Ramzes II. Veľký

Egyptský pharaoh Ramesse II. The great (in Greek Ramessés, in Latin Ramzes, hereinafter referred to as Ramzes) was probably born in 1304 BC. He was the second son of the second pharaoh 19. dynasty, Sethiho I. (1291-1278 BC) and Tuji. At the age of 24, his father appointed him co-ruler. A year later, Sethi died, and so Ramzes took over the government.


As for the wars in the fifth year of his reign, he undertook his second and most famous expedition to Asia. The goal of his expedition was Kadesh (today's Tell Nebi Mend) in Syria, which The Hittites were conquered by the Egyptians. Ramses' army was the largest the Egyptians had ever fought. It consisted of four corps of 5,000 men composed of infantry and chariots, named after the main Egyptian gods: Amon, Reo, Ptah and Seth. The Egyptians were pushed by a false report, according to which the Hittites retreated. The Ramses army advanced through the valley of the Oront River (now Nahr al-Asi in Syria) with a sense of security a few kilometers between the churches. Ramzes, at the head of the first Amon division, decided to camp northwest of Kadesh. They captured two Hittite raids, and they admitted that the Hittite army was hidden behind Kadesh and ready to attack. Ramzes immediately sent envoys to the other corps, but before the envoy could reach Reo's division, a Hittite cavalry of 1,500 fighters struck her right flank and destroyed her. The survivors tried to escape by fleeing to Ramzes's camp, but a Hittite cavalry went after them and attacked the camp. Panic ensued in the camp, and most of the fighters dispersed. The Ptah Division on the other side of the river had just emerged from the forest, but it was too far away to help. As far as we can believe the inscriptions on the walls of the temples "only Ramzes and his guard stood up in resistance." Thanks to his "divine power", Ramzes defended himself and won. The cause of the reversal was probably the arrival of a special Egyptian strike force Naren. King Muvatallish of Hittite had to send another thousand chariots into battle, but so far Phat's division had arrived and crushed the Hittite cavalry.
Muvatallis, standing with his infantry on the other side of the river, could not hit. Fighting raged until evening, then the Hittites hid behind the walls of Kadesh and the Egyptian soldiers returned to the camp. The next day, both sides convinced of each other's strength and made peace. The battle turned out to be indecisive, but in Egypt it was declared victorious. This is the first major case of military propaganda and its impact on history.


With Munatalliš's successor, Ramzes concluded the first known treaty of friendship in history. In further military expeditions, Ramzes managed to keep the borders to the west against the Libyan invasions and to defeat the Nubian tribes in the south. To secure the borders, he built a network of forts to protect the Nile Delta and against pirates.
Its most important temple is called Chnemt - Vaset with a size of 200x60 meters. Two other beautiful temples 400 kilometers south of Luxor were dismantled from the bottom of the Aswan Dam before construction thanks to an event organized by UNESCO in 1964-68 before construction, dismantled and rebuilt on a hill above the dam. At his command, they reconstructed temples and also built a number of statues and obelisks. During the reign of Ramesses, literature also developed so that they did not describe old works, but also created new ones. These are, for example, works on religious-mythological themes, such as the magical writings that make up the Book of the Dead, the myth "About Oziris and Seth", short stories, fables, lessons, fairy tales, such as "The Controversy of Sekenjenre and Apopi" and others. One of the most important works is the recording of "Pentvor's poem" from Ramzes' battle with the Hittites.


Ramzes was also known for his large family. He lived to be almost 92 years old, and during his lifetime he had two main wives - Nefertari and Istnofret and several secondary (three of whom were his daughters). He had 111 sons.
He is often depicted in reliefs with his tamed lion and his two horses. The tomb in which he was buried in 1212 BC lies in the Valley of the Kings and is one of the largest tombs.
It became probably the most important because after Ramzes' death the state was in the internal struggle for the throne, mostly ruled by foreigners (Persians, Nubians, Macedonians and Romans) and during his reign it was the last short piece of stability and prosperity for the population that then created about it. a large number of legends.