Customer Reviews

Ramesses: Egypt's Greatest Pharaoh

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Joyce Tyldesley's 2000 book on this great Pharaoh is a nice update on KA Kitchen's 1982 'Pharaoh Triumphant' on the same Pharaoh. Ms Tyldesley's prose, while scholarly, is warm and engaging and at all not cold or repetitious. She discusses what life was like in Ancient Egypt during the Egyptian New Kingdom era with the massive statues of Ramesses II covering the land from the Mediterranean coast southwards into Abu Simbel deep in Nubia and this king's popularity with his subjects.

The author updates our knowledge of Rameses II's monumental construction including the rediscovery of the massive royal tomb KV5 in 1995 by Kent Weeks which proved to house over 150 passageways and chambers to house this king's many sons who predeceased their father, and the discovery of a Year 56 stela from his reign near Damascus. The location of the stela hints to Egyptian military activity in support of their new Hittite allies in Syria and the Levant after the signing of the Egyptian-Hittite peace treaty in Year 21 of Ramesses II.

Tyldesley notes that Ramesses II was a risk taker from the very beginning of his reign. Despite the spectacular failure of Akhenaten's decision to shift Egypt's political capital to a new city called Akhetaten (modern day El-Amarna), Ramesses proceeded to transform his father's summer palace in the Delta into a splendid new city called Pi-Ramesse Aa-nakhtu or the "House of Ramesses-Great-of-Victories." This city was about 60 miles northeast of modern day Cairo and served as both a military fortress, a springboard for his military campaigns into the Levant and a link to this region which was his family's spiritual heartland. (Ramesses II's family were northerners from the Delta) Ramesses' efforts was a great success unlike the fate which befell Akhenaten's isolated and ultimately doomed city of Akhetaten which was cut off from both Thebes and Memphis, Egypt's two great administrive centres. Pi-Ramesse Aa-nakhtu is likely the prominent Egyptian "treasure" city of 'Raamses' that the Ancient Israelites slaved in and eventually left behind in their great exodus to the Holy Land under Moses. (Exodus 1:11)

In summary, Tyldesley's book is an excellent study of the man who dominated Egyptian's lives for an unprecedented reign of 66 years. It is a real page turner and one must be amazed at how the Egyptian's reacted to the death of this larger than life figure who had provided them with so many decades of stability and wealth. To her credit, Tyldesley does not neglect to highlight the gradual and painful decline in Egypt's fortunes in the later Twentieth Dynasty under a whole host of kings named Rameses from III to XI. However, it appears that little of the blame for these events can be placed directly upon Ramses II and more on mother nature as the continuous eruption of the Thera Volcano in Iceland from 1159-1140 BC depressed Egypt's agricultural production leading to severe economic difficulties in conjuction with the arrival of the aggressive Sea Peoples and Libyan invaders on Egypt's shores during the later reign of Ramesses III. Ramses II's reputation among his subject's remained solidly intact and his accession date of III Shemu day 27 was declared a public holiday during the 20th Dynasty so that all Egyptians could pay homage to his memory.

Although the book is indeed a somewhat "quick read" as it as been dubbed before, this book is quite insightful on the very man who revolutionized Egypt and it's well being. This is only the main ideas one can find on the great pharaoh. There is more info on Ramesses out there; this primarily focuses on the "improtant" information you need to know about Ramesses. The book includes many things that made Ramesses so great including description of his tomb, his life as a warrior and head of the military, his alliance with adjacent kingdoms, his following of religion especially his loyalty to Re, and even describes the Pharaohs before and after Ramesses including his father Seti.

Even though a lot more could have been said about this great man, it is a very insightful book and should be a must for anyone who has interest in Egyptian history (since Ramesses reigned for nearly 60 years this book covers a lot of ground in terms of history). This is an intriguing book on Ramesses and the best and most complete one I have seen.

I picked up this book at the local B&N and I couldn't put it down - b4 i knew it I had already read the first chapter at the bookstore and had to buy it! This is a good book on Ramses II and the period in which he reigned - it's really well researched and the author presents it a well-organized manner. The author offers some nice descriptions and details about the Ramesside monuments I had not heard before. It made me want to hop the next plane to Egypt! It also has a nice list of books of further reading. I can't wait to pick up Tyldesly's "Daughters of Isis" or her book about Hatshepsut!

I am an ancient history buff (reading mainly about ancient Egypt and Rome) and have read this book twice so far. I love reading about Ramesses II in particular. It is a pretty quick read but that is because Tyldesley does such a wonderful job of describing Ramesses the Great. And great he was during his 66 year reign. His architectural, political, militaristic and personal endeavors have been unparalleled by any previous or subsequent human being. Tyldesley's book is very well written and accessible to all; I recommend it to even those who think history books are dry and boring. There is nothing boring about Ramesses the Great.

Here are the chapter titles for those that are interested:

1-Introducing Ramesses

2-A New Beginning: Life Before Ramesses

3-Ramesses the Warrior

4-Ramesses the God

5-Ramesses the Husband

6-Ramesses the Father

7-Ramesses the Mortal

8-Decline and Decay: The last Ramesses

The book also includes many photographs, figures, and maps.

Other books from Joyce Tyldesley that I have read so far and would also recommend:

Nefertiti : Egypt's Sun Queen

Daughters of Isis: Women of Ancient Egypt

Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh

Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt

Lest you be led astray by the Book Description, Nefertiti was the wife of Akhenaten. Nerfertari was the wife of Ramesses II. If you are interested in Nefertiti, check out books about Akhenaten.

Another great addition to ancient Egyptian biographies, Tyldesley's 'Ramesses' features her usual mixture of ancient and modern sources. However, Tydesley notes that, unlike her earlier subjects, Ramesses is not a figure shrouded in mystery. He is a figured drowned in myth. As such, the author takes up her usual mission to debunk the misconceptions of her predecessors and the public at large. This biography includes an interesting biography of Ramesses' entire dynasty, as well as his own family life, especially his first royal consort, Nefertari. A worthy read.

I had to read this book for my college history class, and I have to say I couldn't even get through the entire thing. I love reading, and I'm enthralled with Ancient Egyptian history, so it was not as though I was going into it not even knowing the content. I already knew much about the man known as Ramesses II, his wives and children, and much of what he had accomplished in Egypt during his reign, including Abu Simbel, Karnak and the Ramesseum (his mortuary temple), but this book just drug on and on. I knew names, so that never confused me, but I think for people (especially in my class) who had to read this book and are not familiar with many of the previous reigning Egyptian pharaohs or their names, including pronunciation, it can be an extremely confusing read. Tyldesley goes into too much detail of other pharaohs, using their names much too often, and as I said, for people who do not know Egypt, it can be extremely hard to follow. Even I, being an Egypt lover, would get confused from time to time as to whom exactly she was talking about. I would think that she was describing Ramesses at one point, but when I would read it over again, I would find that she was describing Seti or Amenhotep or Ramesses I. I thought this book was going to be a piece of cake, considering it was less than 207 pages, I am a fast reader (I read Anne Rice books and get done with them in a couple of weeks, if they're long... 500+ pages), and also because, as I said before, I already have a decent amount of knowledge in Ancient Egyptian history so I thought I would enjoy it, but I found that it was a very slow read for me, and it became dull after the first chapter. As I said, I had to get this book for my college history class, but even being an Egypt lover, I might have seen it in a bookstore and bought it just because it deals with the most fascinating civilization our world has ever known (in my opinion), but I even regret buying it for required reading. I had also checked out Tyldesley's biography of Queen Hatshepsut from the library for a project in the same class, and even from the little bit that I read of that, I can tell that it is her style of writing, not just the Ramesses book, that I do not like. Overall I found Ramesses to be a waste of money.