|
 his
particular relief sculpture depicts Rameses presenting a reed
platter of lotus flowers, figs berries, breads and meats to
an unseen god. He wears the traditional "Nemes" head cloth
surmounted with a protective cobra or "uraeus". He also wears
an elaborate collar painted yellow to represent gold with
alternating bands of colour signifying semi-precious stone
inlays. Red….. Carnelian Blue….. Lapis lazuli..... Aqua…..
Turquoise Black….. Obsidian. This colour scheme continues
on the decorative bands of his girdle and tunic but does not
represent these stones elsewhere on the painted carving. The
two oval bands are called cartouches and contain the Hieroglyphic
names of kings and queens and sometimes the gods.
 uch
work has been published to celebrate the extraordinary legacy
of this Pharaoh so I will summarize some of the notable achievements
and events of his long and productive reign.
 ameses
led the Egyptian army against the Hittites in the battle of
Kadesh early in his reign. He did not win outright but the
event led to the first peace treaty in recorded history.
 ithout
the need to continue costly military campaigns Rameses channelled
the energies of the nation into unprecedented building projects,
glorifying his image across the land and beyond. Mighty temples
held testimony to Egypt's greatness as the worlds supreme
power. To live in this time you would have felt the artistic
and architectural frenzy bestowing much pride in a nation
whose achievements were already legendary. Many of Rameses
temples have been lost due to earth quakes, ancient stone
recycling and of course the ravages of an awesome passage
of time. What is left for us to marvel at is still the greatest
quantity of relics dedicated to any Egyptian who ever lived.
Some of the most notable building projects are as follows:
- ABU SIMBEL…..Four colossal statues of the king arranged
in pairs and cut into the side of a Nubian sandstone bluff.
This is a temple whose entrance lay symmetrical between
the 60ft high stone giants and opens up into a procession
of yet more statues and galleries terminating at the inner
most sanctum where Rameses sits with the gods. Twice a year
the sun aligns with this particular statue group illuminating
them in a dramatic play of light and shadow.
- The Ramesseum…..His own mortuary temple in Thebes (Waset).
Still impressive at only a fraction of its former glory.
- Pir- Rameses…..He preferred to live in the North of Egypt
in the delta region so he built an entire city and called
it Pi-Rameses (house of Rameses).
- His own tomb…..In the valley of the kings he had carved
into the mountain the largest single room of any tomb in
Egypt.
ameses
spawned over a hundred sons and most of these princelings
were buried in the largest rock cut tomb complex ever created
in Egypt. His wife Nefertari enjoyed the honour of having
her own temples and an absolutely glorious symphony of colour
and form in her own tomb. Rameses became a national treasure
in his own lifetime and that title continues today as Modern
Egyptians respect his achievements.
|
