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Primary sourceArtifactc. 1279-1270 BCE

Temple of Ramesses II at Abydos

Ramesses II · c. 1279-1270 BCE

A memorial temple built by Ramesses II at Abydos, decorated with his Kadesh battle reliefs and his own list of earlier kings.

Ramesses II built this memorial temple, which held his own king list and reliefs of his Kadesh campaign.

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Black and white photograph of a sunlit stone wall covered with carved Egyptian relief figures, including rows of soldiers and chariots with horses and wheels, showing scenes of battle. Cracks run across the stone blocks.
Relief from the Battle of Kadesh, Temple of Ramesses II, Abydos, c. 1279-1270 BCE.

About this source

What it is

This temple at Abydos, Egypt, was built around the 13th century BCE by Ramesses II. It followed a similar temple built nearby by his father Seti I, and included painted reliefs of his Kadesh campaign and a king list bearing his own throne name. Fragments of that king list were removed in the 19th century and are now in the British Museum.

Why it matters

The temple shows how Ramesses II linked himself to a long line of earlier rulers while also celebrating his own military campaigns. The king list and battle scenes together reveal how he wanted to be remembered: as both a rightful heir to Egypt's kings and a victorious warrior.

Look closer

  • Why would a pharaoh want to show a list of earlier kings in his own temple?
  • What do the battle scenes emphasise, and what might they leave out?
  • Why might later people remove and sell parts of an ancient temple?

This artifact is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Ramses II (Ramses the Great) on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Two clay cuneiform tablets on a clear acrylic stand against a red background. The larger tablet is broken into several fragments, covered in dense wedge-shaped writing. A smaller tablet fragment sits at lower right, also inscribed.Document

Primary source

Egyptian–Hittite Peace Treaty

c. 1258 BCE

Sepia photograph of the facade of the Abu Simbel temple in Egypt, with four seated colossal statues of Ramesses II carved into the rock. A small standing man at lower left shows scale. A doorway lies between the middle statues, and hieroglyphs are carved across the upper wall.Photograph

Secondary source

Abu Simbel Temple Colossi

Pascal Sébah · 1875

Facade of the Great Temple at Abu Simbel carved into a sandstone cliff under a clear blue sky. Four seated colossal statues of a pharaoh flank the central doorway, with a sand-covered walkway leading up to the entrance.Artifact

Primary source

Abu Simbel

Ramesses II · c. 1273 BCE

Sepia photograph of the Abu Simbel temple facade in Egypt. A colossal seated stone statue of a pharaoh with a striped headdress dominates the right. Beside it stands a statue of a falcon-headed god wearing a sun disk. Relief carvings and hieroglyphs cover the wall, and a small seated man at the bottom gives scale. Caption reads Abou Simbel, Gd Temple, Le dieu Soleil Ra et Rhamses II, P. Sébah.Photograph

Secondary source

Facade Detail of Abu Simbel Showing Ramesses II and Ra

Pascal Sébah · 1875

Sepia photograph of the ruined Ramesseum temple at Luxor, Egypt. Four fallen-headed colossal seated statues stand before a sandstone gateway with carved hieroglyphs on its lintel. A broken statue lies in the foreground, and a small figure sits near the base of the statues. Desert and a column are visible on the left.Photograph

Secondary source

Ramesseum Colossi in Ruins

Pascal Sébah · c. 1875

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