Latest / Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History / Ramses II's Mummy and the Science of Immortality
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- Lucas: We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the image of Ramses II—the statues, the treaties, the sheer scale of Per-Ramesses—but there is one final artifact that defies all that propaganda. It’s just a body. A dried, wrapped, fragile collection of bones and leather that has sat in the dark for three thousand years. Luna: And yet it’s arguably the most famous corpse in human history. Lucas: Exactly. For decades, the public only knew him through the limestone colossi at Abu Simbel or the bronze figures in museums. But the reality of his physical decline offers a much more human, and perhaps more poignant, glimpse into his reign. The story really begins in 1881, when a group of antiquities dealers stumbled upon a cache of mummies in the valley near Luxor. Luna: You mean the Deir el-Bahari discovery? Lucas: That’s right. While searching for lost treasures, they found tomb KV35 and another hidden shaft nearby where priests had secretly moved royal bodies centuries earlier to protect them from tomb robbers. Among those reburied remains was a mummy labeled simply as 'the Great God, the Lord of the Thrones of Two Lands.' Inside the wrappings, they found the unmistakable features of Ramses II. Luna: How did they know it was him without any labels? Lucas: They didn’t know immediately, but the facial features matched the known busts. More importantly, the internal organs were missing, which pointed to a high-status individual, and the hair color—dark, curly—matched descriptions of the king. He was moved from his original tomb, KV7, which had been looted long ago, to a secondary resting place in what is now known as tomb KV17, belonging to his father Seti I. Luna: So he was basically in hiding for two millennia. Lucas: In a sense. He survived the collapse of the New Kingdom, the shift of capital to Tanis, and the eventual decay of the temples dedicated to his memory. But the real scientific investigation didn’t start until the mid-twentieth century. In 1974, Ramses II was invited to travel abroad—not as a living dignitary, but as a patient. Luna: Wait, a dead man traveling to France? Lucas: It sounds bizarre now, but it was part of the Tour des Siècles exhibition. The French government wanted to preserve his mummy using advanced chemical treatments, so they flew his body to Paris in a specially designed aircraft with climate control. It was a massive media event, and while some Egyptians were offended by the idea of their ancestor being treated like a specimen, others saw it as a necessary step for preservation. Luna: I can see why that would be controversial. Lucas: Absolutely. It raised questions about sovereignty and respect that are still relevant today. But the trip did yield crucial data. The conservators at the Louvre and the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou began a detailed examination. They weren't just looking at gold; they were looking at pathology. What they found was a picture of a man who had endured immense physical stress over a very long life. Luna: What kind of damage does thirty years of ruling do to a spine? Lucas: Severe degeneration. When scientists finally examined the skeleton properly, they found that Ramses suffered from advanced ankylosing spondylitis, a form of arthritis that fuses the vertebrae together. His backbone was essentially stiffening into a single rigid rod. This wouldn't just cause pain; it would make bending over or even standing upright for long periods incredibly difficult. Luna: Imagine having to sit on a throne for sixty-six years with that condition. Lucas: It paints a very different picture of the 'Great Pharaoh.' He wasn't a warrior riding chariots into old age. He was likely seated, supported by cushions, watching his empire grow stagnant while his own body failed him. And it wasn't just his back. The dental record was equally grim. He had massive abscesses in his lower jaw, likely caused by severe gum disease and wear from grinding his teeth against the stress of governance. Luna: Did they find any signs of infection spreading? Lucas: There is evidence of bone inflammation around the jaw, which suggests a chronic, lingering infection. In the ancient world, that kind of tooth decay could easily become fatal. It’s possible that these infections contributed to his final illness, though the exact cause of death remains unknown. He died around the age of ninety, which was exceptionally rare for the Bronze Age. Luna: Ninety is an outlier even for royalty. Lucas: It is. Most men didn't live past fifty. His longevity meant he outlived nearly all of his children. He watched Merenptah, his chosen successor, take the throne, but also saw the deaths of many other heirs. The psychological toll of that must have been staggering. Yet, despite the pain, he continued to build. The Ramesseum alone required thousands of workers to complete. Luna: He kept building even when he couldn't stand up straight? Lucas: He kept building because the ideology demanded it. Ma'at required order, and his presence was the anchor of that order. Even if he was bedridden, his name had to be carved into stone. That’s why we see inscriptions from his ninetieth year. He was fighting mortality with architecture, trying to ensure that even if his body crumbled, his legacy would remain solid. Luna: It feels like a desperate attempt to cheat death. Lucas: It absolutely is. And in a way, it worked. But the irony is that the mummy itself tells a story of vulnerability. When you look at the CT scans, you see the frailty. You see the collapsed vertebrae and the rotting gums. It strips away the divine mask and leaves just a tired old man who lived a very long, very hard life. Luna: Does the mummy still exist today? Lucas: Yes, though he has moved again. After the Paris exhibition, he was returned to Egypt and placed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Today, he rests in a climate-controlled vault, largely unseen by the public, protected by glass and humidity controls. He is no longer on display for tourists to gawk at, but he remains a central figure in our understanding of ancient medicine and history. Luna: It’s strange to think he’s been through multiple burials. Lucas: It is. From KV7 to the hidden cache, then to Paris, and finally to Cairo. He’s been a relic, a patient, and a symbol. But underneath all that movement, the bones are the same. The arthritis is still there. The dental work, though ancient, shows how much he suffered. It’s a powerful reminder that power doesn't stop biology. Luna: Do you think he would have liked the attention? Lucas: I think he’d want the fame, but probably not the scrutiny. He curated his image carefully for eternity. Having strangers poke at his bones with lasers and X-rays might have felt like a violation of Ma'at. Still, it’s the only way we get to know the real man behind the god-king. Luna: It makes him feel less like a statue and more like a person. Lucas: That’s the goal of this show, isn't it? To find the people in the past. Ramses II was a titan, yes, but he was also a man with bad knees and sore teeth. And knowing that doesn't diminish his power; it just makes his survival seem even more remarkable. Luna: Survival is its own kind of victory. Lucas: It certainly is. Before we dive deeper into the specific medical findings from the recent DNA studies, I want to pause for a moment to talk about how this show stays ad-free and accessible to you. Our listeners support us directly, which allows us to keep producing deep-dive histories like this without interrupting your flow with commercials. If you've found value in these conversations about North Africa and the ancient world, you can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It’s a small gesture that helps keep the lights on and the research going. Luna: Yeah, it really lets us focus on the details rather than the ads. Lucas: Exactly. So, let’s get back to the science. One of the most interesting aspects of Ramses II’s mummy is the state of his hair. When Pierre Montet first unwrapped the remains, he noted the hair was still intact, dark, and curly. Modern analysis has since confirmed that the natural pigments were preserved well enough to give us clues about his appearance. Luna: Hair is surprisingly durable. Lucas: It is, especially in the dry heat of Egypt. But beyond appearance, the hair holds genetic information. Recent studies have looked at the mitochondrial DNA from the mummy, attempting to link him to his ancestors. There’s a lot of debate about whether the samples are truly his, given the contamination risks in such old specimens, but the consensus leans toward authenticity. Luna: Can DNA tell us about his health conditions? Lucas: Not directly for arthritis, since that’s structural damage to the bones. But it can tell us about infectious diseases. Some researchers have tried to detect traces of pathogens in the tissue. While results are mixed, there is no definitive proof of plague or smallpox. The primary killers seemed to be the slow, chronic issues we already discussed: joint failure and dental infection. Luna: Slow deaths are often the worst ones. Lucas: Agreed. It’s a stark contrast to the violent imagery of Kadesh. Here was a man who spent his youth in battle and his old age in silence, unable to move freely. The mummy is a testament to endurance. It’s not just a preserved body; it’s a record of a lifespan that stretched across generations. Luna: And a warning to future pharaohs. Lucas: Perhaps. Or maybe just a reminder that even the greatest among us are subject to the same fragility. When you look at the face of the mummy, reconstructed from the skull, it’s a face of sharp angles and deep-set eyes. It looks weary. It looks like a man who carried the weight of a nation until he couldn't anymore. Luna: It’s hauntingly beautiful. Lucas: It is. And it’s the final piece of Ramses II that we can touch. Everything else is text or stone. This is flesh and bone. It’s the ultimate truth of his reign, preserved in the dark, waiting for us to listen. Luna: Thank you for sharing that perspective. Lucas: My pleasure. Next time, we’ll look at how his successors handled the burden of his shadow, and whether Merenptah could ever truly fill those sandals.