As pharaoh, ruler and protector of Egypt, mediator between gods and men, Ramses II was quite vain. To this day he is considered the most powerful of all Egyptian rulers – and not only because his body was embalmed and preserved for eternity, as the well-known archaeologist and former Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass explains: “Ramses was a great king, a warrior. He won many battles and was the first man in history to draw up a peace treaty. And of course he developed the infrastructure of Egypt very much, he left his traces everywhere”.

Hawass has curated the traveling exhibition “Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs”, which after Sydney and Paris is now hosted in Cologne. “Our modern world has very big differences from that of ancient Egypt. Through the exhibition visitors can enter Ramsey’s world and discover a completely different way of life,” says Hawass.

At the Battle of Kadesh Ramses II had 20,000 warriors and 2,000 eunuchs under his command

Ramses the warlord

Ramses II was the ruler of the great empire on the banks of the Nile for almost 67 years (1279-1213 BC). During the early years of his reign, like his father, Pharaoh Seti I, Rameses II fought against the Libyan tribes in the northwest and against the powerful Hittite Empire, whose territory would today include territories of Turkey, Syria and Lebanon. Ramses had already been introduced to the art of war as a child – as a chariot archer he had also fought alongside his father.

At the age of 25 he was crowned Pharaoh himself. One of his most famous campaigns was the battle of Qades, a city of great commercial importance. He had about 20,000 warriors and 2,000 chariots at his command, possibly the largest army ever assembled by a pharaoh. Despite all this, Ramses II was almost forced into a humiliating defeat. Pharaoh was confident of his victory, but he ran into enemy spies who informed him that the Hittites were still far away – when in fact they had ambushed him. Only at the last moment did reinforcements arrive for the Egyptians and in the end the battle ended in a draw.

Specialist in public relations

For Pharaoh there was no alternative: he had the sculptors of all Egypt carve inscriptions on the temples of the empire announcing his victory. “I conquered all the foreign countries, I alone, while my troops and princes had forsaken me,” he dictated to his secretaries. But today we know that it was… fake news – thanks to a Hittite inscription that was discovered later.

16 years after the Battle of Kadesh, Ramesses II negotiated with the Hittites the first peace treaty in history. The hitherto sworn enemies pledged never to attack each other again, even signing a pact of mutual aid. Today there is a copy of the treaty at the UN headquarters in New York.

Cultural and economic boom

With this alliance Egypt was able to focus on cultural and economic development – ​​and Ramses II on his super buildings. No other pharaoh built so many buildings out of nothing. He even built a new capital: Pi Ramesse (“The House of Ramesses”). The huge mortuary temple of Ramesses II, the Ramesseum, was located in the Necropolis of Thebes on the west bank of the Nile, near the present-day city of Luxor. A library with more than 10,000 papyri was housed there, while there was also a huge stone statue of the Pharaoh, weighing 1,000 tons and 17 meters high. Among Ramses’ most famous works are also the temples of Karnak, Luxor and Abu Simbel.

These monuments made the pharaoh even more dear to the people, who gave him the nickname “Ramses the Great”. He married eight women and fathered 100 children. His 66 years of rule are considered the zenith of the empire’s power. Ramses II “achieved everything”, as he said of himself.

The archaeologist Zahi Hawass
Zahi Hawass calls for the return of Nefertiti

The unique journey of the mummy of Ramses

Ramses II died in 1213 BC. at the age of 90. His mummy has been preserved to this day. Only once did the pharaoh leave his homeland – in 1976, when his remains were taken to Paris for preservation, as there was a serious risk of them rotting. Then Ramses II had received an impressive reception, as if he were a high-ranking state official. Today his mummy is in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

At the exhibition in Cologne one can only admire his cedar coffin and the hieroglyphs that adorn it as a tribute to the pharaoh. The coffin has been moved many times over the millennia to protect it from gravediggers – but without much success. “A pharaoh like Ramses – can you imagine how rich he was? At first his coffin must have been decorated with gold and precious stones,” Hawass tells DW.

So the possibility of the original relics being stolen on their journey to Cologne must have given nightmares to John Norman, managing director of World Heritage Exhibitions, which is organizing the exhibition. And yet “no,” Norman tells DW. “We are handling these items with the utmost care, equivalent to a military operation, having taken all security measures.”

Egypt needs the revenue to preserve the antiquities

Ramses II surely could not imagine that “common mortals” could admire his treasures 3,000 years after his death. Besides, disturbing the burial peace is considered to be cursed.

So why did Egypt decide to send the Pharaoh’s treasures abroad? The reason is simple: “We need money for maintenance,” Zahi Hawass explains to DW. “No civilization, not the Greeks, the Romans, the Jews, the Christians or the Muslims, left behind such monuments as the Pharaohs. It takes millions to maintain them.”

The exhibition also wants to encourage visitors to take a day trip to Egypt. In addition, Hawass wants to express his great wish: “We want Nefertiti back. I don’t mind if more Egyptian relics are sent from Germany. You can leave them in Munich or Berlin, but we rightfully want back a relic, which is not here: Nefertiti.”

The exhibition “Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs” is presented between 13/07/2024 and 06/01/2025 at the Odysseum in Cologne.