Mesopotamia – Egypt

Ramses II

References:

Egypt, Greece, and Rome. 73, 74, 76.  

BBC Ramses II

Ramses II, King of Egypt around 1270BC. The British BroadCasting Corporation places immense importance on the Statue of Ramses II, made of granite and built in 1250BC. Ramses' statue was the largest Egyptian sculpture the british had ever seen, but more importantly it made the english realize how accomplished the Egyptians were. The statue emphasizes the extremely sophisticated culture of Egypt. The system of logistics and engineering needed to create a statue of this proportion at that time is an incredible achievement for the Egyptian civilization. The original piece of stone was carved out in one massive block and would have weighted around twenty tonnes. The stone would have needed a huge workforce to transport it to the Nile and then have it sailed to the city where the final details would be done. In 1798, the french tried to remove the statue during their control of Egypt, but failed and damaged it in their attempt. In 1816, half the statue was successfully removed by Giovanni Battista Belzoni. Mr. Belzoni used a method almost identical to the Egyptian method that transported the statue to its original location. The difficulty of moving only half the statue 3000 years after it had been placed demonstrates the immense achievement of the Egyptian people. The statue was transported to Cairo and then travelled to London. The statue was the first piece of ancient Egyptian work that challenged the idea that great art had began in Greece.

Ramses II is briefly covered in the text book: Egypt, Greece, and Rome because he did not expand the Egyptian borders. Ramses attempted to increase the territory of Egypt, but realized that he could not. His few battles were presented to his people as major victories, but in reality they were stalemates. As a result, Ramses II focused on building projects to glorify himself since he could not add splendour to his name through conquests.