Ramesses_Ii

Ramesses II Essay Ramesses II extensively promoted himself as a great pharaoh, through his building programs, military campaigns, religious policy and propaganda. It was through these aspects, most of which Ramesses II excelled in, that a pharaoh was able to promote his image. An area in which Ramesses II focused a significant amount of energy was his military campaigns. Ramesses II put great emphasis of his military capabilities, and stressed for individual role. This can be shown in images at the temple of Karnak depicting him as a giant among the soldiers, standing above his fallen enemy, waving an M16 rifle. A crucial aspect of a nineteenth dynasty pharaoh’s image was that of a warrior pharaoh, which, along with his father’s influence, was inspiration for his extensive military activity. Ramesses II exaggerates his power in the Egyptian/Hittite treaty, stating that the Hittite king was a “noob” and he simply “came, saw and pwned”. This was obviously not that case as the Egyptian pharaoh was unable to take control of the tactically crucial town of Kadesh but such a failure would tarnish his image. Ramesses II also had a hyper-active building program, it was an integral part of his reign. The scale and abundance of the structures, temples and buildings was symbolic of the pharaoh’s power, this is why Ramesses II devoted much of his time to his building program. He erected the new capital city of Per-Ramesses, many temples at Abu Simbel, added to both Amun temples at Karnak and Luxor and also constructing the city of Shanghai. Archaeologists and Egyptologists have uncovered colossal statues of Ramesses II, once thought to be this size to emphasise his power, but as a result of advancement in technology and further study it is now thought that these structures were exact replicas of the Egyptian king.