The year was 1292 BCE, approximately. Reginald year one under the power of the King of Egypt,

Wasmuria Riam Messessa, or Ramesses II. The new Horus was 20 years old, give or take, and as he settled into his

first months of rule, the king had business in Wazet. At the start of his reign, Ramesses was already

thinking about its end. This was important. The new Horus needed to plan for the day when he became an Osiris, like his father and grandfather before.

Looking to that future, the king required two monuments to serve him in eternity. He would need a memorial

temple devoted to his spirit, or car, and he would need a tomb nestled among the hills.

Ramesses began work on both of these monuments in the first year of his reign.

Ramesses built his memorial temple close to the Nile.

It survives to this day, and we call it the Ramessium.

The Ramessium, not its original name, is an enormous

complex at the edge of the farmland, where the green meets the desert. At its heart, the temple is

dominated by an elaborate stone structure, with shrines, columned halls, courtyards, and absolutely gigantic statues.

Then, around that stone core, sprawls a miniature city of mud-brick buildings.

These are the support facilities, including scribes offices, storage rooms, a library or school,

butcheries, bakeries, candlestick makeries, and so forth.

The temple has largely collapsed over the centuries, but parts of it have been preserved and

rebuilt by archaeologists. The ruins of the Ramessium are evocative, especially at sunset,

a beautiful remnant rising before the western hills. We will explore this temple properly in the future as the reign of Ramesses

unfolds. But thanks to archaeological work over the past few decades, we know that Ramesses

started building the Ramessium immediately after his accession.

Excavations in the temple grounds have identified its foundations where the building first began.

Among the remains, archaeologists have found the small burials of artifacts that we call

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