Ramses the Great

A warrior leader and builder of many temples, the Pharaoh Ramses II was the greatest ruler of his Age.

Regarded as the greatest of all Pharaohs, Ramses II reigned at the height of Ancient Egypt’s power and influence. He led military campaigns with his father from a young age, married at 15, eventually amassing over 200 wives and concubines and over 150 children, and lived to the age of roughly 95 years old. He expanded the territory of his nation through many battles and with victory brought back vast treasures and wealth, opened new trade routes, and fuelled the vast building projects which would attest to the glory of the Pharaoh and his people. Among the hundreds of buildings he planned were the temples of Karnak and Abu Simbel, and his mortuary temple the Ramesseum, which contained a library with over 10,000 scrolls, the largest of its kind in that era. The gorgeously decorated tomb to his first wife Nefertari is a final testament to the glory of Ramses II. With a new introduction, this book presents classic works that set the story of Ramses in the wider context, from the kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty, via Ramses’ battle of Kadesh, to the beginning of the decline of ancient Egypt.

FLAME TREE 451: From myth to mystery, the supernatural to horror, fantasy and science fiction, Flame Tree 451 offers a healthy diet of werewolves and mechanical men, blood-lusty vampires, dastardly villains, mad scientists, secret worlds, lost civilizations and escapist fantasies. Discover a storehouse of tales gathered specifically for the reader of the fantastic.

Charlotte Booth (Introduction) has a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Birmingham, where she studied paper squeezes and their value as an archaeological tool. She obtained her BA (Hons) and MA from UCL in Egyptian Archaeology. She worked in Cairo for the EAIS project and in Luxor for ARCE. She has published extensively in Egyptology, including 17 books, and numerous articles and papers.

J.K. Jackson is General Editor of The World’s Greatest Myths and Legends series, with titles including ’Myths of Babylon’, ’Indian Myth’, ’Egyptian Myth’, ’Norse Myth’ and ’Polynesian Island Myth’. He is editor of ’Myths and Legends’ and foreword writer for ’Celtic Myths and Tales’. Other related work includes articles on the Philosophy of Time, ’Macbeth, A Gothic Chaos’ and William Blake’s use of mythology in his visionary literature.