Rameses II, known as Rameses the Great, also spelt Ramesses or Ramses 1304-1237BC
Egyptian pharaoh

The third king of the 19th dynasty, he was a master of political propaganda, and his reign marked the last zenith of Egyptian imperial power. He claimed to have defeated the Hittites at Kadesh (but failed to capture it), then formed a peace with them, and married a Hittite princess. His reign (c.1292-1237BC) is the most renowned in Egyptian history for temple building: he completed the mortuary temple of his father Seti I at Luxor and the colonnaded hall of the Karnak temple, and built the rock temples of Abu Simbel, dedicating the smaller one to his queen, Nefertari. He is sometimes identified as the Old Testament Pharaoh of the oppression. His mummy was found at Deir-el-Bahari (1881).

Bibliography: K A Kitchen, Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II, King of Egypt (1982)