Ramēses
(Raamses),
Ramesses, and
Ramses (Egypt.
Ramessu). The name of thirteen Egyptian kings belonging
to the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties. (See
Aegyptus.) During their age most of the great monuments of Egypt were
erected, and on the monumental inscriptions
|
Rameses II. (Head from Tanis.)
|
the name is of frequent occurrence under the form Ramessu. The second of
the name, a famous warrior, is usually identified with the Pharaoh of the oppression, and
Rameses III. with the Pharaoh of the Exodus, but the identification is not complete. Rameses
III. is probably the same as
Rhampsinitus
(q.v.). In 1881 the mummy of Rameses II. was found at Deir-el-Bahari, and that of Rameses III.
at Boulak in 1886. On the identification of Rameses II. with Sesostris, see
Sesostris. The reader is also referred to Edwards,
Pharaohs, Fellahs, and Explorers, ch. iv.
(N. Y. 1892).