Latest / Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History / Ramses the Great's Building Boom: Temples and Propaganda
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Ramses the Great — his battles, his diplomacy, his family. But there's one area where he truly left his mark that we haven't touched on yet: his building program. I mean, the guy built more temples and monuments than almost any other pharaoh. Luna: It's funny — we've mentioned his temples in passing, but we've never really looked at how he managed to construct so much. Lucas: Right. And honestly, if today's episode was worth a coffee to you, that's the link — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. But back to it: Ramses didn't just build for the sake of building. Every stone was propaganda. Luna: Propaganda — how so? Lucas: He used temples and inscriptions to project his power, connect himself to the gods, and remind everyone of his victories — especially Kadesh. The Ramesseum, his mortuary temple on the west bank of Thebes, is covered with scenes of the battle. And then there's Abu Simbel, carved into the cliffs of Nubia to intimidate and impress the local population. Luna: So it was about controlling the narrative, not just building pretty structures. Lucas: Exactly. He also added to existing temples — like at Karnak and Luxor — where he built massive pylons and courtyards, often covering earlier work by his predecessors. At Karnak, he finished the Great Hypostyle Hall, which is still one of the most awe-inspiring spaces in ancient architecture. It's a forest of 134 columns, some reaching 69 feet high. Luna: That must have taken incredible resources. Where did all the stone come from? Lucas: Most of it was quarried locally — sandstone from Gebel el-Silsila north of Aswan, and granite from Aswan itself. We know from inscriptions that Ramses sent large expeditions to these quarries. One stela from Gebel el-Silsila mentions an expedition in his second year that brought back blocks for his buildings. Luna: So he started early. That makes sense — he had a long reign to plan all this. Lucas: Right, he reigned for 66 years. That gave him time to oversee multiple projects. And he didn't just build in Egypt proper — in Nubia, he constructed a string of temples, including Beit el-Wali and Gerf Hussein, to reinforce Egyptian control over the gold mines and trade routes. Luna: What about the workers? We've talked about Deir el-Medina in other contexts — did Ramses use a similar system of skilled laborers? Lucas: Yes, but on a much larger scale. The state mobilized thousands of workers — not just craftsmen, but also farmers during the flood season when they couldn't work the fields. They were paid in rations — grain, beer, fish — and records from Deir el-Medina show that the royal tomb builders were often pulled to work on temple projects too. Luna: So it was a huge economic undertaking. Did it strain the economy? Lucas: It must have. Ramses built on a scale that even the wealthiest of his predecessors, like Amenhotep III, would have found impressive. Some scholars argue that this massive investment in building, combined with military campaigns, may have contributed to the economic decline that Egypt experienced later in the 19th Dynasty. Luna: Interesting — so his legacy of monuments might have come at a cost. Lucas: Absolutely. But from Ramses' perspective, the stone monuments were eternal — they would ensure his name was remembered forever, which was the whole point. And it worked. We're still talking about him, right? Luna: We are. And I guess that's the ultimate success of his propaganda.