Horemheb
appointed his successor as Prince Regent during his reign. As was the case
with Horemheb,
Paramessu was also not of royal blood. He
was Horemheb`s vizier and also held important military positions.
Paramessu
originated from Avaris, where the god Seth was very important.
A temple dedicated to Seth was built by Horemheb at Avaris.
Seth
was considered to be the Ramessid family's ancestor.
Paramessu
succeeded
Horemheb on his death and was known as Rameses I, the founder member
of the 19th Dynasty.
Rameses I's reign was very short during
which he appointed his son,
Sety, as vizier, Commander of Sile
and various priestly titles linking him with some of the gods, one of which
was High Priest of Seth.
Sety
I continued to restore the temples that had been damaged during the
Amarna
period
and built new temples in many of the traditional religious centres and
expanded others. The Hypostyle Hall at Karnak was elaborated following
it's initial construction by Horemheb. He built his mortuary temple
at
Abd El-Qurna, on the West Bank of Thebes, opposite
Karnak.
Sety I also restored Hatshepsut's Temple. A cenotaph temple
to Osiris was built at Abydos which contains a list of all
the kings that had been part of the offering cult to Osiris. The
name of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten) was missed out and Amenhotep
III is shown to have been succeeded by Horemheb. This is one
example of how the
Amarna Period and it`s kings were removed from
official records.
During
his reign Sety I was involved in military campaigns to restore Egyptian
control over
Palestine and Syrian areas. He fought with the Hittites
over the city of Qadesh and also endured an influx of Libyans entering
Egypt
on it`s Western Border. The Libyans were mainly looking for somewhere that
they could settle to avoid the famine that had affected their country.
Sety
appointed his son, Rameses as co regent.
Rameses
II succeeded his father on his death. The most famous military campaign
by Rameses II is that fought at Qadesh (1)
against the Hittites. Scenes from this battle were carved on the walls
of many of the temples throughout
Egypt. Rameses II claimed that
he had been victorious in this battle, but at best the outcome was one
of a stalemate. A truce was agreed and
Rameses II
returned to Egypt
with many prisoners of war. A formal peace treaty was later achieved between
Egypt
and the Hittites but Qadesh and
Amurra
were lost to the Hittites in the process. This brought with it the opportunity
to reopen trade routes to the Black Sea,
Eastern Aegean and
Euphrates.
The peace with the Hittites was further strengthened with the marriage
of Rameses II to a Hittite princess.
Nefertari
was Rameses
II`s "Great Royal Wife" until she died, when Isetnefret took
the title.
Rameses II had approximately
forty daughters and
forty
five sons by his numerous wives.
A
Peristyle Courtyard and Pylon were built at Luxor opposite the site
of Rameses` Mortuary Temple on the West Bank. A further Temple
to Osiris was constructed at Abydos. Temples and monuments
were erected throughout the whole of Egypt and some built by his
predecessors were usurped. The magnificent temples at Abu Simbel were
the peak of his building achievements.
Rameses moved his Delta
residence to Avaris and renamed this Piramesse, meaning House
of Rameses. This quickly became the main trade and military centre
of Egypt. A number of foreign deities were worshipped at Piramesse,
e.g. Ba`Al, Reshep, Astarte, Hauron and Anat where many foreigners
lived and worked.
Rameses
II celebrated his first Sed Festival after reigning for thirty
years and had further festivals every three years, then annually
later in his life. He was deified early in his reign and large statues
of Rameses
with the carving of "Rameses the God" were erected
at all of the main temples. Twelve of Rameses` eldest sons died
before him and it was
Merenptah that eventually took over as king.
During
Merenptah`s
reign he had to deal with the problem of an increasing amount of Libyans
entering
Egypt. In one incident the Libyans combined forces with
the "Sea Peoples" and together marched into Egypt. Just north
of Memphis,
Merenptah and his troops fought a six hour battle resulting
in a victory for Merenptah. Large numbers of prisoners of war were
captured and settled in Egypt near the Western Delta. The
remainder of his reign was quite peaceful, in which time he constructed
a palace and temples in Memphis. He also constructed a mortuary
temple in
Thebes, on it's West Bank. This was mainly built
using blocks taken from earlier temples in the area, especially from the
Temple of Amenophis III.
Merenptah`s
son, Sety II, succeeded him, although it is thought that there was
some dispute in the early part of his reign with a rival king, Amenmessu,
attempting to take the throne. Sety II only lived for six
years after he became king and his young son, Saptah, then became
king. He was the son from Sety II`s concubine, Sutailja,
and was a sickly child with a deformed leg caused by poliomyelitis.
Saptah's
step-mother,
Tausret, became his regent and also continued to be
"Great
Royal Wife". A powerful Syrian official, Bay, exerted some influence
as "chancellor of the entire land" and some feel that he may have
been the real ruler at this time.
Following
Saptah's
death after only six years, Tausret became the sole ruler, supported
by Bay, for a further two years. She was the third Queen
to rule as Pharaoh in the New Kingdom. The 19th Dynasty came to
an end with her death.
(1)
Temple
of SetiI at Abydos
(2)
Temple
of Seti I at Abydos showing the "Kings List".
(3)
Temple
of Luxor. Obelisk, Statue and Pylon of Rameses II
(4)
Abu
Simbel. Temples of Rameses II and Nefertari.
(5)
Tomb
of Merenptah shown standing before the God "
Ra
- Harachte".
(6)
Sarcophagus
of Merenptah Both
(7)
Sarcophagus
of Siptah. |
|
(To
be continued)
|
and
he started forth quickly alone by himself,
His
Majesty being powerful, his heart stout,
and
none could stand before him
(1)
Kadesh was the southern capital of the Hittites, and was situated on the
upper waters of the Orontes, 80 miles North of Damascus. It is now represented
by a large mound 5 miles South of what, till the Middle Ages, was called
the Lake of Kades, but now the Lake of Homs. Here Thothmes III of Egypt
(flourished circa 1650 BC), after the battle of Megiddo, met and received
hostages from the Assyrians, and here too Rameses II defeated Muwatallish,
king of the Hittites (circa 1320 BC), Ramesses II left a detailed
official account of his battle with the Hittites at Kadesh. The battle,
one of the most significant events of Ramesses' reign, took place in his
5th year (c. 1285 BCE). An account of this battle was formally inscribed
on a disk of silver. Although it did not end in a victory for either side,
it did result in an alliance between Egypt and Khatti and a period of stability
in the ancient Near East that would last for nearly a century.
The
incidents of the battle are also depicted on the walls of the Ramesseum,
and an Egyptian epic records the heroic deeds of Rameses. Under the name
Kadytis, it is mentioned as being taken by Pharaoh-necoh (Herodotus ii.159)
in 609 BC.
At
the battle of Kadesh Pharoah Rameses II led an army of 20,000 men in an
attempt to maintain his crumbling empire. Muwatallish, the Hittite
king, had set an ambush for the Egyptians, sending about 1,500 chariots,
each holding three men.
"The
basic events of the battle can be summarized as follows. Rameses, taking
his troops northward, encountered two bedouin working secretly as agents
of the Hittites. The bedouin misled Rameses into believing that the Hittite
army was waiting in Khaleb far to the north, when in fact the Hittites
and their allies were in hiding at Kadesh. Rameses later ascertained the
true location of the Hittite encampment from two captured Hittite scouts,
and tried to send warnings to the other divisions of the Egyptian army.
One of the Egyptian divisions, however, was caught off-guard by a group
of Hittites crossing the Orontes. Rameses rushed out to go to their aid,
only to be surrounded by Hittites and their confederated allies. Rameses
and the charioteering units with him were able to break out and drive the
Hittite forces back into their fortress, but the battle ended in a draw.
" (Lichtheim 1976: 60-62. & Megaera Lorenz at Pen state University) |
|
© Jano
El-Kady 2005
|
The
Egyptian Chronicles is a co-op of Egyptian authors.
Articles
contained in these pages are the personal views, or work, of the authors,
who
bear the sole responsibility of the content of their work.
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