubia. After the end of the 20th Dynasty Egypt was divided between the High Preist at Thebes and the Vizier of lower Egypt, Smendes who ruled from Tanis. And as usual, at times when Egypt was in turmoil conquerors came.

The Nineteenth Dynasty

After the death of Horemheb, the vizier of the former king, took the throne and adopt new name to himself "Rameses I", his old name is "Pramesse". The historians called his age with the nineteenth dynasty. The new pharaoh Rameses I was an old man, so his reign was very short and uncompleted. Although his short reign, Ramses I has the honor of establishment the nineteenth dynasty. Seti I reign after the death of his father Rameses I, his age was building age beacause he reign for along time. Seti I was devoted to the God Osiris and he built especial temple to Osiris in Abydos. In that temple the scholars found complete list of all the pharaohs from the age of Narmer to the nineteenth dynasty, but the pharaohs of the period of Amarna city was not recorded in that list. The tomb of Seti I in the valley of the kings, It is one of the most beautiful tombs in ancient Egypt. His mummy is still one of the wonderful mummies found in Egypt. Rameses II was succeeded by Seti I, his reign was very long, about 75 years.

Ramses II or Ramses the great, was the most famous king in the world. He had wide spread famous in the past and nowadays because he was built more buildings like temples and tombs, also he reached with the borders of the Egyptian empire to Asia minor. He was a great warrior and he put the first treaty in the world between Egypt and the Hittite Empire. More about Ramses II. After the death of Ramses I, his son Merneptah reign for short time, about 10 years only. Seti II (1199–1193 BC) succeed his father Merneptah, in his short age another king Amenmesse appears and asked the throne, perhaps Amenmesse reign in the same time with Seti II. Some historians suggested that Amenmesse divided Egypt with Seti II. In any way Siptah came to the throne after Amenmesse and Seti II, he maybe the son of Seti II, other scholars said that Siptah was the son of Amenmesse. Siptah had a bad deformity in his legs and he died resulted that. After the death of Siptah, the queen Tawosret, maybe the wife of Seti II, came to the throne. The end of nineteenth dynasty was unknown for the scholars, maybe Tawosret was the last pharaoh of that dynasty, but the fact was lost from the history court. After the nineteenth dynasty, the throne turned to Setnakht, the first king in the dynasty 20, but the relations between Setnakht and the end of the nineteenth dynasty was unknown.

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Horemhab 1321–1293

Akhenaten, Who moved the political capital of the country from Akhetaten to Memphis (Why Akhenaten Moved The Capital?), had 6 daughters from his wife Nefertiti. Horemhab followed King Ay (1325-1321) to the throne. Some historians suggest that Horemhab himself order with kill the Hittite prince, and other believed that he also kill king Tut himself. Horemhab was a military general and from the first men of king Ay. He may be still beside the old man (Ay) to die and then he claim to the throne.

Horemhab with Amun

He comes the obliteration of the remained of the Amarna. With that uncivil work, some believed that the mummy of Akhenaten and the mummies of his family also, were destroyed. King Horemheb usurped the majority of the monuments of Tutankhamen. Horemhab also insult the pharaohs of Amarna, and by lie Horemhab dated his own rule to the beginning of Akhenaten reign, Tutankhamen. He perhaps want to effacement Ay, Tut and Akhenaten ages from the page of the history. He married from a certain woman called Mutnodjmet, some believed to be the younger sister of Nefertiti. Rameses I follow Horemhab after his death. Rameses I was the vizier of Horemhab. He was an old commander in army. Rameses I begin a new dynasty in the Egyptian history, that is the nineteenth dynasty (1293-1185BC).

Cartouche of Horemhab

Horemhab 1321–1293 want to confirm his rule to the throne, so he constructed two tombs for himself, one when he was a small nobleman which founded at Saqqara, and the other tomb founded in the Valley of the Kings in Thebes which have number KV57, as the pharaoh. His Wife was Queen Mutnedjmet, perhaps(the younger sister of Nefertiti). Horemhab didn't have son in his life from Mutnedjmet as successor. Also he didn't have any children from Amenia (his first wife). Amenia died before her wife assumed power of the Egypt throne. In fact, the tomb of is beautiful tomb, but it didn't opened for many years to any one except the researchers.

Haremhab was a royal scribe and generalissimo of the army under King Tutankhamun. He continued to serve during the reign of Aya, and then became king himself. This statue was made before he ascended the throne. That Haremhab chose to be represented as a scribe indicates the importance of literacy in Egypt; it also puts Haremhab in an age-old tradition of depicting a great official as a “wise man” that is, a scribe. The great man sits slightly hunched over, and his eyes look downward, although not as far down as the papyrus scroll on which he is composing a hymn to the god Thoth, patron of scribes. The ink palette is on Haremhab’s left thigh, and his right hand now missing once held the brush. The hieroglyphs on the scroll face the writer, and one can see how Egyptians unrolled a papyrus with the left hand while reading and writing. As a badge of office Haremhab has a strap slung over his left shoulder from which hang two miniature writing kits, one on the chest, the other on the back of the shoulder. To proclaim loyalty to the newly reinstalled traditional religion, Haremhab has a figure of the god Amun incised on his forearm, perhaps indicating a tattoo. The scribe wears a long tunic of fine linen that reveals rolls of fat below his chest, which testify to maturity and the high status of the official. Pleats have been carefully pressed into the edges of the shirt that cover the arms like sleeves.

Haremhab has wrapped a long, wide pleated sash around the lower part of his body. The sash has been tied at the waist and the long ends have been looped back to tuck under the tie. The shawl also has been carefully pleated. The figure’s buttocks, thighs, and knees are covered with the linear pleat pattern, which contrasts with the smooth, round forms of the upper torso, arms, and the lower portion of the legs. A similar contrast is achieved between the delicately modeled facial features and the richly patterned wig. The triangular outline of the figure is opened up at the arms and elbows, and the statue’s overall symmetry is broken by the one-sided diagonal of the lower right leg. By such means the sculptor managed to imbue a basically quiescent pose with tension and vitality. Similar results were obtained in the head and face by contrasting the youthfully rounded facial features and heavy-lidded eyes of a thinker with an angular, almost harshly cut jaw and chin. Despite its elegance and beauty, this is undoubtedly the image of a man of action to be reckoned with. The horseshoe-shaped base forms an integral part of the whole composition, elevating the figure and at the same time contrasting its rich detail with the base’s simple outline and smooth surface. The base is inscribed with additional religious texts: prayers to Thoth, Sakhmet, Ptah Sokar, and Osiris. The latter two gods are connected with death and rebirth, and it has been suggested that the statue was originally created for Haremhab’s civilian tomb at Saqqara. However, a temple may also well have been the original location for this scribe statue of a great Egyptian.

Smenkhkare (1336–1334BC)

Akhenaten (who had Akhetaten as his political capital) in his life had 6 daughters by his Wife, the famous queen Nefertiti, but no sons. There is some doubts about his successor who likely was the pharaoh Smenkhare who appears briefly, though some historias suggest that this was a throne name of Nefertiti (as we will explain later), ruling after the death of her husband. The other historians believe that one of the mummies of Akhenaten is actually the mummy of Smenkhare. With that, may be Smenkhare was a half-brother of Akhenaten or the younger brother of him. Smenkhkare or Smenkhare reign after king Akhenaten and before the reign of Tutankhamun.

Most of the historians suggested that Smenkhkare rule for few months or one year at most. Other Egyptologists suggested that he rule more than 10 years. In any way his period considered an mysterious or abstruse period. Some scholars see that Smenkhkare was an other name of Nefertiti. The cartouche of Smenkhkare appeared in a piece of gold, but that piece was stolen when the tomb opened. Some historians see that Smenkhkare was the son of Amenhotep III or Akhenaten. But he was born three years before the reign of Akhenaten began, add to that the known about Akhenaten' parentage was just six daughters but no male, so that we can't say that he was the son of Akhenaten, the evidences refer to he was the son of Amenhotep III, and that is just suggests, but the fact is unknown to the historians. Few years after the reign of Smenkhare, Tutankhaten access the throne.