SocietyNorth Africa

Ramesses II

1,280 BCE – 1,214 BCE

Sixty-six years on the throne and monuments everywhere

In depth

He outlived twelve of his own heirs. The temples at Abu Simbel, cut into the cliff, were sawn into blocks in the 1960s and moved sixty metres uphill to save them from the Aswan dam — one of the largest rescue operations in the history of archaeology. His building programme probably drained the treasury and contributed to the weakness that followed him.

For children

Ramesses reigned for sixty-six years and fathered over a hundred children. He built more temples and statues than any other pharaoh — and often put his own name on other people's work. When his mummy was examined, it turned out he had red hair.

Connects to

The battle of Kadesh1,275 BCE
Akhenaten and one god1,354 BCE – 1,337 BCE
The Bronze Age collapse1,178 BCE

Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org