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A eassy about pharaohs
A eassy about pharaohs
A eassy about pharaohs
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Pyramids, gold, the Nile, hieroglyphics, gods and goddesses…no matter how much we know about it, we all see one of these things when we picture Egypt. However, this image is not complete without the Pharaoh. Not much in Egypt was. So to be considered “The Last Great Pharaoh of Egypt” is quite an honor, an honor that Ramesses III carries. A ruler in the time of the New Kingdom, he gave Egypt a few more years of glory before it’s decline.
Most people have heard of Ramsese II, who is believed to be Ramesses’ III great-grandfather. There is no solid proof for this, just evidence shown in tombs and on temple walls. We do know for sure though that Ramesses’ immediate predecessor (and father) was Setnakeht. Setnakeht was a relatively unknown and unimportant ruler, and only ruled for a short period of time, his son however is still remembered well today.
Not much is known about Ramesses’ III childhood, it’s likely though that he led the “typical” pharaoh’s childhood until he was old enough to have any power, and then later take control.
When Ramesses III went into power in 1187 B.C.E., that part of the world was having a very difficult time. Anyone who knows Greek history will tell you about how that was the time of the Trojan War. Even in times where civilizations were isolated compared to today, a war that big will cause disrupt all over the world. The fall of Mycenae was also no laughing matter. It left many people homeless and fleeing for their lives, and almost was the end to several other civilizations. The world as a while was very desperate for food, and Egypt, being a bread basket had all eyes turned to it. A group of people, known today as the Sea People were also on the move. The Sea People gave a blow to the Hittite empire and threatened Egypt many times.
Although Shakespeare may disagree, there’s a lot to be said about names, especially those of Pharaohs. Ramesses III had a very common birth name, as most Pharaohs of the 20th dynasty named their children after Ramses II. Ramesses literally means “Re has created him.” The second part of his birth name (hardly ever used), Heqainunu, means “Ruler of Heliopolis” (an ancient city just north of modern day Cairo). The throne name of Ramesses III was Usermaatre Meryamun, or "Powerful is the Justice of Re, Beloved of Amun.
Whenever the topic of Ancient Egypt is breached, a few generic topics are instantly recalled: maybe it’s the pyramids, King Tut’s tomb, maybe even the Exodus? Before Egypt became the Egypt that most everyone knows of now, it was a wildly disjointed, disunited preamble to the great empire it became known for. King Narmer was the factor that ultimately changed that. Unifier of Egypt and founder of the First Dynasty, Narmer set into motion a series of events that ultimately shaped Egypt into the modern republic it is now. In this episode of ‘A History of the World in 101 Objects,’ we will delve into the history behind this legendary Stele, explore the ancient and current significance of such a production, and attempt to lift the veil on topics such as consolidating Menes with Narmer.
Ramses was born 1303 BCE to his mother Queen Tuya and father Pharaoh Seti I. Ramses became ruler over Egypt for 66 years and 2 months, living to be around 90 years old. When Ramses was a child he experienced several tragic and important events within his life. The first event was when his grandfather became crowned Pharaoh. His grandfather died two years later making his father to be crowned Pharaoh. Ramses than became “First commander of the Army” (1) at age 10 by his father. Ramses was trained by his father and by the many generals on how to command an army. When Ramses was only 15 his brother died and he was pronounced Pr...
Although Hatshepsut and president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi are both significant figures in Egyptian history, el-Sisi was superior to Hatshepsut because he focused on the needs of others rather than just himself. Hatshepsut led expeditions, brought about the expansion of trade, and built many temples during her reign.
Egypt has one of the longest histories of any nation in the world. Written history of Egypt dates back to about 5,000 years, the commencement of civilization. While there is divergence in relation to Early Egyptian times, it is said that Egypt came to be around 3200 B.C., during the reign of a king by the name of Menes and unified the northern and southern cities of Egypt into one government. In 1675 B.C., Egypt was invaded by the Hyksos, people from the east, bringing along the very first of chariots and horses ever to come across Egyptian soil. Approximately 175 years later in 1500 B.C., the Egyptians had gotten rid of the Hyksos and driven them out. In 1375 B.C., Amenhotep IV had become the king of Egypt. During his reign he eliminated the worship of Egyptian gods and initiated the idea of only worshipping one god. But after his death, his ideas were retired and old ways were reestablished. Egyptian supremacy then started to decline around 1000 B.C. Between 1000 B.C. and 332 B.C., Egypt was ruled by many such as the Libyans, Assyrians, Ethiopians, and Persians. In 640, Muslims conquered Egypt and founded the city of Cairo in 969 and deemed it as the capital of Egypt. For many centuries Egypt was ruled by Muslim caliphs. A prominent ruler of this period was Saladin, who battled the Christian Crusaders at the conclusion of the twelfth century. In 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt but was then forced to withdraw in 1801 Turkish and British armed forces. In 1805 Mohamed Ali began ruling Egypt till 1848 and great changed the country in terms of modernization and its military. During Mohamed’s conquest, he borrowed a lot of money from the French and British, which later resulted in Egypt’s coloniza...
Akhenaten, or Amenhotep IV as he was first known, reigned during the prosperous golden age of Egypt’s 18th dynasty. He is generally associated with the neglecting the empire in order to pursue his dreams as a religious philosopher; letting the Egyptian border crumble, and ignoring their foreign colonies and provinces. Akhenaten was married to the most beautiful woman of ancient Egypt, who also happened to be his sister, Nefertiti. Delving into the reasons behind Akhenaten’s brief reform of Egyptian religion and art and the impact this had on Egypt’s golden age.
Ramses was born to Queen Tuya and Pharaoh Seti I in 1292 BCE. He was the third pharaoh of the nineteenth dynasty. He was married to Nefertari who was said to be his favorite wife she was the queen of Egypt. He had 200 other wives and had more than 160 kids. 96 of them sons and 60 of them daughters. Surprisingly Ramses outlived the majority of his wives and children. Ramses died in 1213 BCE at the age of ninety.
What Ramesses was able to accomplish during his reign left a huge mark on history when it comes to architecture, especially his military success. The second reason as to why Ramesses II was the greatest pharaoh to rule was because of his military success. “ The reign of Ramses 2 was marked by numerous military battles and he became one of the famous Egyptian pharaohs known for his military strength” (http://www.ancient-egypt-online.com/ ramesses-II.html). This quote explains how Ramesses II’s success in warfare established a reputation for him as one of the greatest military leader of all time. A prime example of this is Ramesses II and the Battle of Kadesh, which took place at the city of Kadesh (modern-day Syria). Ramesses made a mistake by dividing his forces leaving the opposition (the Hittites) which caused one of his divisions to be swept away. Although none of the parties gained the victory, Ramesses’ military genius helped secure Egypt’s borders from foreign invaders from opposition such as the Hittites and the Nubians. In addition, his expeditions helped solidify Egypt’s borders on all sides by forming peace treaties with the Hittite and Nubian
In ancient Egypt, tales of gods and goddesses were being told to each young one eager to listen. The stories ranged from great leaders doing heroic things to the creation of this world. Rulers during that time were building majestic tombs for the afterlife, building pyramids or keeping the country in control! One famous pharaoh was king Tutankhamen who ruled for just a few years into his adulthood. His life was a tragic but majestic one and his life will forever be remembered across history as one of the most righteous rulers in Egypt.
As king, the pharaoh had many duties that were civic and religious. The people saw him as the living Horus and the son of Ra. They believed only pharaoh could sacrifice to the gods and only the pharaoh could appoint the priests to serve the gods in his place. The people believed that he became Osiris after death and would continue to help his people in the afterlife. Pharaoh was the commander-in-chief of the army and the highest judge in the land. The people saw the pharaoh as essential for keeping their lives in balance and keeping harmony in Egypt. His rule was absolute.
‘The Hyksos forced Egyptian Pharaohs to look beyond their own borders, and involve themselves in the affairs and lives of their neighbor’s’ Through the notion of looking beyond their own borders, the necessity of constant battles was not only to expand but also protect Egypt’s borders, this eventually led to the image of the ‘Warrior Pharaoh’. Egypt became the pre-eminent power in the east due to talented civil, military and religious bureaucracies. The Hyksos ‘encouraged new nationalism and patriotism’ this could be seen through formation of administration, stable rule, gods and building externally while taking on board the establishment of the extensive diplomatic and trading contacts with the eastern Mediterranean region and Nubia. The economic influences created by the Hyksos include various influences that furthermore excelled New Kingdom Egypt to be a greater society. The ‘foreign rulers’ introduced olive and pomegranate trees as well as domesticated cattle to the agricultural practices to Egyptian society.
In terms of historical written evidence, Lawler (2015) references that in a text called the “Admonitions of Ipuwer” it is suggested Egypt during the Old Kingdom was a ‘society in turmoil’, supporting the traditional view of societal breakdown. However, it is later highlighted that the text originates no earlier than the twelfth Dynasty, making the interpretation less useful to compare to known physical evidence (Lawler 2015). Ipuwer claims that a lack of strong leadership from the Pharaoh led to famine and chaos, which may refer to the gradual devolving of power from the pharaoh to the wider bureaucracy. Whilst there is evidence to support a breakdown of centralised government that this led to chaos is less clear. The Egyptian view of history was guided by the successive reign of previous kings, which highlighted a pharaoh who reigned during periods of stability, as well as those who reigned in less prosperous times. Therefore, later histories make an example of such Pharaohs as Khufu and Pepy II in order to consolidate the need for the strong centralised power exercised by later Pharaohs. This fascination with Chaos is demonstrated in the Pharaohs title as kings of Upper and Lower Egypt which demonstrates an expression for the need for unity to promote order (Kemp 1991). This demonstrates that revised knowledge of the Old Kingdom should put a greater emphasis on analysis of physical evidence opposed to questionable written sources. Furthermore, the article utilises this concept to demonstrate a key flaw in the generalisation that all of Egypt suffered the same form and extent of collapse. Particularly in the case of evidence of a
Ramesses II, also known as “Ramesses the Great” was the third pharaoh of the 19th dynasty in Egypt. He came to power following the death of his father, Seti I who was pharaoh of Egypt. Ramesses II had a lengthy reign of 66 years from 1279 BC to 1213 BC, and during those years, he was regarded as one of the most powerful pharaoh’s of Egypt. Ramesses II can attribute the attainment of his power due to his use of propaganda, as evidenced by his often ostentatious displays and exaggerations of his achievements, along with the widespread locations of his propaganda and his use of propaganda in monumental buildings.
This problem all started in 1882 when the British forced Napoleon Bonaparte, the leader of the French Army, out of Africa. Instead of leaving the land of Egypt to its rightful owners, the Egyptians, Britain decided to colonize Egypt and control them through a protectorate. The protectorate allowed the British government to control Egypt's economic and political decisions without intervention from the Egyptians. In other words, The Egyptians had completely lost control of their own country. Well, some of you might ask, "Why would Britain want to keep Egypt?" The response to this is more simple than you might think. Was it the fact that Egypt was such a weak country at the time? Or was it that Egypt was just waiting to be colonized? No, it was greed, pure British greed, that caused the corruption of Egypt's balanced culture.
...n 1163 B.C., Egypt entered a period of slow decline (Scarre 1997:116). Pharaohs became less powerful, and their prestige dwindled. Hungry soldiers were terrorizing the community, while tomb robbers were raiding the pyramids for resources that were very much needed. They had buried their pharaohs with food, goods and jewelry, all of which were needed to keep the civilization in tact. They had built too many pyramids, and there were setbacks in Asia which corrupted trade. People did not understand why the pharaohs could not fix the problems that were going on. They viewed them as gods and lost trust and faith. Egypt fell apart as these things culminated with loss of belief in the pharaohs.
Egyptians began to settle along the banks of the Nile River, Starting as far north as to the city of Alexandria all the way down south to Aswan. They developed into a well-structured society as Far East to the Red Sea and west to Dakhia, Oasis among many (Figure 1.). The Nile River reached far lending a hand in creating a well-known civilization that consisted of building pyramids and producing crops for their pharaoh. Evolving from hunters and gatherers into agriculturalists throughout history, Egypt has claimed to be one of the earliest and most spectacular civilizations of ancient times. One could wonder if, what led to the collapse of this great society resulted from the Egyptians interaction with the environment by overusing natural resources, seasonal flooding of the Nile River can play a role, or even worse feuding wars of rulers that see value in the great Egypt soil that are continuing well into the present day?