Latest / Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History / Ramses the Great's Abandoned City Per-Ramesses Rise and Fall
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Per-Ramesses, Ramses' great capital in the eastern Delta — the city he built as his administrative and military hub. But what I find almost as fascinating as its construction is how quickly it was abandoned. Luna: Abandoned? I thought it was a thriving capital for centuries. Lucas: It was huge during Ramses' reign and for maybe a hundred years after. But by the 21st Dynasty, around 1070 BCE, it was largely deserted. The new pharaohs moved their court to Tanis, about thirty kilometres north, and they literally dismantled Per-Ramesses to build their own monuments there. Luna: They just took the stones and reused them? Lucas: Exactly. It's like a medieval castle being quarried for local houses. The obelisks, statues, even the massive temple blocks — they were dragged or floated up to Tanis. For a long time, archaeologists assumed Tanis was actually Per-Ramesses, because so many of its inscriptions said 'Userrenput-aanehktu' — Ramses' throne name. But it wasn't. The real Per-Ramesses was at modern Qantir, about thirty kilometres south of Tanis. Luna: Wait, how did they figure that out? Lucas: It took decades of detective work. In the 1920s, Egyptologists found fragments at Qantir, but they thought it was just a military camp. Then in the 1960s, an Austrian team led by Manfred Bietak began systematic excavations. They uncovered the outlines of temples, palaces, and a massive enclosure wall — and they matched the layout to descriptions in Papyrus Anastasi II, which describes Per-Ramesses as 'the great city, the fortress of the victorious pharaoh'. Luna: So the Nile was the key to both its rise and its fall? Lucas: Absolutely. Per-Ramesses was built on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, which gave it direct access to the Mediterranean and easy trade routes. But over time, that branch began to silt up. By the end of the 20th Dynasty, the river had shifted eastward, leaving Per-Ramesses with less water. The city's harbours became unusable, and the canals that fed its gardens and reservoirs dried up. Luna: So the city literally lost its lifeline. Lucas: Yes. And that's when the political centre shifted to Tanis, which was on a more navigable branch. The new dynasty, the 21st, had no emotional attachment to Ramses' capital. They wanted a fresh start, and they were happy to recycle its stone. There's a famous inscription at Tanis that boasts about 'bringing great monuments from Per-Ramesses'. Luna: It must have been a ghost city within a few generations. Lucas: Exactly. By the time the Greek historian Herodotus visited Egypt in the 5th century BCE, he never even mentions Per-Ramesses. It had vanished from memory. The only reason we know about it is because the Egyptians themselves kept meticulous records — and because archaeologists like Bietak were patient enough to dig in the right place. Luna: It's incredible how much we can piece together from broken stones and old papyrus. Lucas: And it really shows how dependent ancient cities were on their environment. The Nile wasn't just a river — it was the entire economic and logistical backbone. When it moved, cities had to move with it, or they died. Luna: Speaking of moving — I've been meaning to ask. This show takes a lot of work to research and produce, and I know we keep it ad-free on purpose. How does that work? Lucas: It works because listeners like you chip in. Honestly, without listener support, we couldn't spend the hours it takes to dig into archives and translate old texts. It's a labour of love, but it's also a community effort. Luna: Yeah, if you enjoy these deep dives — whether it's about lost cities or pharaonic diplomacy — and you want to keep them free of ads, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Every little bit helps us keep going. Lucas: And it genuinely makes a difference. Right, back to the Nile. One of the reasons the Pelusiac branch silted up so quickly was that Ramses himself had altered the landscape. He built massive irrigation canals and new harbours that may have disrupted the natural flow. Luna: So the king who built the city might have inadvertently caused its downfall? Lucas: Possibly. It's one of those ironies of history. The same ambition that created Per-Ramesses may have contributed to its decline. But there's another factor too: the rise of the Sea Peoples. Remember, we talked about the great invasion in the 8th year of Ramses III. That destabilised the entire eastern Mediterranean, and the Delta was particularly vulnerable. Luna: So insecurity might have pushed the capital further inland? Lucas: Exactly. Tanis was more protected. And once the political centre moved, the economic activity followed. Per-Ramesses became a quarry, not a city. The final blow came when the Nile branch that fed it finally dried up around 1000 BCE. After that, the site was deserted. Luna: It's a perfect example of how even the greatest cities are temporary. Lucas: Yes. And yet, thanks to the spade and the papyrus, we can still walk its streets in our minds. The palace of Ramses, the temple of Amun-Re, the great storehouses — they're all there, buried under the fields of Qantir, waiting for the next generation of archaeologists to uncover more.