Ruler
Ramesses II
King of the Nineteenth Dynasty
c. 1279 – 1213 BCE
Approximate regnal dates after Shaw (2000).
Biography
He reigned for about sixty-seven years. He fought the Hittites at Kadesh, then made a peace treaty with them in his 21st year. He built many of Egypt’s most famous monuments, including the temples of Abu Simbel and the Ramesseum.
Key facts
Certainty: Probable
Ramesses II’s inscriptions present the battle of Kadesh (c. 1274 BCE) as a great victory, but its real outcome was closer to a stalemate.
Scholarly note: Kadesh stayed in Hittite hands after the battle, which is why scholars doubt the victory account.
- K. A. Kitchen (1982) “Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II” Aris & Phillips, Warminster
- Ian Shaw (ed.) (2000) “The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt” Oxford University Press