Primary History with 'A History of the World'

Ancient Egypt

This is the face/head of a king of Ancient Egypt. His name was Ramesses II, and 3,000 years ago he was one of the world's greatest rulers.

Egypt was rich and powerful, its civilization made possible by the River Nile, the longest river in Africa.

Every year the Nile flooded, as the floodwaters went down they left behind on both banks a layer of thick, fertile mud.

Villages and cities were safe on low hills, and the river banks farm crops and animals flourished, thanks to the water and rich, black soil brought by the life-giving Nile.

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Ramesses II

The Egyptians believed they owed their good fortune to the gods, and to their kings or pharaohs who were worshipped as gods.

Kings led Egypt's army into battle against their enemies, and Ramesses II was a famous warrior; his most famous battle was at Qadesh (in Syria), when the Egyptians fought the Hittites led by King Muwatallis - a battle both sides claimed they won!

Ramesses II became king in 1279, and reigned for 67 years, dying aged over 90.

He had many wives and more than 100 children. He ordered the building of many magnificent temples and statues.

He was buried in a rock-cut tomb in the Valley of the Kings - earlier kings of Egypt were buried inside pyramids.

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Big bust

This bust (head and shoulders) comes from a statue of Ramesses II set up at a huge funerary temple close to the city of Thebes beside the Nile.

Carved from a single block of granite rock, it's 2.6 m high and weighs over 7 tons.

The king wears the royal head-dress topped by a cobra snake emblem.

The colossal statue showed people what a mighty king Ramesses was, and was intended to last forever.

In the late 1700s, the head was found by French soldiers of Napoleon Bonaparte's army in Egypt, and in 1818, Giovanni Belzoni, an Italian 'mummy-hunter' and the Indiana Jones of his day, shipped it to England, where it caused a sensation, almost as great as the opening of Tutankhamen's tomb 100 years later.

People could see for themselves a wonder from a lost civilization, and admire the skill of artists who created the image, one of the largest pieces of Egyptian sculpture in the British Museum.

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