Dr. Campbell Price

But that also marks for the ancient Egyptians a very significant milestone, the so-called Heb Sed, which is what we might call a jubilee today, but is a kind of an affirmation of the king's power and a confirmation or a conferral of divinity.

So the king is always a bit divine, but Ramesses II really goes further.

and it does seem to be inspired by this point in time where there's a de-emphasizing of military activity and a greater emphasis on religious

iconography and belief so he really says ramses ii says he's not just part divine he is a full god shoulder to shoulder with other gods and he's represented on temple walls in statues and has his own extraordinary statue cult where people including the military personnel at paramses

are using images, huge colossal statue images of the king as means of answering their prayers.

So we're talking about the southernmost point really in the modern borders of Egypt on the shores of what is now Lake Nasser, so into ancient Nubia.

So many miles south of the traditional Egyptian border at Aswan.

So a reductive reading is to say that this is a way of intimidating the Nubians.

Look, there are these four colossal statues of the king on one temple.

There's a great rock cut temple with these four striking images, seated images of the king.

But there's another temple dedicated to his wife, Queen Nefertari, the chief queen, whom he seems to have loved very much.

And she's equated with the goddess Hathor.

So they are saying his and hers, the king is a god, the queen is a god, people should come and worship us because we are deserving of worship like full gods.

And this is really an important point.

It's something I've written about

that we've got to understand.

These avatars, these divine avatars of Ramesses, there's a whole series of them.

They all have different names.

They can be materialized through statues and you can worship the statue and hopefully get your prayers answered.

But in the innermost part of that Abu Simbel great temple, the Holy of Holies, there is a seat of the great gods, Ptah, Reharachdi, Amun, and sat quite literally shoulder to shoulder with them is Ramesses II.