Latest / Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History / Ramses the Greats Libyans: Migrants, Mercenaries, and the War for the Delta
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Ramses the Great's wars in Syria and Nubia — Kadesh, Dapur, the gold mines of Kush. But there's one frontier that gets far less attention, even though it may have been just as critical to Egypt's survival: the western border, the edge of the Libyan desert. Luna: The Libyans? I always thought of them as more of a nuisance than a serious threat. Lucas: That's a common assumption, but by Ramses's time, the Libyan tribes — the Tjehenu and the Tjemehu — had grown into a real menace. They weren't a unified nation; they were a loose confederation of tribes, pushed eastward by a drying climate. As the Sahara expanded, their grazing lands shrank, and Egypt's lush delta started looking very tempting. Lucas: And it wasn't just about raiding. By the reign of Ramses's father, Seti I, the Libyans were already infiltrating the western delta, settling in areas that were thinly patrolled. They'd come as peaceful migrants at first, but their numbers kept growing, and they started to flex their muscle. Lucas: If today's conversation helps you see a familiar story from a new angle, that's exactly what we're here for. And the way these episodes stay ad-free and independent is listener support — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo helps us keep digging into these overlooked corners of history. Luna: Yeah, absolutely. It's those small contributions that make a big difference. Lucas: So back to the Libyans. Ramses knew he couldn't just ignore them. Early in his reign, he launched a campaign to secure the western frontier, building a chain of forts and watchtowers along the edge of the delta — a kind of ancient Maginot Line against nomadic incursions. Luna: Did he actually fight a major battle against them, or was it mostly skirmishes? Lucas: Oh, he fought a full-scale war — and we have the evidence carved into the walls of his mortuary temple, Medinet Habu. The reliefs there show Ramses in his war chariot, charging into a mass of Libyans with their distinctive feather headdresses and long robes. They even show the aftermath: piles of severed hands and phalli, the standard Egyptian method of counting enemy dead. Lucas: The date is specific: year 11 of his reign, around 1268 BCE. A coalition of Libyan tribes, led by a chief named Meryey — though that might be a title, not a personal name — swept into the delta with thousands of warriors. They brought their families and cattle, so it wasn't just a raid; it was an attempted migration, a land grab. Luna: So it was essentially an invasion of people trying to resettle. Lucas: Exactly. Ramses met them somewhere in the western delta, likely near a fortress called 'The Wall of the Prince' — we don't know the exact location, but the battle was decisive. The Egyptian army, supported by chariots and archers, shattered the Libyan forces. The reliefs claim 6,000 Libyan dead, though that number is probably exaggerated for propaganda. Lucas: But here's where it gets really interesting. Ramses didn't just slaughter them all and go home. He took thousands of prisoners — men, women, and children — and resettled them in special camps across the delta. They were put to work building projects, and their men were conscripted into the Egyptian army as auxiliary troops. Luna: Wait, he turned his enemies into soldiers? That seems risky. Lucas: It was a classic pharaonic strategy: integrate the defeated, strip them of their identity, and make them loyal to you. Over time, these Libyan auxiliaries became a key part of Egypt's military. They even adopted Egyptian names and worshipped Egyptian gods. But the seeds of trouble were planted, too — because later, under Ramses's successors, those Libyan troops would become powerful enough to challenge the throne. Lucas: There's a famous inscription from a stela found at Memphis, called the 'Year 11 Stela', that spells out Ramses's policy: 'The Libyans are brought to Egypt, they are made into soldiers of Pharaoh. They eat bread, they drink beer, they serve Kemet.' It's a remarkable document — part victory monument, part integration manifest. Luna: So he really did try to turn them into Egyptians. And it worked, at least for a while. Lucas: For a while, yes. But the Libyan problem didn't end. In fact, it got worse. In Ramses's later years, around his 60th or 70th year on the throne, a new wave of Libyans attacked — this time even bigger, and they were joined by a seafaring group called the Sherden, who you might know from the battle of Kadesh, where they fought as pirates. Lucas: Ramses was old by then — possibly in his 80s — but he still took the field. The reliefs at Medinet Habu show him leading the charge again, though some scholars suspect his son and heir Merenptah actually commanded the army. The victory was complete, but it was a close thing. Luna: And that's where the Sherden come in as Egyptian allies, right? They'd gone from enemies to mercenaries. Lucas: Exactly. Ramses hired Sherden warriors to fight the Libyans alongside his own troops. You can see them in the reliefs with their distinctive horned helmets and round shields. They were tough fighters, and Ramses used them as shock troops. It's a classic example of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'. Lucas: But the real legacy of these Libyan wars is what happened after Ramses died. His son Merenptah faced an even larger coalition — Libyans, Sherden, and other 'Sea Peoples' — and barely held the line. Within a century, the Libyan influx had changed Egypt's demographics so much that the pharaohs themselves were of Libyan descent. The 22nd Dynasty, founded by Shoshenq I, was Libyan. Luna: So Ramses's integration policy worked too well — it eventually led to a Libyan takeover of the throne. Lucas: That's the irony. By trying to absorb the Libyans, he made them part of Egypt, and eventually they became the ruling class. In a way, the Libyan wars foreshadowed the end of the New Kingdom. The borders held under Ramses, but the pressures kept building — from the desert, from the sea, from within. Luna: It really shows that even the greatest pharaoh couldn't stop the tides of history. Lucas: No, nobody can. What Ramses did was delay the inevitable — and in the process, he left us some of the most vivid war art ever carved in stone. If you ever visit Medinet Habu, you can still walk through those reliefs and see the chaos of the Libyan charge, the precision of the Egyptian chariots, the prisoners being led away. It's a frozen moment from a war that shaped the future of North Africa. Luna: I'd love to see that someday. And I think I'll never look at the western desert the same way again. Lucas: That's the thing about frontiers — they're never just empty space. They're places where worlds collide, where climate and ambition and survival all mix together. The Libyan frontier was one of those places, and Ramses, for all his glory, knew it.