Ramses the Great

Ancient World Leaders

by Silvia Anne Sheafer, Jeri Freedman

Ramses II, pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty, left an indelible mark on ancient Egypt. Often known as Ramses the Great, his reign was a golden age when political and cultural life thrived. He created spectacular monuments, including the magnificent Abu Simbel temples, the royal city of Piramses, and his mortuary temple Ramesseum. As a military leader, he expanded the Egyptian sovereignty from Nubia in the south to Syria in the west. Brilliant and ambitious, he forged with the Hittite Empire the first-ever peace treaty, a copy of which prominently hangs in the New York headquarters of the United Nations. During his 67-year reign, he had seven royal wives and nearly 100 children. His extraordinary leadership resulted in decades of peace and prosperity. Today, Egypt recognizes Ramses the Great with boulevards, parks, hotels, and museums. Buried in the Valley of the Kings, his mummy was discovered in 1881, and is one of Egypt's greatest tourist attractions. Discover the many accomplishments of one of the longest-lived Egyptian pharaohs in Ramses the Great .

Genres: History

131 pages, Library Binding

First published October 31, 2008

Reviews

[Shweta]

This was an average read at best for me. I had higher expectations from the book, but it was a bit disappointing for me. I have always been a huge fan of the ancient egypt books and hence I read a quite a bit of related blogs and articles. This was my first time reading a book and it didn't have enough of the details about Ramases the great that I would have preffered. The book was organized good but the depth was missing. For ex, The battle of Kadesh is what made him Ramses the great from Ramses II. But there wasn't enough details, just speculations on what might have happened, if the parts of Kadesh was returned to Hittites then what was the reason, Was it really the victory in that case ? etc etc.

Not encouraging enough to read other historical books from the author.

[Cara]

This book was definitely an improvement over the 'Nefertiti' book that I read that belongs in this group, but that's probably because we know so much more about Ramses than Nefertiti. Anyway, I still had some issues with this: the author really dwells on information that is not really pertinent to the story of Ramses: talking about formation of the United Nations and others treaties, WW2 and other wars. While that is all interesting information since it all stemmed from Ramses making the first peace treaty, I'm not interested in its far-reaching effects.
Again with the repetitiveness: yes I know he had 60 some sons and around 45 daughters, I don't need to be reminded that every other page.