Shows / Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II, often called Ramses the Great, ruled Egypt for 66 years during the 19th Dynasty, a period of unprecedented wealth, monumental construction, and military expansion. From his early campaigns against the Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh—the largest chariot battle in history—to the signing of the first known peace treaty, Ramses shaped the ancient Near East. This podcast explores the man behind the monuments: his 200-plus children, his beloved queen Nefertari, and his colossal building…
Episodes
Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo HistoryRamses II and the Cult of Divine Kingship
While previous episodes have explored Ramses II’s military campaigns, diplomatic archives, and architectural grandeur, this episode examines the ideological…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II and the Forgotten Battle of Dapur
While the Battle of Kadesh dominates the history books, Ramses II’s military campaigns extended far into the Levant, particularly against the Hittite…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Mummy: The Forensic Journey of a King
We trace the extraordinary, nearly two-thousand-year journey of Ramses II’s mummy from his burial in KV7 to its modern discovery and global exhibition. This…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II and the Cult of Divine Kingship
We often hear about Ramses II’s military campaigns and diplomatic treaties, but we rarely explore how he weaponized religion to cement his own divinity. In…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Shadow: The Rise of the Royal Scribes
While Ramses II carved his name into stone across Kemet, a quieter revolution was reshaping the empire from within. This episode explores the bureaucratic…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II and the Architect of His Own Legend
This episode shifts focus from the battles and treaties of Ramses II to the man who engineered his own immortality: Hori, the High Priest of Ptah and royal…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II and the Lost City of Pi-Ramesses
For decades, historians believed Ramses II’s capital city, Pi-Ramesses, was merely a collection of scattered temples and mudbrick ruins in the Nile Delta. That…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Medical Revolution: Healing the Pharaoh
Episode 265 of Ramses the Great explores the surprising reality of ancient Egyptian medicine through the lens of the pharaoh’s own declining health. While…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II and the Architecture of Eternity
While Ramses II is famous for his military campaigns and diplomatic treaties, his true obsession was leaving a physical legacy that would outlast his reign…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II and the Architect of His Own Legend
While previous episodes have explored Ramses II’s wars, his mummy, and his family, this episode uncovers the quiet machinery behind his immortality: the…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Shadow: The Rise of the Royal Scribes
While history remembers Ramses II for his monumental architecture and military campaigns, the true engine of his empire’s longevity was a quiet bureaucracy led…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Grandson and the Crisis of Succession
By the twenty-fifth year of his reign, Ramses II had secured peace with the Hittites and stabilized Egypt’s borders, yet a different threat emerged from within…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Hidden Army: The Mercenary Revolution
While Ramses II is celebrated for his monumental architecture and the peace treaty with the Hittites, his true military innovation lay in transforming Egypt’s…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Golden Age: Economy and Daily Life
We often focus on the wars and monuments of Ramses II, but his reign was equally defined by an unprecedented economic boom. This episode explores how the…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Secret Spies and the Art of Ancient Espionage
While we often think of Ramses II as a builder of temples and a warrior at Kadesh, his most potent weapon might have been his network of informants. This…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II and the First Peace Treaty
In this episode of Fexingo History, Lucas and Luna explore the diplomatic masterpiece that ended centuries of conflict between Egypt and the Hittite Empire. We…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Daily Life: Food, Fashion, and Family
We often picture Ramses II as a statue or a warrior at Kadesh, but what did his daily existence actually look like? In this episode, we strip away the…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Egyptian Harem and the Politics of Royal Women
We usually think of Ramses II as a military conqueror or a builder of temples, but his domestic sphere was just as politically charged. This episode explores…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Diplomatic Archive and the Hittite Peace
In this episode of Fexingo History, Lucas and Luna move beyond the battlefield glory of Kadesh to examine the administrative machinery that sustained Ramses…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Diplomatic Archive and the Hittite Peace
While earlier episodes have explored Ramses II’s military might at Kadesh and his grand architectural legacy, this episode turns to the quiet power of…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II and the Lost Kingdom of Kush
While we have covered Ramses II’s wars against the Hittites and the Sea Peoples, his campaigns in the south were equally defining yet often overshadowed. This…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Secret War: The Battle of Kadesh and the First Peace Treaty
We turn our attention to the year 1274 BCE and the desert plateau of Qadesh, where Ramses II faced the Hittite Empire in a clash that would reshape the ancient…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Lost Tomb and the Theft of a King
We trace the final, undignified journey of Ramses II’s mummy after his death in Year 66 of his reign. While Abu Simbel stood as an eternal monument, his body…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II and the Merneptah Stele: The First Mention of Israel
While we have covered Ramses II's military campaigns, diplomatic marriages, and architectural grandeur in previous episodes, this conversation turns to a…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Forgotten Daughter Bintanath
While we have covered Ramses II's military campaigns, diplomatic marriages, and architectural grandeur in previous episodes, his personal life remains a…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Forgotten Son Khaemwaset
While his father Ramses II dominates the historical imagination with wars and monuments, it was actually their fourth son, Khaemwaset, who preserved Egypt’s…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Forgotten War Against the Sea Peoples
We often think of Ramses II as a builder and diplomat, but his later years were defined by a brutal, overlooked conflict with the confederated maritime raiders…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Sun Temple: The Alignment of Abu Simbel
Episode 245 explores the architectural and astronomical genius behind Ramses II's twin temples at Abu Simbel. We trace how the pharaoh commissioned these…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II and the Harem Conspiracy
While Ramses II built grand monuments and fought at Kadesh, his later years were shadowed by a brutal power struggle within his own palace. This episode…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Mummy and the Science of Immortality
In this episode, we pull back the linen wrappings to reveal the biological reality behind Egypt's most famous pharaoh. While Lucas and Luna have…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Mummy and the Science of Immortality
We often think of Ramses II as a living god, but today we look at what happened when he finally died. In 1974, French Egyptologist Bernard Bruyere noticed…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II and the Myth of the Living God
While Ramses II is famous for his monumental architecture and military campaigns, this episode explores how he actively cultivated a divine persona during his…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Statue of Truth
We explore the enigmatic statue found at Tanis in 1939, known as the 'Statue of Truth.' This bronze figure, discovered by Pierre Montet in a sealed…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Architect: Khaemwaset the Reader of Hearts
While Ramses II is known as the Great Preserver, his son Khaemwaset was the true restorer of Egypt’s ancient past. This episode explores how the fourth son of…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Forgotten Labor Strike at Deir el-Medina
While we often hear about Ramses II’s battles and monumental architecture, the daily life of the artisans who built his legacy reveals a far more human story…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II and the Architecture of Immortality
In this episode, we look beyond the battlefield and the diplomatic treaties to explore how Ramses II weaponized stone to secure his legacy. While earlier…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II and the Great Stupa of Tanis
While Ramses II is famous for his monuments in Thebes and Abu Simbel, his impact on northern Egypt was equally transformative, particularly at the ancient city…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II and the First Labor Strike in Egypt
While Ramses II is remembered for his monumental temples and military victories, history also records a quieter but equally revolutionary moment during his…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II and the Rise of the Sherden Mercenaries
We often think of Ramses II as a builder of temples, but his military power relied heavily on foreign warriors who became Egyptian. This episode explores the…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II and the Art of Propaganda
While earlier episodes explored Ramses II’s military campaigns, family dynamics, and medical legacy, this episode turns its gaze to the machinery of his…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II and the First Labor Strike in Egypt
We often think of ancient Egypt as a land of eternal order, where the Pharaoh’s will was absolute and unchallenged. But in the late 12th century BCE, a group…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Diplomatic Wives and the Hittite Alliance
We’ve covered Ramses II’s wars, his monuments, and his mummy, but rarely have we looked closely at the women who helped secure Egypt’s peace. This episode…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Medical Legacy: The World's First Surgeon
While Ramses II is celebrated for his monuments and military victories, his reign also marks a pivotal moment in the history of medicine. This episode explores…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Secret Police and the First Labor Strike
While we have covered Ramses II’s military victories, diplomatic marriages, and monumental building projects, this episode turns to a quieter but equally…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Diplomatic Wives: The Hittite Princess
After the Battle of Kadesh, Ramses II did not conquer his rival; he married him. This episode explores the profound diplomatic marriage between Ramses II and…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Medical Legacy: The World's First Surgeon
While most episodes focus on Ramses II’s monuments or battles, this episode uncovers the quiet revolution of his medical corps. We explore the Edwin Smith…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Iron Legacy: The Bronze Weapons of Kadesh
While history often remembers Ramses II for his temples and monuments, his military might was forged in the fires of Kadesh. This episode explores the…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Shadow Army: The Sherden Mercenaries
While we often celebrate Ramses II as a builder and diplomat, his military might relied heavily on a group of feared foreign fighters known as the Sherden…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Diplomatic Wives: The Hittite Princess
After the monumental battle of Kadesh and the subsequent peace treaty, Ramses II secured his borders not just with swords but with marriage. This episode…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Foreign Wives and the Treaty of Kadesh
We often think of Ramses II as a conqueror, but his greatest victory might have been diplomatic. After the stalemate at Kadesh, Ramses didn't just rebuild…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Harem Conspiracy: The First Political Scandal
While Ramses the Great is remembered for his monuments and military campaigns, his later years were marred by a secret plot to usurp the throne. This episode…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Forgotten Queen: Nefertari's Tomb
We step away from the battles of Kadesh and the grand temples of Abu Simbel to explore a quieter, more intimate monument: the tomb of Nefertari, Queen Consort…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Lost Daughter: Meritamen and Royal Politics
While we have spent many episodes discussing Ramses the Great’s military campaigns, diplomatic marriages, and monumental building projects, one aspect of his…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Hidden Wars: The Sea Peoples Invasion
We all know Ramses the Great for his monuments, his diplomatic marriages, and the Battle of Kadesh against the Hittites. But after his long reign, Egypt faced…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Iron Legacy: The Bronze Weapons of Kadesh
We often picture the Battle of Kadesh as a clash of chariots and bronze, but the reality was far more complex. In this episode, we examine the material culture…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Children: The Royal Nursery of the 19th Dynasty
Ramses II is known for his monumental temples, his vast army, and his long reign, but behind the scenes was a sprawling royal family that secured his legacy…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
The Mummy of Ramses the Great: Unwrapping a Legend
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the extraordinary journey of Ramses II's mummy, from its discovery in the Deir el-Bahari cache in 1881 to its…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II and the Longest Reign: A Look at His 66 Years on the Throne
Ramses II ruled Egypt for an extraordinary 66 years, outliving many of his heirs and reshaping the kingdom through sheer longevity. In this episode, Lucas and…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Thebes Mortuary Temple: The Ramesseum Revealed
Lucas and Luna explore the Ramesseum, the sprawling mortuary temple Ramses II raised on the west bank of Thebes. They walk through its colossal courtyard, the…
- Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History
Ramses II's Nubian Gold: The Mines That Built an Empire
In this episode, Lucas and Luna dig into the Nubian gold that fueled Ramses II's ambitions. From the Wadi Allaqi mines to the temples of Abu Simbel, they…