Ann and I went to the Australian Museum's Ramses and the Gold of the Pharoahs on Friday last. We decided to go because, while it is best to see these kinds of exhibits in situ, it's unlikely that I will be making a trip Egypt. I have been to a few of these kinds of things before but this was by far the most impressive, given that technology makes it easier set up visual recreations and 'virtual' spaces.

Ramses II is acclaimed as the greatest Pharoah of all time, though it is not that easy to separate the facts from the self-aggrandising fiction of his reign. The Battle of Kadesh against the Hittites was essentially a draw (he did not capture Kadesh) but was broadcast as the greatest triumph of all time on whatever piece of stone was available. Nor did he face the Hittites single-handed at one tumultuous moment, else he would have died on the spot. 

There is also the matter of the placing of his own cartouche on the monuments and buildings of previous kings, lots of them in fact, in a massive credit-claiming exercise. He was a great builder but it seems unlikely that he erected temples and monuments that predate him by 500 years. Some of that was the work of his son Khaemweset, a kind of early Egyptologist, who would have made an interesting pharoah had he lived long enough. 

Anyway, the exhibition, which includes artefacts from other dynasties as well, is well worth seeing. My wife took the photo below of Ramses coffin, his final and only resting place. Alas, his mummified remains did not come with the exhibition to Australia.