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Buildings of the Ramesside period

© Lucy Charlotte Acland Johnson

Ramses the Great, the second pharaoh to bear the name of Ramses, was a brilliant builder as well as a famous warrior.

Among his wonderful buildings are:

The Rock-Cut temples of Abu-Simbel- These two temples are the best example of New Kingdom, Nubian design-based architecture. The larger of the temples was sacred to the 3 gods of the Egyptian empire: Amun, Re-Horakhty and Ptah. It was also sacred to the god form of Ramses, as part of the pharaoh was thought to be a god.

The smaller temple Ramses dedicated to his Great Royal wife Nefertari, and so it was sacred to the goddess Hathor as Nefertari was supposedly her human form.

In front of the temples are 4 huge statues of Ramses (1 is ruined)-see article on "Treasures of the British museum" for info on statue there.

Between 1964 and 1968 a unique international collaborative project saved the temples from being permanently flooded by the water of the Nasser Lake: The temple was expertly dismantled and reconstructed at a new site where it is open to the public today.

Pi-Ramses the victorious- During Ramses' reign he founded a new capital named "Pi-Ramses the victorious". Of course, it has hundreds of beautiful architectural masterpieces in it: In the square in front of the palace were statues of gods. Tragically they are now in ruins but would have stood at a colossal 21m high-making them the tallest free standing statues in Egypt at the time.

A great many objects from this glorious city were not actually discovered there, however: In the 21st Egyptian dynasty stone from the buildings there were taken to build the new capital "Tanis".

I hope you have been given an insight into the incredible architectural achievements made in the Rammesside period, with only basic tools.

The copyright of the article Buildings of the Ramesside period in Ancient Egypt For Children is owned by Jodee Redmond. Permission to republish Buildings of the Ramesside period in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.