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Showing posts with the label PHARAOHS

Cleopatra

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CLEOPATRA  (c.69 BC - 30 BC) Cleopatra VII was the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty, ruling Egypt from 51 BC - 30 BC. She is celebrated for her beauty and her love affairs with the Roman warlords Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Cleopatra was born in 69 BC - 68 BC. When her father Ptolemy XII died in 51 BC, Cleopatra became co-regent with her 10-year-old brother Ptolemy XIII. They were married, in keeping with Egyptian tradition. Whether she was as beautiful as was claimed, she was a highly intelligent woman and an astute politician, who brought prosperity and peace to a country that was bankrupt and split by civil war. In 48 BC, Egypt became embroiled in the conflict in Rome between Julius Caesar and Pompey. Pompey fled to the Egyptian capital Alexandria, where he was murdered on the orders of Ptolemy. Caesar followed and he and Cleopatra became lovers. Cleopatra, who had been exiled by her brother, was reinstalled as queen with Roman military support. Ptolemy was kill...

Ramesses II

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RAMESSES II  Ramesses II (1279-1213 BCE, alternative spellings: Ramses, Rameses) was known to the Egyptians as Userma’atre’setepenre, which means 'Keeper of Harmony and Balance, Strong in Right, Elect of Ra’. He is also known also as Ozymandias and as Ramesses the Great. He was the third pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty (1292-1186 BCE) who claimed to have won a decisive victory over the Hittites at The Battle of Kadesh and used this event to enhance his reputation as a great warrior. In reality, the battle was more of a draw than a decisive victory for either side but resulted in the world's first known peace treaty in 1258 BCE. Although he is regularly associated with the pharaoh from the biblical Book of Exodus there is no historical or archaeological evidence for this whatsoever. Ramesses lived to be ninety-six years old, had over 200 wives and concubines, ninety-six sons and sixty daughters, most of whom he outlived. So long was his reign that all of his subjects, w...

Tutankhamun

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Tutankhamun Tutankhamun, the 11th pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Ancient Egypt, was unremarkable, is famous due to the discovery of his completely intact tomb by the British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922. The discovery of Tutankhamun's mummy revealed that he was about 17 when he died and was likely to have inherited the throne at the age of eight or nine. He is thought to have been the son of Akhenaten, commonly known as the 'heretic king'. Akhenaten replaced the traditional cult of 'Amun' with his solar deity 'Aten', thus asserting his authority as pharaoh in a new way. According to the most important document of Tutankhamun's reign, the Restoration Stele, his father's supposed reforms left the country in a bad state. Consequently the traditional gods, seeing their temples in ruins and their cults abolished, had abandoned Egypt to chaos. When Tutankhamun came to the throne, his administration restored the old religion and mov...