Tomb of Ozymandias

• The Tomb of Ozymandias was the name given to the Ramesseum by the Roman historian Diodorus Siculus writing between 60-30 BCE.
• Ozymandias was the Greek name for the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II, also known as ‘Ramesses The Great’, who reigned from c.1279-1213 BCE.

The Pharaoh Ramesses II

• Ramesses II is considered by historians to have been the greatest Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. He distinguished himself by opposing the Hittite Armies at the Battle of Kadesh in c.1274 BCE.
• By 1250 BCE, he had completed the giant Funerary Temple dedicated to himself known as the Ramesseum or Tomb of Ozymandias.

The Tomb of Ozymandias or the Ramesseum

• This was a Mortuary Temple built by Ozymandias or Ramesses II (1279-1212 BCE), which took 20 years to build and was completed in c. 1250 BCE.
• The ruins of the Temple are located on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor (Thebes) in Egypt.
• The Temple is built of sandstone from a quarry south of Luxor.
• It covers an area of 6 hectares with two stone Temples at its centre surrounded by three enormous annexes consisting of storerooms, workshops and vaults, including one storeroom that seems to have served as a treasury.

Other Names for the Tomb of Ozymandias

• ‘The Mansion of Millions of Years’
  • This was the name Ramesses II gave to the Temple. It was dedicated to Amun.
  • It served as a model for the ‘Mansion of millions of years’ built by his son, Ramesses III at Medinet Habu.
• ‘The ‘Tomb of Ozymandias’
  • This was the name given to the Ramesseum by the Roman historian Diodorus Siculus, writing between 60-30 BCE.
• The ‘Memnonium’
  • This was the name given by two French engineers, Jollois and deVilliers, who recognised it as the Tomb of Ozymandias, after Napoleon’s Invasion of Egypt in 1799 CE.
• The Ramesseum
  • This was the name finally attributed to the Temple by Champollion during his visit to Egypt in 1829.
  • He also made an inventory of the ruins and copied many of the texts. Jean Francois Champollion, had made history in 1822, when he successfully deciphered the Egyptian Hieroglyphs.

The Colossus of Ramesses II (c. 1250 BCE)

• The Colossus was an impressive giant statue of Ramesses II carved in limestone. It was 60 feet high (18m) and weighed 1,000 tons.
• The shattered remains of the statue lay in pieces around the Temple, but only the Giant Head and Shoulders remain today and are now inside a small museum built to cover the statue.
• It was one of several Giant Statues situated throughout Egypt that Ramesses II made of himself.
• One of these statues is now on display in the British Museum.

The Poem ‘Ozymandias’ (1818)

• An image of the ruined statue of Ramesses II may have inspired Percy Bysshe Shelley to write the famous sonnet ‘Ozymandias’ (The Greek name for Ramesses II).
• It was published in 1818, prior to the arrival of a similar statue at the British Museum.

The Ramesseum, Luxor