The dramatic story behind t he 3, 200-year-old colossal Grand Egyptian Museum Ramesses statue
King Ramesses II ruled Egypt for an extraordinary sixty-six years (1279–1213 BC) during the Nineteenth Dynasty. A great warrior and lavish builder, he fathered dozens of children and is widely regarded as the most celebrated and powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom.
This wonderfully clear, engaging book recounts the dramatic history of the famed red granite colossal statue of Ramesses II now residing in Egypt’s Grand Egyptian Museum. One of the biggest statues ever made and part of the urban landscape of modern Cairo, the statue lent its name to Ramses Square and the city’s mainline train station, and was so much a symbol of Cairo that it featured in countless Egyptian films. Susanna Thomas recounts the full history of the statue’s creation and installation in the Great Temple of Ptah at Memphis during the reign of Ramesses II, its reuse by Ramesses IV, and the later history of the statue during the Greco-Roman and Islamic Periods.
The book also provides an overview of how statues were made in ancient Egypt and includes a brief discussion of the statue cults of Ramesses II, kingship, temples, and the expansion of the New Kingdom capital city of Memphis and its temples. The final section covers the history of the statue since its rediscovery and subsequent rescue in the mid-nineteenth century until its installation in the entrance hall of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza.
Written by a New Kingdom specialist and curatorial expert and illustrated with over 150 images, Ramesses, Beloved by Ptah tells the fascinating story of this magnificent statue within the wider context of statue cults and the reign of Ramesses II, and its subsequent rescue and restoration in modern times.
Table of Content
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Grand Egyptian Museum Director
Introduction
1. Historical Background
2. Egyptian Statues
3. Royal Statue Cults
4. Memphis and the Temple of Ptah
5. Discovery of the GEM Statue
6. Ramesses II Statue
7. Ramesses’s Children
8. Chapter 8 Additions by Ramesses IV
Glossary
Select Bibliography and Further Reading
About the author
Susanna Thomas works at the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, Egypt, where she is a specialist in the interpretation and display of ancient Egyptian material culture. She has been engaged in excavation and research at sites all over Egypt for many years, from fortresses in the north to the Valley of the Kings at Luxor. Awarded her Ph D in Egyptian Archaeology by the University of Liverpool in 2000, she is particularly interested in all aspects of the Ramesside Period and the archaeology of Tutankhamun. She previously taught at Liverpool, Manchester, and Helwan Universities, and has worked for museums in both Egypt and the UK.
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