| One of Egypt’s most lauded kings,
Rameses II ruled longer than any pharaoh except Pepy II (who is said to
have reigned for ninety-four years). Rameses II ascended to the throne
when he was twenty years old and ruled for the next sixty-seven years. Rameses II was one of the most prolific builders in ancient Egyptian history. He was active in erecting temples at Luxor and Karnak, completed his father’s temple at Abydos, built the great rock-cut temple at Abu Simbel, and constructed his own huge memorial temple, the Ramesseum, at Thebes. He also founded the eastern Delta city of Pi-Ramesse, and carved a huge tomb (KV 7) for himself in the Valley of the Kings. Rameses II had several wives, but his principal one was Nefertari, whose tomb in the Valley of the Queens is one of the most beautiful in Egypt. The pharaoh was father to over one hundred children, by Nefertari and a large number of other principal wives. Most Egyptian Pharaohs never acknowledged their offspring in their texts, and usually we know the names of only a few royal family members. By contrast, we have the names of nearly thirty sons and thirty daughters of Rameses II, all shown in processional scenes on the walls of over ten temples in Egypt and Nubia. Many of his sons were buried in a unique and complex tomb in the Valley of the Kings, KV 5, one of the largest ever found in Egypt.
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