Latest / Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History / Ramses II's Lost Tomb and the Theft of a King
Transcript
- Lucas: For anyone coming with us through these conversations about North Africa, we’ve spent months tracing the grand architecture and diplomatic triumphs of Ramses II. But today, we’re stepping away from the stone monuments to look at what happened to the man himself when he finally died in his sixty-sixth year. Luna: I assumed he’d stay right where he was built. Lucas: You would think so, given the scale of the Ramesseum and the elaborate sarcophagus prepared for him in KV7. But the reality of his burial tells a much more fragile story of a state beginning to fray at the edges. His initial entombment was standard for the era, but within decades, the security of the royal necropolis began to collapse under economic pressure. Lucas: By the time we reach the late Twentieth Dynasty, the value of the gold adorning Ramses’s mummy had become a temptation that the local authorities couldn’t ignore. We have actual graffiti left on the walls of his tomb, written by thieves themselves, boasting about how they broke into KV7 and stole everything of value. Luna: They literally wrote confessions on the walls? Lucas: Yes, it is one of the most chilling pieces of evidence we have from ancient Egypt. The thieves carved their names and boasts directly into the plaster, claiming they had stripped the king of his gold pectorals and amulets. It wasn't just vandalism; it was a systematic dismantling of his physical divinity for profit. Lucas: What follows is a series of emergency relocations that show how seriously the priesthood took the duty of preserving the king’s body, even if they were willing to loot his jewelry. The High Priests of Amun, who held immense secular power during this period, decided to move the mummy to a safer, unknown location to protect it from further desecration. Luna: So they saved the body but kept the gold? Lucas: That seems to be exactly what happened. The priests separated the sacred remains from the portable wealth, hiding the mummy in a dry, secure cache while selling or using the gold for temple maintenance and their own livelihoods. It was a pragmatic, albeit sacrilegious, solution to a crumbling economy. Lucas: This secret relocation likely happened around Year 28 of the reign of Ramesses IX, nearly a century after Ramses II’s death. The new hiding spot was probably near Deir El-Bahari, an area already known for its isolated tombs and natural protection from the desert winds. Luna: And no one knew where it was for thousands of years? Lucas: It remained lost until the late nineteenth century, when French archaeologists began systematically exploring the Valley of the Queens. We have to thank Pierre Montet and later Jean Vercoutter for piecing together this chaotic timeline through forensic analysis and historical cross-referencing. Lucas: When they finally located the cache, they found Ramses II’s mummy in a state of severe disarray. The wrappings were torn, and the body had been roughly handled. What they discovered was not a preserved god-king, but a dried skeleton that had suffered significant damage over centuries of neglect and theft. Luna: It feels like a betrayal of everything he tried to build. Lucas: It certainly does, but it also highlights the human element of these rituals. The priests weren't evil; they were surviving in a time when the central government had lost control over the Nile valley’s resources. They chose to save the spiritual essence—the body—over the material wealth. Lucas: If you've been stepping into history with us episode by episode, you know we deliberately don't run ads on these. If you want to support that choice, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It helps keep the research deep and the conversation honest without corporate interference. Luna: Yeah, I appreciate keeping it straightforward like that. Lucas: Returning to the mummy itself, the condition of Ramses II’s remains tells us a lot about the medical realities of his later years. When scientists finally examined the skeletal fragments, they found evidence of severe arthritis and dental abscesses that would have caused constant pain. Luna: So he was suffering long before he died. Lucas: Absolutely. He lived with chronic discomfort for decades, yet he continued to govern, build, and campaign well into his eighties. The contrast between his public image of vitality and his private physical decline is striking. Lucas: One fascinating detail is the positioning of his hands. In many royal burials, the hands are crossed over the chest holding symbols of power. In Ramses II’s case, the mummification process had failed to maintain this pose correctly due to the deterioration of the muscles and tendons. Luna: The body just fell apart during wrapping? Lucas: It appears so. The embalmers had to work quickly, perhaps because the mummy had already been disturbed by earlier thieves. This rush job left gaps in the resin coating and loose linens that we can still see under modern imaging technology. Lucas: The discovery of the mummy also led to some strange historical misconceptions. Early reports suggested that Ramses II had been killed violently, based on the broken bones found in the cache. However, subsequent analysis showed these breaks were caused by the rough handling of the tomb robbers, not murder. Luna: So the violence came after his peaceful death. Lucas: Exactly. He died naturally, likely from old age and infection, but his resting place became a crime scene. The High Priests of Amun tried to cover their tracks by sealing the cache, but the graffiti left by the earlier thieves made their efforts futile. Lucas: We also know that Ramses II’s body was moved at least twice before it ended up in the Valley of the Queens. Each move was accompanied by rituals intended to purify the corpse and restore its magical potency, showing that the priests believed the king was still spiritually active. Luna: They thought moving him would help him in the afterlife? Lucas: In a way, yes. They viewed the physical body as the anchor for the ka, the life force. If the anchor was threatened, they had to relocate it to ensure the king could continue to intercede for the living and the dead. Lucas: The irony is that despite all these moves and protections, the mummy is now displayed in a glass case in Cairo, far from the sands of Thebes where it belonged. It has become a tourist attraction rather than a sacred relic. Luna: It’s almost poetic that he’s finally safe in a museum. Lucas: Perhaps. But it’s also a reminder of how fragile our understanding of these figures is. We rely on fragments—bones, graffiti, and papyri—to reconstruct the life of a man who once controlled the known world. Lucas: The theft of Ramses II’s treasures wasn't just a crime; it was a symptom of a society transitioning from empire to something else. The divine kingship was fading, replaced by the political maneuvering of the priesthood and military generals. Luna: Did any of his descendants try to restore his reputation? Lucas: His son Merenptah did try to stabilize the realm, but the focus shifted away from monumental building toward internal consolidation. The glory days of Ramses II were already becoming legend by the time his son took the throne. Lucas: Looking at the KV1 tomb, which was originally intended for a prince but used for Ramses II’s temporary storage, we see inscriptions that were scratched out or defaced. This suggests that whoever hid the mummy wanted to erase its presence from the official record temporarily. Luna: Hiding it in plain sight, basically. Lucas: Precisely. They used a lesser-known chamber to keep the king safe from prying eyes. It’s a testament to the ingenuity of the Egyptian priests, who managed to preserve the body against all odds for three millennia. Lucas: The story of Ramses II’s mummy reminds us that history isn't just about the moments of glory. It’s also about the messy, difficult aftermath when the lights go down and the crowds leave. Luna: It makes him feel much more real. Lucas: It does. He wasn't just a statue or a title; he was a man who aged, suffered, and was eventually forgotten by everyone except the robbers and the priests who loved him enough to hide him away. Lucas: As we close this chapter, one might wonder if there are other secrets still waiting in the dark chambers of Thebes, hidden just like Ramses II was, waiting for someone to find them.