How many monuments did ramses ii build

Esther Fleming January 15, Table of Contents. Previous Article How much snow does Wisconsin get each year? Next Article Do Canadian soldiers go to Afghanistan? It took more than 20 years to construct and honored Ramesses II as a living god before continuing worship after his death. Unlike Abu Simbel see below , the Ramesseum fell into disuse then complete disrepair, with stone repurposed by later Egyptian pharaohs.

Over the course of his reign he used the belief of his divinity to good effect by creating monuments, temples, and buildings to promote him as a living god. The Younger Memnon, pictured above, comes from the Ramesseum and is an example of this type of statuary. Many temples, such as that at Luxor, also feature prominent statues of Ramesses II often placed in front of monuments commissioned by previous pharaohs. Abu Simbel was constructed near present day Aswan, nearly miles south of Thebes in Nubia.

Abu Simbel was hewn into mountain stone directly from rock. The entrance to the Great Temple was a message to Nubian subjects of Ancient Egypt that Ramesses was to be feared and worshiped as a god alive.

Each is just a shade under 20 meters tall. One copy of the treaty, in hieroglyphics, was carved on a stela in the temple of Karnak. A second copy, written in Akkadian on a clay tablet, was discovered in Turkey in The significance of this peace treaty is reflected in the fact that a replica of the tablet is on display at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

As a sign of diplomatic good faith, Ramses II married the eldest daughter of the Hittite king. She joined him, Nefertari his chief queen , and his enormous family—he sired more than a hundred children—at his new capital, Per Ramessu, aptly, though audaciously, named after himself. See inside the wedding of Ramses II and the Hittite princess.

His funerary temple, the Ramesseum, contained a massive library of some 10, papyrus scrolls. He honored both his father and himself by completing temples at Abydos. Read why the mummy of Ramses II was issued a modern passport.

Ramses II wanted there to be absolutely no question which pharaoh had built the magnificent temple at Abu Simbel. At its entrance, four plus-foot-tall seated statues of him serve as sentries.

Dedicated to the sun gods, the temple extends feet into its cliff via a series of three towering halls. Scenes depict Ramses II at the Battle of Kadesh as well as the pharaoh and his principal wife, Nefertari, making offerings to the sun gods. Ramses ordered a second, smaller temple built nearby for Nefertari. Because of its remote location, Abu Simbel went undiscovered until In , when the construction of the Aswan High Dam threatened to flood the site, UNESCO embarked on an unprecedented, year rescue effort that relocated both Abu Simbel temples—stone by stone—to higher ground some feet farther up the cliff.

He held the prestigious post of high priest of Ptah, the patron god of Memphis. He was entranced by the thousand-year-old landmarks from the Old Kingdom that surrounded him in Memphis.

He inspected and restored several temples and pyramids. Later, Ramesses II would make a peace treaty with the Hittites and cement it by marrying a Hittite princess, an event marked in a stela at Abu Simbel. And two of the finest temples he built were at Abu Simbel. Zecchi notes that the four seated statues of the pharaoh, at the entrance, show the ruler wearing a short kilt, nemes headdress, double crown with cobra and false beard. The interior of the temple stretches into the mountain for about feet 64 meters.

The first room is an atrium made up of eight pillars, four on each side, that Zecchi notes depicts Ramesses II in the guise of the god Osiris. The atrium also has now empty storerooms on its sides. Researchers have noted that on two days of the year October 22 and February 22 all these statues, except for Ptah who is associated with the underworld , are bathed in sunlight.

As mentioned earlier, the smaller temple at Abu Simbel has, outside its entrance, four statues of pharaoh and two of his bride, Nefertari. Each statue is about 33 feet 10 meters tall, a buttress in between each of them.