Dr. Campbell Price

And then eventually, as you say, yeah, when Ramses is a bit older, he's content to have the peace treaty.

Yes, I think there is some of that internal motivation.

And again, practically speaking, you know, if you walk into Karnak...

and you can read hieroglyphic inscriptions, you know, Ramses II would be reminded of Thutmose III.

It would be there.

And he is, you know, he has set the bar for expansionism of...

pushing to its limit that area of influence as we were saying before not necessarily an empire but an area of real influence and a buffer zone against these bigger nastier powers that in any case are some distance away but on that point actually about the whole reign of rameses ii

There is a practical element to this in that in the reign of Thutmose III, he was setting off from the capital city of Memphis, which is essentially modern Cairo.

But with the reign of Ramesses II, maybe a little before then, there is a shift, a strategic shift, to move this incredible royal city.

And if we define the capital city as the place the king spends most time in, the principal palace, that is Paramses.

Okay.

So that is on the northeast edge of the Nile Delta.

So strategically, it is closest...

to launch an expedition into the Levant.

It is also provided, I know I have friends who've excavated that site, it's provided with huge stables to get the horses and to have your infantry barracked there.

So you have a kind of a sense of a standing army.

And we know from monumental sources, tied interestingly closely to the cult of Ramesses II as a god,

So at the same time as the military preparation is being ramped up, so is the idea of Ramses being a god.

So you're fighting for a god, not just the king.

There's lots of evidence of the worship of statues of Ramses II, and all the worshippers are members of the military.