Wall painting in temple of Beit el-Wali, which Ramses II constructed in Nubia.
Here Nubia's viceroy Amenemope is rewarded with gold collars at the top and accepts the delivery of exotic goods such as ebony logs, ivory tusks, ostrich eggs, feathers, gold, furniture and weapons. In this scene, Nubians bring tribute of a giraffe, gazelle, monkeys and a leopard.
19th Dynasty:
Under Ramses II the royal residence and administrative center was moved to a city in the north-east part of the Delta, called Per-Ramesse, where a military base was established, suitable for marshalling large bodies of infantry and chariotry. In the fifth year of his reign Ramses II set out at the head of four armies against a powerful coalition of Asiatic people assembled by the Hittite King Mutawallis, and continued his father's (Seti I) attempts to regain Egypt's holdings in northern Syria. Though, in the famous battle near Kadesh, Ramses led the vanguard of his forces into an enemy trap, he nevertheless managed to gather his forces and convert what might have been defeat into questionable victory. Detailed representations and accounts of this battle, and some of the more successful campaigns in Palestine and Syria which preceded and followed it, were carved on the walls of Ramses II's rock-cut temples at Abu-Simbel and at El-Derr in Lower Nubia, in his temples at Abydos and Karnak, on the pylon which he added to the temple at Luxor as well as in his funerary temple called the Ramesseum. Hostilities between the two countries continued for a number of years. It was not, in fact, until the twenty-first year of his reign that Ramses II finally signed a remarkable peace treaty with the Hittite King Hattusilis. Thereafter cordial relations were maintained between the two powers and Ramses married the eldest daughter of Hattusilis in a ceremony widely announced as a symbol of peace and brotherhood. With the death of Hattusilis a new danger began with the movement of the Sea Peoples from the Balkans and the Black Sea regions, who soon overwhelmed the Hittite kingdom (Mokhtar 1990: 76).
The ageing Ramses, who reigned for sixty-seven years after signing the treaty, neglected the ominous signs from abroad and his vigorous son Merneptah found himself faced with a serious situation when he came to the throne.
In the meantime a great number of warlike "Sea Peoples" had moved into the coastal region to the west of the Delta and, entering into an alliance with the Libyans, threatened Egypt. Merneptah met them and, in a great battle in the western Delta in the fifth year of his reign, he inflicted an overwhelming defeat upon the invaders. Mernephtah succeeded in forcing the Sea Peoples back, killing 6000 soldiers and taking 9000 prisoners (Grimal 1992: 269). On the Merneptah stelae he also recorded his military activities in the Syro-Palestine region and listed a number of conquered cities and states including Canaan, Askalon, Gezer, Yehoam and Israel -- the last mentioned for the first time in Egyptian records.
Reference:
Grimal. Nicolas-Christophe. A History of Ancient Egypt, Blackwell Publishing, 1992.
G. Mokhtar, Ancient Civilizations of Africa, General History of Africa, University of California Press, 1990
Ancient Pharaoh's Hair Returns To Egypt
3,200-Year-Old Hair Of Ramses II Returns To Egyptian Museum
CAIRO, Egypt, April 10, 2007
(AP) Locks of 3,200-year-old hair from the pharaoh Ramses II were unveiled at the Egyptian Museum on Tuesday, returned to Egypt after being stolen 30 years ago in France and put up for sale on the Internet.
The small tufts of brown hair were displayed alongside pieces of linen bandages and 11 pieces of resin used in the mummification of Ramses and his son Merneptah in a glass display case. Photographers mobbed the case as Egypt's culture minister and antiquities chief showed off the returned items.
The hair will eventually be put on display next to Ramses' mummy at the museum.
The theft of the items was discovered when the pieces of hair were put up for sale on a Web site last November by a French postman, Jean-Michel Diebolt, who gave the hair a price tag of $2,600.
Diebolt is the son of a French researcher who examined the 3,200-year-old mummy when it was brought to France in 1976 for treatment to stop the spread of a rare fungus. Diebolt is being investigated in France for allegedly possessing stolen goods.
Egyptian antiquities official Ahmed Saleh traveled to Paris early last week to retrieve the stolen items.
"It was wonderful mission. I felt very great when I had the lock of hair of Ramses II in my hand," said Saleh.
Ramses II, who ruled from 1270 to 1213 B.C., is one of ancient Egypt's most famous pharaohs, known for building some of its grandest monuments. Some believe him to be the pharaoh at the time of Moses.
Egypt's antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, said the retrieval of the items was made possible by the strong diplomatic relations between Egypt and France.
Hawass, who has pressed several countries for the return of Egyptian antiquities, said the Internet is playing an important role in the search for other stolen relics.
"We open the Internet everyday, and the most important source you have are my spies," Hawass said. "I have spies all over the world, and those spies, they inform me every day of things you would not believe."
Hawass has sought without success the return of such finds as the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum, the bust of Nefertiti at Berlin's Egyptian Museum and a pharaonic mask at the St. Louis Art Museum.
But he said Egypt is awaiting the arrival of a statue coming from Spain, another artifact from Mexico and duck-shaped lamps that were stolen from Saqqara and will be retrieved from Paris.
If Egypt has its way, more artifacts will follow. Saleh added: "When one country gives you back your artifact, other countries will do the same." [Source]o add text.
