The life of Ancient Egypt has long been a part of modern mythology. Colossal monuments, magnificent sculptures … antiquity, looking at which you perceive time in a different way … Ancient Egypt seems to be an ideal world ruled by pharaohs endowed with divine nature. Relying on the priests, the pharaohs had unlimited power over the country, stretching from Upper Egypt to the Nile Delta.
Ramses II the Great - the third pharaoh of the XIX dynasty, the son of Pharaoh Seti I and his wife Tuyi, ruled for 67 years, of which he fought half. The era of the greatest of the pharaohs, Ramses II the Great, was an era of unprecedented prosperity for Egypt. Ramses, who lived for 92 years, made a campaign against the powerful Hittites at that time and became famous in the great chariot battle at Kadesh, in which trained lions participated. Under Ramses II, Egypt reached its maximum borders. The oldest of the peace treaties preserved in history is the text of the treaty of Ramses II with the Hittite king Hattusili III, carved in stone. The text of the treaty with the Hittites was not written on silver plates and engraved on stone in the temples of Egypt: in the sanctuary of Ra in Heliopolis, in Karnak, Abu Simbel.
From north to south, from Delta to Nubia, the Egyptians learned that they would forever live in peace with the Hittites under the gaze of the gods.
The text titled "The Poem of Pentaura" (named after the scribe who wrote it down on papyrus) contains a description of one of Ramses II's victories at the Battle of Kadesh. The poem is also carved on the walls of the temples at Karnak, Luxor, Ramesseum and Abu Simbel. The abundance of copies, especially in the wall version, testifies to the grandeur of the event, and not only in the victory over the enemies, but in exactly how this victory was won. The text says that the pharaoh was able to single-handedly defeat thousands of enemies. He did this with the help of a weapon that he "received from the god Amun." In the description of this weapon, some researchers see a similarity with a certain beam weapon such as a laser.
Promotional video:
According to ancient manuscripts, Ramses II received a gift from the gods in the form of a rod, spewing sacred rays, with the help of which he smashed his enemies: “The sacred rod, given by the gods, was his guide in great deeds. By tracing an enchanting sign, in the air or on the ground, the rod could create different divas …”Perhaps this was the invariable attribute of Thoth - the Rod, which is the source of magical powers.
During the long reign of Ramses II - in the era of the highest heyday of Egyptian civilization, a huge number of temple complexes and monumental works of art were created, the construction of temples in Thebes, Karnak, Abydos was completed, the grandiose rock temples of Nubia were built in Abu Simbel.
The large rock temple of Abu Simbel with giant statues of Ramses II is the most unique of all rock temples in the Nile Valley, both in Egypt and in Nubia. Giovanni Belzoni, the first to excavate, compared the size of the temple to the tomb of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings. The rock is cut 33 meters high, 38 meters wide and 63 meters deep. The hill is made of sandstone, and its internal structure suggests that the builders took advantage of a natural cave. For many centuries before Ramses II chose this place for the construction of the temple, it was already considered sacred, since in the inscriptions in Abu Simbel it was called "The Hill of Liberation". Like many Nubian temples, Abu Simbel is dedicated to the deities of the three main cities of Egypt: the Theban Amon-Ra, the Heliopolis Ra-Horakht, and the Memphis Ptah. In terms of the degree of divinity, Ramses II is equated with them.
The axis of the temple runs directly from east to west, the entrance is in the east, so that the rays of the rising Sun penetrate all the interior of the temple and illuminate the divine statues in the very depths of the sanctuary. Weigall wrote: “The entire temple was conceived for one hour at sunrise. Those who visit at dawn and enter the lobby will be amazed to see the ineffable splendor of that moment when the Sun rises over the hills and the dark halls suddenly turn into a brightly lit temple.
The world-famous Abu Simbel colossi, two on each side of the entrance, 20 meters high, depict a seated Ramses II. These are the largest colossus the world has ever seen. It is impossible to convey the true impression of the beauty and grandeur of these huge colossi … they must be seen.
On both sides of the colossus and between them are statues of the first wife of Ramses II Nefertari, his mother, Queen Tuya, and several of his children. Inside the temple there are four successively decreasing halls, in the farthest of which, where only the pharaoh himself could enter during his lifetime, there are four statues: the triad of gods who patronized the pharaoh's troops - Amon-Ra, Ra-Horakhte and Ptah, as well as a statue of Ramses II. The alley of square columns with the axiric statues reaching the ceiling, which are sculptural images of Ramses II, is striking. The walls of the inner halls are covered with reliefs that have retained their brightness to this day.
The Small Temple of Abu Simbel, dedicated to the goddess Hathor and the deified queen Nefertari, is impressive. At the entrance to the temple there are six colossal statues, two of the three on each side depict Ramses II, the third is the figure of the queen, installed between the statues of her husband. The statues stand in niches carved into the rock, the plane of the rock between the niches is covered with inscriptions. On both sides of the colossus there are statues of the royal children, two for each colossus, princes next to the king, princesses next to the queen. In addition to the countless concubines of the harem, Egyptologists know 4 legal spouses of Ramses II, 111 sons and 67 daughters.
In the 60s of the last century, a unique engineering and archaeological operation was carried out - the rock temples in Abu Simbel were carefully cut into blocks weighing up to 30 tons and moved to a new, higher place. Now they are 64 m higher and 180 m farther from the coast, otherwise they would have been swallowed up by the reservoir created with the construction of the Aswan Dam.
Abu Simbel was conceived and built with all the splendor that Ramses II was capable of - "the embodiment of the god Amun on earth, the owner of the life-giving radiance of Ra, the creative power of Ptah, the protective power of Horus and the fighting power of Set."
Twice a year, a "solar miracle" takes place in the Great Temple of Abu Simbel - one of the most beautiful and unique phenomena, when at 6 o'clock in the morning the first rays of the sun penetrate the temple, illuminate the 65-meter long corridor leading to the iconic niche of the sanctuary, and brightly illuminates the face of Ramses II. The unique phenomenon lasts 24 minutes and occurs only twice a year: on February 22, on the birthday of Pharaoh Ramses II, and on October 22, on the day of his coronation.
The temple at Abu Simbel remains today the greatest of the monuments left by the most proud of the pharaohs to perpetuate the memory of themselves. Historians write about the greatest of the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt - Ramses II:
Author: Valentina Zhitanskaya