22 Facts About Ramesses III

Usermaatre Meryamun Ramesses III was the second Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty in Ancient Egypt.

Ramesses III has been described as a "warrior Pharaoh" due to his strong military strategies.

Ramesses III led the way by defeating the invaders known as "the Sea Peoples", who had caused destruction in other civilizations and empires.

Ramesses III was able to save Egypt from collapsing at the time when many other empires fell during the Late Bronze Age; however, the damage of the invasions took a toll on Egypt.

Rameses III constructed one of the largest mortuary temples of western Thebes, now called Medinet Habu.

Ramesses III was assassinated in the Harem conspiracy led by his secondary wife Tiye and her eldest son Pentawere.

Ramesses III was succeeded by his son and designated successor Ramesses IV, although many of his other sons would rule later.

Ramesses III was not closely related to Ramesses I or Ramesses II.

Ramesses III was the son of Setnakhte and Tiy-Merenese who wrote her name in a cartouche.

Ramesses III seized the throne during a time of crisis and political unrest likely from Twosret and he was presumably a minor descendant of Ramesses II through a separate family line from that of Seti II, Siptah and Twosret.

Ramesses III defeated them in two great land and sea battles.

The second one was the Battle of the Delta, in which Ramesses III enticed the Sea Peoples and their ships into the mouth of the Nile, where he had assembled a fleet in ambush.

Ramesses III incorporated the Sea Peoples as subject peoples and settled them in southern Canaan.

Ramesses III was compelled to fight invading Libyan tribesmen in two major campaigns in Egypt's Western Delta in his Year 5 and Year 11 respectively.

Ramesses III 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.

The December 2012 issue of the British Medical Journal quoted the conclusion of the study of the team of researchers, led by Zahi Hawass, the former head of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquity, and his Egyptian team, as well as Albert Zink from the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman of Eurac Research in Bolzano, Italy, which stated that conspirators murdered Ramesses III by cutting his throat.

Ramesses III's mummy includes an amulet to protect Ramesses III in the afterlife from snakes.

The Zink unit determined that the mummy of an unknown man buried with Ramesses III was, because of the proven genetic relationship and a mummification process that suggested punishment, a good candidate for the pharaoh's son, Pentawere, who was the only son to revolt against his father.

Ramesses began the reconstruction of the Temple of Khonsu at Karnak from the foundations of an earlier temple of Amenhotep III and completed the Temple of Medinet Habu around his Year 12.

Ramesses III decorated the walls of his Medinet Habu temple with scenes of his naval and land battles against the Sea Peoples.

The mummy of Ramesses III was discovered by antiquarians in 1886 and is regarded as the prototypical Egyptian Mummy in numerous Hollywood movies.

Ramesses III's tomb is one of the largest in the Valley of the Kings.