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Khaemweset › Who Was
Definition and Origins
Khaemweset (also given as Khaemwaset, Khaemwise, Khaemuas, Setem Khaemwaset, c. 1281-c.1225 BCE) was the fourth son of Ramesses II (1279-1213 BCE) and his queen Isetnefret. He is the best known of Ramesses II's many children after the pharaoh Merenptah (1213-1203 BCE). Khaemweset is regarded as the "Egyptologist Prince" and the "First Egyptologist" for his efforts in preserving ancient monuments, temples, and - most importantly - the names of those who had built them. Egypt's history was already ancient by the time of the New Kingdom (c.1570-1069 BCE) and many of the structures from the Old Kingdom (c.2613-2181 BCE) had fallen into disrepair. Khaemweset took it upon himself to restore these buildings and monuments and make sure that proper credit was given to those responsible for them. In doing so, he preserved Egypt's past while, at the same time, creating new monuments honoring events of his own time.
He was High Priest of Ptah at Memphis during his father's reign, presided over the burial of the Apis Bull, oversaw the construction of the Serapeum at Saqqara, and was named Crown Prince by Ramesses II. He died before he could succeed his father and the throne then went to his brother Merenptah. Although Merenptah's name is better known in the present day, not only because he succeeded Ramesses the Great but owing to his victory over the Sea Peoples, Khaemweset was better known in antiquity. Centuries after his death, Khaemweset was still remembered through the popular stories of Prince Setna Khamwas, the name a corruption of his title as priest, which were written from the Late Period (525-332 BCE) through the Roman Period (30 BCE-646 CE). Egyptologist William Kelly Simpson comments:
During Egypt's Late Period, the fourth son of the legendary Ramesses II became the central focus of one or more cycles of tales, somewhat reminiscent of the Arthurian cycles of medieval Western literature. In the Egyptian tales, Prince Kaemuas is designated by his priestly title Setna (older Setem), and it is his interest in ancient religious texts and magic that motivate the plot. This characterization has a firm basis in history, since the real Khaemuas served as Hight Priest or Setem of the Memphite god Ptah and justly may be termed the first known Egyptologist. (453)
Later generations honored him for his accomplishments in the same way they did Imhotep but stopped short of deifying him.He may have been denied divine status because of his habit of entering other people's tombs in his preservation efforts. Still, he was remembered as a great sage, magician, and adventurer and these qualities are all emphasized to varying degrees in the later stories written of him.
YOUTH & PRIESTHOOD
Khaemweset was born toward the end of the reign of his grandfather Seti I (1290-1279 BCE) and took part in military campaigns with his father when still a child. A relief from the temple at Beit-el-Wali depicts Khaemweset with his brother Amunhirwenemef accompanying Ramesses II (then a crown prince) on his campaign in Nubia. Reliefs such as this one demonstrate how Ramesses II regarded all his children equally, no matter who their mother was. Amunhirwenemef was the son of Ramesses II's best-loved wife Nefertari while Khaemweset's mother was Isetnefret, Ramesses II's second wife.
Ramesses II at The Battle of Kadesh
There are a number of reliefs and inscriptions showing Khaemweset's early life on the battlefield. At the famous Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BCE he is seen leading prisoners of war before the gods and, in others, he serves as his father's attendant.At the same time he was following Ramesses II on campaign he must have been attending school because, by the time he is 18 in c. 1263 BCE, he is a Sem-Priest of Ptah at Memphis. In order to hold this position, Khaemweset would have had to study to become a scribe and then receive education in becoming a priest. He would then have had to serve an apprenticeship under a higher ranking priest. If he actually did take part in military campaigns as shown he had to have been spending at least an equal amount of time in school.
KHAEMWESET FAMOUSLY IDENTIFIED ANCIENT MONUMENTS WHICH HAD FALLEN INTO DISREPAIR & THEN WENT OUT INTO THE FIELD TO RESTORE THEM.
He would also have been expected to devote himself to physical fitness as this was an important value of nobility in the New Kingdom. From the beginning of this era, the children of the pharaoh were encouraged in daily exercise. Males would need to be fit in order to succeed their father, preside over rituals and ceremonies, and lead troops into battle. Females were also expected to remain in good physical condition to assume the position of God's Wife of Amun and be able to carry out the responsibilities of the title which included care of the god's statue, temple, and a leadership role in rituals and ceremonies.Khaemweset's youth, therefore, must have been quite active both intellectually and physically.
HIGH PRIEST OF PTAH & THE SERAPEUM
In c. 1249 BCE, at around the age of 32, Khaemweset was already High Priest of Ptah at Memphis. In this position he was expected to care for the god's statue and temple, see to the upkeep of other temples and monuments, oversee daily rituals in Memphis, supervise the king's additions to the temple at Karnak, preside over the king's Heb-Sed Festival, and officiate at state funerals and those of the Apis bull. The Apis bull was a sacred animal who was recognized, based upon certain markings, as the incarnation of the god Ptah himself. The bull was kept in the temple precinct at Memphis and, when he died in a ritual slaying, was given the highest honors and treated with the utmost respect and care in embalming. While the bull was being prepared for burial, a search was initiated for its replacement and, once found, Khaemweset would have had the final say in whether the bull was truly Ptah incarnate.
Ptah
Once the new bull was installed at the temple, or as the search was still in progress, the mummified corpse of the old bull would be transported from Memphis along the Sacred Way to the necropolis at Saqqara. There he would be buried in a crypt with full honors. Previously, bulls were buried in their own crypts but Khaemweset seems to have felt this was inadequate for honoring the former home of the soul of the god. He, therefore, had a large underground crypt created which would house all of the Apis bulls, each in their own granite sarcophagus, so that people could more easily visit to bring food and drink offerings.Khaemweset's Serapeum at Saqqara provided an elaborate tomb for the bulls which was orchestrated so well that it remains intact in the present day.
This very popular tourist attraction continues to mystify scholars and fringe theorists regarding how the immense granite sarcophagi, each of which weighs between 70-100 tons, were placed in their positions and what their purpose was. Although much of this matter is made by fringe theorists in various documentaries and articles, the answer is simply that the Egyptians made expert use of the technology they had - which was far more impressive than most of these writers and producers give credit for - and that the sarcophagi were constructed to house the remains of the Apis bulls.
Claims that no culture would have expended so much time and energy to bury an animal are clearly ignorant of Egyptian culture and religious beliefs. Khaemweset did not commission the Serapeum to "bury an animal" but as the eternal home for the body which once held a divine and immortal soul. In the same way that a human was embalmed, mummified, and buried in the expectation of eternal life, so were animals - everyday pets like dogs, cats, baboons, gazelles, even fish - but the Apis bull, as a god incarnate, would have been given even higher honors.
Apis Bull, Saqqara Serapeum
THE FIRST EGYPTOLOGIST
Khaemweset would have traveled with his father around the country and would have seen, first hand, the monuments of the nation's past as he grew up. Although many of these were regularly cared for by the priests, many others had been neglected.As High Priest, Khaemweset was responsible for maintaining these structures and would have had access to the extensive historical records housed in the temple at Memphis. The major temples of Egypt all had a section known as the Per- Ankh(House of Life) which was part scriptorium, writing center, classroom, and library. Khaemweset used these records to identify ancient monuments which had fallen into disrepair and then went out into the field to restore them. Scholar Sherine el-Menshawy, writing on this topic, quotes the Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen's obeservations on Khaemweset:
He was no doubt impressed by the superb workmanship of the splendid monuments of a thousand years before - and perhaps also depressed by their state of neglect, mounded up in drifts of sand, temples fallen into ruin.Deeply affected by all that he had seen, Khaemweset resolved to clear these glories of antiquity of the encumbering sand, tidy the temples, and renew the memory (and perhaps the cults) of the ancient kings. (17)
Khaemweset decided to uniformly restore and record these monuments, placing new inscriptions on them which would tell future generations who had built them, for what purpose, who had restored them, and under whose reign. These inscriptions vary from monument to monument but all include the information Khaemweset thought essential. In restoring the mastaba tomb of Shepsekaf (2503-2498 BCE), the last king of the 4th Dynasty, at Saqqara, Khaemweset had the following inscribed:
His Majesty instructed the High Priest of Ptah and Setem, Khaemwise, to inscribe the cartouche of king Shepsekaf, since his name could not be found on the face of his pyramid, inasmuch as the Setem Khaemwise loved to restore the monuments of the kings, making firm again what had fallen into ruin. (Ray, 87)
Khaemweset restored monuments from Saqqara to Giza including statuary which was found out of place. Among the best known of his efforts is his restoration of the statue of Prince Kaweb, son of the king who built the Great Pyramid, Khufu (2589-2566 BCE). Kaweb's statue had fallen into a shaft near a well and Khaemweset had it retrieved and set in a place of honor. He then had the following inscribed upon it:
It was the High Priest and Prince Khaemwise who delighted in this statue of the king's son Kawab, which he discovered in the fill of a shaft in the area of the well of his father Khufu. He acted so as to place it in the favour of the gods, among the glorious spirits of the chapel of the necropolis because he loved the noble ones who dwelt in antiquity before him, and the excellence of everything they made, in very truth, a million times. (Ray, 87-88)
The Pyramids of Giza
He not only restored this statue but the whole of the site at Giza. It is Khaemweset, in fact, who brought Giza back to life after centuries of neglect. Giza had been the royal necropolis of the Old Kingdom but since the Middle Kingdom (2040-1782 BCE) the necropolis at Thebes had been used predominantly. By the time of Khaemweset, the pyramids and temples at Giza were already over one thousand years old and, since the site was full, no one was buried there anymore. In restoring the site and renewing the funerary cults of the kings, Khaemweset preserved what is easily the most famous and most often visited site in Egypt in the present day.
CRITICISM & ACCOMPLISHMENTS
He is also responsible for ensuring that the name of his father would be remembered. Ramesses II is the best documented ruler of the New Kingdom and probably the best known in Egypt's history for his mistaken identification with the nameless pharaoh in the biblical Book of Exodus. Ramesses II is not the fictional pharaoh in that account, nor was any other pharaoh of Egypt, but his name was already famous enough to have suggested itself to early interpretations of the story. This fame was due not only to his legendary reign but to the many inscriptions he left behind on monuments. While a number of these were original constructions, many were older structures which Khaemweset had his father's name inscribed on. It is for this reason that there is virtually no ancient site in Egypt which does not mention Ramesses II.
Critics of Khaemweset's work have suggested that he did not so much preserve ancient monuments as use them for his father's - and his own - enduring fame. Egyptologist Marc van de Mieroop comments on this:
Khaemwaset is sometimes described as an early archaeologist or the "first Egyptologist" but some scholars think that he used the massive structures as stone quarries for his father's building projects and left the inscriptions to ensure that the original owners remained known. (232)
There is no doubt that Khaemweset left a record of his efforts and the name of his father at the various sites but the claim that he purposefully used ancient monuments as quarries seems unlikely. It is certainly possible, however, that some of these monuments and temples may have been in such a state of ruin that they could not be restored and so were dismantled and re-used for new projects.
Death Mask of Khaemweset
Khaemweset's great accomplishment was in restoration and preservation, not recycling, of the great monuments of the past.His efforts were rewarded during his lifetime as he was able to occupy himself in pursuing what he loved and was acknowledged for it. He died around the age of 56, years before his father, and was buried either at Saqqara or Giza. A ruined tomb discovered in pieces at Saqqara in 1993 CE has Khaemweset's name engraved on the blocks but the architectural style dates it to the Old Kingdom. It is entirely possible, however, that Khaemweset would have had his tomb purposefully constructed in the archaic style of the buildings he had spent most of his life restoring.
Over a thousand years after his death he would be honored and remembered in the Prince Setna stories which, though fictional, draw closely on Khaemweset's personality. He was known to be inquisitive and resourceful and had no fear of entering other people's tombs or any spirits which he might meet there or who might follow him home. Van de Mieroop writes, "It seems that later Egyptians admired Khaemwaset because he was able to read old inscriptions but, at the same time, thought him reckless as he entered tombs" (232).
In the best known tale, The Romance of Prince Setna and the Mummies (also known as Setna I), he encounters a family of ghosts in a tomb, steals a magic book, meets a beautiful woman who is possibly Bastet, and finds himself in the end naked in the street as a punishment for his rash actions. While none of these things might have happened to Khaemweset, the character of Setna exhibits the same deep regard for the past, knowledge of magic, and the same recklessness, as the famous prince was known for.
His abilities to understand old texts and restore ancient monuments made him a legend as a sage and magician and this reputation was only enlarged upon by later generations. The archaeologists who first began professionally excavating Egyptian sites in the 19th century CE owe the existence of their records, and in many cases the structures themselves, to the efforts of the prince and high priest Khaemweset.
Per-Ramesses › Who Was
Definition and Origins
Per-Ramesses (also known as Pi- Ramesses, Piramese, Pr-Rameses, Pir-Ramaseu) was the city built as the new capital in the Delta region of ancient Egypt by Ramesses II (known as The Great, 1279-1213 BCE). It was located at the site of the modern town of Qantir in the Eastern Delta and, in its time, was considered the greatest city in Egypt, rivaling even Thebes to the south. The name means 'House of Ramesses' (also given as 'City of Ramesses') and was constructed close by the older city of Avaris.
The association of the new city with Avaris gave it instant prestige in that Avaris was already legendary by the time of Ramesses II as the capital of the Hyksos who had been defeated and driven from Egypt by Ahmose I (c. 1570-1544 BCE), initiating the period of Egypt's empire now referred to as the New Kingdom (c. 1570 - c. 1069 BCE). The victory of Ahmose at Avaris, ending Hyksos control of the Delta, was greatly respected by the people of the New Kingdom, but even before that Avaris had been an important center for trade.
Associating his city with Avaris, therefore, was a clever choice of Ramesses II but hardly surprising in that he was well known for his skill in promoting himself and his grand projects. The size and grandeur of Per-Ramesses, capital of Egypt, would make it far more famous than Avaris ever was, and its association with the long and glorious reign of Ramesses II ensured the memory of the city would live on long after it was abandoned toward the end of the New Kingdom of Egypt.
PER-RAMESSES IN THE BIBLE
The city is best known as the 'Rameses' from the biblical Book of Exodus 1:11: "So they put slave masters over [the Israelites] to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh," but there is no evidence that the city was built by slave labor of any kind nor was it a 'store city' which held surplus grain or supplies. There is, in fact, no evidence whatsoever of a large Israelite community of slaves in Egypt at any time in its history, and the great cities and monuments were built by Egyptian laborers.
The association of Per-Ramesses with the biblical Pharaoh of Exodus has also naturally suggested Ramesses II as that king.Ramesses II, however, left the most extensive and exacting records of any Egyptian monarch – there is literally no ancient site in Egypt which does not mention his name – and nowhere does he make any mention of Israelite slaves nor any of the events given in Exodus.
Exodus 12:37 claims that the Israelites left Egypt from the city of Rameses and that they numbered "about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children." Numbers 33:3-5 also mentions Per-Ramesses as the city the Israelites left Egypt from and mentions how the Egyptians were busy at the time burying the dead of their first-born whom God had killed in order to effect the release of his chosen people.
Moses & the Parting of the Red Sea
Although some scholars claim that Ramesses II would have omitted the story of the Exodus from his official records, because it cast Egypt in a poor light, it is far more probable that the Exodus story is a cultural myth which had nothing to do with Egypt's actual history and Per-Ramesses was chosen for mention by the Hebrew scribe who wrote Exodus because its name would have been instantly recognizable. The link between Ramesses II and the heartless Pharaoh of the biblical narrative, as well as his city, is unfortunate in that it obscures the great achievements of the historical king and the Egyptian citizens who labored on his monuments and temples. Per-Ramesses was built to exemplify the grandeur of Egypt under Ramesses II and its location chosen not only for ease of access to neighboring lands but because the locale of Avaris resonated with the people and the region had special meaning for the king.
PER-RAMESSES & THE BATTLE OF KADESH
The area near Avaris was the childhood home of Ramesses II. His father, Seti I (1290-1279 BCE) built a summer palace there, and Ramesses II would have grown up exploring the region when he was not in school or following his father on military campaigns. Ramesses II was already named co-ruler with his father by the age of 22 and was leading his own successful campaigns into Nubia before coming to the throne in 1279 BCE. At some point, prior to 1275 BCE, he had his new city built, although some scholars suggest that construction actually began under Seti I who expanded on his palace. Whenever it was founded, it served as the launching point for the military expedition which Ramesses II himself always considered his greatest victory: The Battle of Kadesh.
Ramesses II at The Battle of Kadesh
Kadesh, in Syria, was an important trade center which had changed hands between the Hittites and Egyptians a number of times. Seti I had taken it from the Hittites, but they had seized it again under their king Muwatalli II (1295-1272 BCE).Ramesses II had already taken Hittite territory and scattered their defense in Canaan and so now turned his attention to Kadesh.
Preparations for the campaign began in Per-Ramesses at least by early 1275 BCE. While Ramesses II consulted his oracles and advisors for auspicious omens, he had the entire industrial military complex of his city at work making arms, training horses, equipping soldiers, and building chariots. Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson describes how, although ancient descriptions of Per-Ramesses emphasize the beauty of its palaces and parks, the city also served in the war effort:
One of the largest buildings was a vast bronze-smelting factory whose hundreds of workers spent their days making armaments. State-of-the-art high-temperature furnaces were heated by blast pipes worked by bellows.As the molten metal came out, sweating laborers poured it into molds for shields and swords. In dirty, hot, and dangerous conditions, the pharaoh's people made the weapons for the pharaoh's army. Another large area of the city was given over to stables, exercise grounds, and repair works for the king's chariot corps...In short, Per-Ramesses was less pleasure dome and more military-industrial complex. (314)
Ramesses II's battle with Muwatalli II at Kadesh was his most famous victory, which he celebrated through an account known as the Poem of Pentaur and another called the Bulletin. In these versions of the event, Ramesses II is every inch a warrior-king who leads his army to victory against overwhelming odds. The account of Muwatalli II, however, claims the same for the Hittite forces.
Ramesses II Statue
The Hittite account was unknown until the middle of the 19th century CE when European archaeologists were excavating Mesopotamian and Anatolian sites on a larger scale than ever before. Cuneiform tablets began to turn up in these digs which contradicted the version of history – in many areas – held up to that time. Prior to these excavations, the story of the Great Flood, Noah's Ark, and many other biblical narratives were thought to be original works and the Bible itself considered the oldest book in the world. After the Mesopotamian finds, scholars realized they had been missing some extremely important pieces of information in constructing the history of the world and Muwatalli II's account was among them.
Recent scholarship is fairly unanimous in agreeing that The Battle of Kadesh was more of a draw than a victory for either side.Muwatalli II still held the city but had failed to crush Ramesses II's army as he had wanted, and Ramesses II had driven Muwatalli II's army from the field and inflicted heavy casualties but had not taken the city. In Ramesses II's account, however, the victory for the Egyptians was complete and he was the king who had made it happen.
GRAND CITY OF CANALS & TEMPLES
Following Kadesh, Ramesses II would never lead another great military campaign; but that does not mean he did not commission them, and his reign is marked by decades of successful diplomatic and military victories, economic prosperity, and social stability. The reign of Ramesses II was so prosperous and so long, in fact, that when he died his people felt it was the end of the world; they had never known an Egypt without Ramesses II as pharaoh.
Per-Ramesses
Ramesses II made Per-Ramesses the most beautiful and opulent city in Egypt, rivaling the majesty of Thebes. An inscription regarding it reads:
His Majesty has built for himself a Residence whose name is 'Great of Victories'.It lies between Syria and Egypt and is full of food and provisions.It follows the model of Upper Egyptian Thebes and its duration is like that of Memphis. (Snape, 203)
The city was built on a series of earthen mounds known as geziras close to the Nile River. During the season of inundation, the Nile would overflow its banks and flood the area and Per-Ramesses would be transformed into a city of islands amidst a swirling lake. During these times, the different geziras could only be reached by boat and ancient inscriptions (and archaeological evidence) indicate that the people moved easily around the city through an elaborate canal system.
Spread across six square miles (15 square km), and housing over 300,000 people, Per-Ramesses became the most prosperous city of its day. It would have been the first city, other than Pelusium, any visitors from the east would have seen upon entering Egypt and was intended to impress. Every project Ramesses II commissioned was larger than life and created to glorify his name but his city seems to have been his crowning achievement.
PER-RAMESSES WOULD HAVE BEEN THE FIRST CITY ANY VISITORS FROM THE EAST WOULD HAVE SEEN UPON ENTERING EGYPT & WAS INTENDED TO IMPRESS.
Four large temples at each of the cardinal directions defined the city. To the north was the Temple of Wadjet, in the south the Temple of Set, east was the Temple of Astarte, and west the Temple of Amun. The choice of two of these particular deities is interesting in that Set and Astarte were both worshiped by the Hyksos at Avaris. It seems peculiar, at first, that Ramesses II would continue any tradition associated with the Hyksos since they had been cast as the supreme villains of Egyptian history by the scribes of the New Kingdom. Astarte, a Phoenician goddess, was long associated with Set as one of his consorts, however, and Set himself – although acknowledged as a god of chaos and darkness – was popular during the New Kingdom as a champion of the military. Ramesses II's father, Seti I, honored the god with his throne name.
Wadjet and Amun are logical choices in that Wadjet was one of the oldest goddesses of Egypt and the pre-eminent deity of Lower Egypt from the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3150 - c. 2613 BCE) onwards and Amun, by the time of the New Kingdom, was considered the most powerful of the gods. These four temples served as the 'anchors' of the city with the roads, canals, and other buildings constructed to reference each.
The western part of the city, near the Temple of Amun, was the royal district. The temple was actually dedicated to a composite god Amun-Ra-Harakhty-Atum who encompassed the power and characteristics of the creator-god Atum, the sun god Ra (also a creator-god), Ra-Harakhty (an amalgam of Ra and Horus, signifying the sun at the two horizons of sunrise and sunset), and Amun (the supreme king of the gods at the time). The grand palace of the king was also located here in proximity to the temple as were the administrative offices. Ramesses II's commemorative hall, built to commemorate his Heb-Sed Festivals (he celebrated two; one every 30 years) was said to be impressively adorned with statues, columns, and monumental statues of the king.
To the south, near Set's temple, were the military barracks, factories, a training ground, stables, the commercial district, and the two harbors which served the city. The stable complex was enormous, housing over 450 horses, and built with slightly slanting floors which allowed for waste to drop down into troughs. The training ground was a huge courtyard near the temple in which both soldiers and horses pulling chariots were put through maneuvers. In keeping with the grandeur and scope of the city, the bronze smelting factory was also the largest of its kind.
Palm-leaf Column of Ramesses II, Piramesse
The eastern section, surrounding Astarte's temple, was the residential district as was the north, near Wadjet's temple. The houses were closely packed and, in keeping with traditional Egyptian custom, had the kitchen toward the back and open to the air, protected by a thatched roof. Each house probably also followed the traditional floor plan of a front parlor for receiving guests with the other rooms opening off of that one in a rectangular shape running toward the back. The homes of the more affluent had walled gardens at the back of their homes with brightly painted walls and a reflecting pool.
The main temple in the city was that of Amun, Ramesses II's patron god, which was said to be massive and included enormous statues of Ramesses II in his divine aspect. Ancient writers from the time and afterwards comment on the awe-inspiring grandeur of the city, the towering scope, and beauty of the canals and monuments. It would continue as the capital of Egypt under Ramesses II's successors but seems to have lost its luster further and further with each new king who came to the throne.
DECLINE & FALL
Although the inscription concerning it claims that Per-Ramesses lasted as long as Memphis, this is not so. In its time, as noted, it rivaled Thebes in grandeur and power, but Thebes would continue long after Per-Ramesses was a memory. The end of the city was signaled by the shifting of the Nile which silted the harbors so thoroughly that they became unusable. The eastern branch of the Nile changed its course, as it had done in the past, and the city could not adapt to this. As Steven Snape notes, this situation was common enough and Memphis had long ago grown used to it and made allowances in order to survive, but Per-Ramesses was simply abandoned, largely dismantled, and moved south to the new city of Tanis with some monuments taken to Bubastis.
Colossus of Ramesses II
By around the year 1069 BCE, the central government was no longer effective and the high priests of Amun at Thebes were far more powerful than the king. Ramesses II was long dead by this time and his successors lacked his skills in leadership and administration. The last good pharaoh of the New Kingdom was Ramesses III (1186-1155 BCE), but even he was not as impressive as Ramesses II and the so-called Ramesside Period of Egypt is one of decline. The kings who followed Ramesses III seemed weaker with each succession until, by c. 1060 BCE, the country had been ruled for about a decade by Thebes in the south and Tanis in the north, an era known as the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt (c. 1069-525 BCE).
When Per-Ramesses was abandoned, the monumental statues, sections of temples, and other buildings were moved downstream in such quantity that, centuries later, archaeologists were sure that Tanis was Per-Ramesses or, at least, was a city built during Ramesses II's reign. What remained at the site of the abandoned city was left to decay and, eventually, be reclaimed by the earth; the city center today is beneath the village of Qantir and, above ground, only the meager ruins of the Temple of Set, some foundations, and two stone feet from a statue of Ramesses II remain.
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