yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Ramses, Master of Diplomacy | Lost Treasures of Egypt


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

[music playing]

NARRATOR: On the border with Ancient Nubia, Ramses built another massive monument, the mountain temple of Abu Simbel. Colleen has come here searching for clues about how Ramses's military skill contributed to the success of his empire. This is, like, the greatest hits of Ramses's victories.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Ramses consolidated his empire in the south and pushed north to confront his powerful enemies, the Hittites.

[music playing]

In temples all over Egypt, he recorded his victory against the Hittites, or so he wanted us to think.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Around 1300 BC, the Egyptians fought their arch rivals, the Hittites, at the fortress city of Kadesh in possibly the largest chariot battle in history. The light Egyptian chariots had the edge over the heavy Hittite war machines. Ramses recorded the victory as a massacre. But in reality, it was more of a draw. The two kings agreed a truce, resulting in the world's first recorded peace treaty.

[music playing]

It enabled the Egyptians to spend all of their resources on peacetime pursuits, building massive constructions like this, and usher in a golden age for Egypt.

NARRATOR: Instead of waging costly military campaigns, Ramses built his success through a mastery of diplomacy. But to win the hearts of his citizens, he still needed to depict himself as a mighty warrior.

[music playing]

He's on his chariot alone, with the reins tied behind his back so that he's free to shoot his bow. We know that this is a little bit of propaganda because even the hieroglyphic text says that his shield-bearer Mena was riding in the chariot with him.

NARRATOR: Ramses was a master of ancient public relations, happy to bend the truth to promote an image which would appeal to his people.

[music playing]

In the temple's inner sanctum, Colleen discovers another secret of Ramses's success. Here, by placing his statue between the greatest gods of Egypt, Ramses used a clever trick of the light to engineer his own divinity.

[music playing]

Twice a year, the sun rays reach all the way through the temple, illuminating these figures in the sanctuary.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Colleen believes Ramses used this solar alignment to convey a powerful message, that he was the living embodiment of the Sun God. Truly, here at Abu Simbel, Ramses II is not just a king, he is a god.

[music playing]

More Articles

View All
Lo-Fi Khan Beats to Study/Relax to
Oh, [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] w [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] y [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applaus…
Parametric surfaces | Multivariable calculus | Khan Academy
So I have here a very complicated function. It’s got a two-dimensional input—two different coordinates to its input—and then a three-dimensional output. Uh, specifically, it’s a three-dimensional vector, and each one of these is some expression. It’s a bu…
Can You Trust Kurzgesagt Videos?
Can you trust Kurzgesagt videos? To answer this question, we’ll first explain how we research them and then talk a bit about past videos, and what we want to achieve with the channel. Making a Kurzgesagt video always begins with a question or an issue. F…
Multiplication as repeated addition
So as some of you already know, I really enjoy eating a good avocado, which despite its appearance that it looks like a vegetable, but it’s actually a fruit. Let’s say that I eat two avocados per day, and I eat two avocados per day for six days. Now, the…
Solid waste disposal| Aquatic and Terrestrial Pollution| AP Environmental science| Khan Academy
Time for a little trash talk. The United States produces more solid waste each year than any other nation, and as we make more and more trash, we’re running out of places to put it. There are two main types of solid waste: industrial solid waste and munic…
Heat capacity | Thermodynamics | AP Chemistry | Khan Academy
The heat capacity of an object is the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of the object by one degree Celsius or one Kelvin. The specific heat capacity, which is often just called specific heat, is the heat capacity of one gram of a substanc…