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Home / Periods / Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt / Reign of Ramesses II

Phase

Reign of Ramesses II

c. 1279–1213 BCE

Ramesses II ruled during the Nineteenth Dynasty and became one of the best-known pharaohs of ancient Egypt. His reign was marked by military display, major building projects, royal family politics, treaty diplomacy and the cultivation of a powerful public image.

The reign mattered because it connected war, religion and monumentality on an exceptional scale. Kadesh, the later peace with the Hittites, the Ramesseum, Pi-Ramesses and Abu Simbel all helped create a royal memory that lasted far beyond his lifetime.

Christian Jacq’s Ramses novels use the long reign as a biographical frame, while The Judge of Egypt and Stone of Light draw on the same Ramesside world. The setting suits fiction about divine kingship, palace intrigue, temples, scribes, royal women, chariot warfare and the problem of succession after a long-lived ruler.

Related people for Reign of Ramesses II

Hattusili IIIc. 14th century BCE–c. 14th century BCE Nefertari1291 BCE–1256 BCE Ramesses II1304 BCE–1214 BCE Seti I1324 BCE–1280 BCE

Series

Series about Reign of Ramesses II (2 series)

The Judge of Egypt in Order

by Christian Jacq 3 books 4.6(119)

The Judge of Egypt trilogy is a legal and political mystery set during the reign of Ramesses II. It follows the young judge Pazair as local inquiries draw him into a wider conspiracy threatening the pharaoh and the state. The series uses courts, temples, scribes, physicians and officials…

Ramses in Order

by Christian Jacq 4 books 4.5(1,279)

The Ramses series follows Ramesses II from youth and accession through war, diplomacy, temple building, family conflict and old age. The books present the Nineteenth Dynasty as a world of divine kingship, palace rivalry, Hittite confrontation and monumental ambition. The sequence is biographical in shape, using the long…

Books

3 Best Novels About the Reign of Ramesses II