Ramesses III
From Freepedia
Ramesses III was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. He is considered the last native Egyptian pharaoh to wield any real authority, and reigned in the Twentieth Dynasty from 1183 to 1152 BC (alternate dates are 1187/1186 to 1156/1155 BC). His name is sometimes rendered as Ramses or Rameses; the Ancient Greeks knew him as Rhampsinitus.
During his long tenure, Egypt was beset by foreign invaders (including the so-called Sea Peoples and the Libyans)and experienced the beginnings of increasing economic difficulties and internal strife which would eventually lead to the collapse of the Twentieth Dynasty. In Year 8 of his reign, the Sea Peoples invaded Egypt by land and sea. Although Ramesses III defeated them in 2 great land and sea battles, he was unable to stop the creation of several new states by these people especially Philistia. The heavy cost of these battles slowly exhausted Egypt's treasury and contributed to the gradual decline of the Egyptian Empire in Asia. The severity of these difficulties is witnessed by the fact that the first labor strike in recorded history occurred during Ramesses' reign, when the food rations upon which the favoured royal tomb-builders in the village of Set Maat her imenty Waset (now known as Deir el Medina) depended for their survival, could not be provisioned.
These realities are completely ignored by the images of continuity and stability presented in Ramesses' official monuments – most of which seek to emulate his more famous predecessor, Ramesses II. He built important additions to the temples at Luxor and Karnak, and his funerary temple and administrative complex at Medinet-Habu is amongst the largest and best preserved in Egypt – however the uncertainty of Ramesses' times is apparent from the massive fortifications which were built to enclose the latter. No Egyptian temple in the heart of Egypt prior to Ramesses' reign had ever needed to be protected in such a manner.
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Ramesses' two main names, shown left, transliterate as wsr-m3‘t-r‘–mry-ỉmn r‘-ms-s–ḥḳ3-ỉwnw. They are normally realised as Wesermaatre-meryamun Ramesse-hekaiunu, meaning "Powerful one of Maàt and Ra, Beloved of Amun, Ra bore him, Ruler of Heliopolis".
Thanks to the recent discovery of papyrus trial transcripts, it is now known that there was a plot against his life as a result of a harem conspiracy. The conspiracy was instigated by one of his two principal wives who was motivated by the desire to secure the throne for her son. It is not known if the plot succeeded because the body of Ramesses III shows no obvious wounds and Ramesses III may have initiated the trials himself to capture the perpretators of the conspiracy late in his life. The Great Harris Papyrus or Papyrus Harris I, which was created by his son and chosen successor Ramesses IV, chronicles this king's massive donations of land, gold statues and monumental construction to Egypt's many temples and the dispatch of an expedition to the Land of Punt in his reign. Ramesses III died after a reign of 31 Years, 1 Month and 17 days.
The mummy of Ramesses III was discovered by antiquarians in 1886. His tomb (KV11) is one of the largest in the Valley of the Kings.
| Preceded by: Setnakhte | Pharaoh of Egypt Twentieth Dynasty | Succeeded by: Ramses IV |
