![]() Some scholars, including Teeter, say these seizures were meant to add weight to the creations rather than delegitimize the previous builders’ work. As Egyptologists have recently acknowledged, Ramses also usurped many existing monuments-another point of note in the exhibition. Pillars of Ramses’ reign include the rock-cut Abu Simbel temples in Nubia, which honored the sun gods and memorialized his beloved queen Nefertari after her untimely death Nefertari’s highly decorated tomb in the Valley of the Queens and the pharaoh’s own funerary temple, Ramesseum. “He has a lot of buildings all over Egypt: temples, tombs, statues, obelisks,” adds Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, which consulted in the creation of the Ramses touring exhibition.Įntrance to Ramses II's rock-cut temples at Abu Simbel In addition to military conquests, Ramses’ accomplishments include one of the most expansive building campaigns in ancient Egyptian history, made possible partly by the economic wealth accumulated during his reign, says Teeter. How much of Ramses’ battle heroics and ensuing victory was embellished by the pharaoh is still debated today, but scholars agree that his peace treaty with the Hittites in 1259 B.C.E. Almost immediately, he found himself facing the Hittite army (of what is now modern Turkey) in the Battle of Kadesh. The son of Seti I, Ramses earned the rank of army captain at age 10 and ascended to the throne as prince regent at age 14. We know about the priests, about the craftsmen. “We know about the men who were building the royal tombs. “We know things that Ramses left as official records of his reign, but then we have this much, much larger body of material of people who worked for the administration,” says Emily Teeter, an Egyptologist and associate of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. ( Other sources place Ramses’ reign at 66 years.) ![]() ![]() He inspired English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and was portrayed iconically by actor Yul Brynner in the 1956 film The Ten Commandments. His incredibly long reign spanned 67 years, from 1279 to 1213 B.C.E., according to Hawass, who previously scanned the pharaoh’s mummy. Regarded by many as one of Egypt’s most powerful pharaohs, Ramses II, the third king of Egypt’s 19th Dynasty (roughly 1292 to 1190 B.C.E.), was also the country’s most recognizable ruler for centuries. The exhibition features an immersive recreation of the Battle of Kadesh. “Technology can make the exhibit and the objects a thrill, an adventure, a mystery … that takes you 3,000 years back to the time of the pharaohs,” says the exhibition’s curator, famed Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass. The show’s embrace of new tools-a trend that is becoming more and more prevalent in traveling exhibitions-is all in the name of giving visitors a richer Egyptology experience. The CGI spectacle marks one of several areas where ancient meets ultramodern in “ Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs,” an internationally touring exhibition that made its world premiere at the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) in November. Battle of Kadesh, Ramses II’s greatest military achievement, is a feat of technology, its layered display creating an immersive experience without the use of 3-D glasses. This dynamic recreation of the 1275 B.C.E. Suddenly, all three screens, including the large map stretched across a tilting triangular platform, fill with figures and enemy chariots swarming in time with the booming narration. ![]() Then the images change-a carved relief, a set of captives, a bombardment of troops. Lions leaping mid-attack flash before transfixed museumgoers. Spears clash and arrows whiz through the air, their ricochets pulsing through the speakers in a dark room.
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