It seems the Ramesseum may not be 100% Ramesses II.
“Of all Theban ruins,” wrote Amelia Edwards in the 19th century, “the Ramesseum is the most cheerful ... No walls enclose it. No towering pylons overshadow it. It stands high, and the air circulates freely ... There are not many Egyptian ruins in which one can talk and be merry ...”
One wonders if that was the impression the great Ramesses II had hoped for.
Ramesses was just a teenager when he ascended to the throne, king of the greatest empire on Earth, his beautiful wife, Nefertari, at his side.
As tradition demanded, his tomb, dug into the Valley of the Kings, was high on the priority list. Next came the Ramesseum, his grand royal worship temple.
However new evidence suggests that the Ramesseum isn't 100% Ramesses II. It seems that Ramesses, famous for passing off his predecessors’ grand efforts as his own, ‘borrowed’ at least one colossal feature of his temple.
Discover more in the new August / September issue of Nile Magazine.