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Ramses and the Pharaohs' Gold in London: the hieroglyphs to read at Battersea
5 November 2026
Ramses and the Pharaohs' Gold runs at NEON in Battersea Power Station, London, until 1 January 2027. It shows about 180 objects lent by the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, many of them in Britain for the first time, and ends with the cedar coffin that held the mummy of Ramesses II.
Most of the show is writing. His two cartouches are carved on statues and an obelisk fragment, and ink notes on the coffin record where priests moved his body after robbers broke into his tomb. Learn his two names before you go and you can read them on almost every case.
Usermaatre is the cartouche you will see most
His throne name, wsr-mꜣꜥt-rꜥ stp-n-rꜥ, Usermaatre Setepenre, means "the justice of Ra is strong, chosen of Ra". The sun disc (N5) is rꜥ, Ra, carved at the top out of respect. The head and neck of a canine (F12) writes wsr, "strong". The seated goddess with a feather on her head (C10) is Maat, mꜣꜥt, justice and right order. After them come the adze (U21), stp, "chosen", and the ripple of water (N35), n, "of".
The Greeks heard the first part as Ozymandias, the name in Shelley's poem. On statues the goddess Maat is often shortened to her feather, so look for a small figure or a single tall plume beside the sun disc.
Ramesses means Ra bore him
The birth name, rꜥ-ms-sw mry-imn, Ramesses Meryamun, means "Ra is the one who bore him, beloved of Amun". Ra is the sun disc (N5) again. The three fox skins tied together (F31) write ms, "to give birth", the folded cloth (S29) adds its s, and the sedge (M23) writes sw, "him". Amun's name is the flowering reed (M17), the game board (Y5) and the ripple (N35), imn, and the canal (N36) writes mr, "beloved".
The two names usually stand side by side, each in its own ring. Either ring may show a small seated god with a falcon head in place of the sun disc. That is Ra drawn as a figure, read the same way.
The cedar coffin was made for another king
The coffin in the last room (Cairo CG 61020) is carved from fine imported wood, its gold and inlays long gone. Its long, narrow face is in the style of the end of the 18th Dynasty, a generation before Ramesses, and some scholars think it was first made for Horemheb. It was stripped and reused for Ramesses' reburial at the end of the New Kingdom.
His names are written on the lid in black ink, in two cartouches. Below them, faded notes in hieratic, the joined-up handwriting of scribes, record the journeys of the body: from his own tomb in the Valley of the Kings to his father Seti I's tomb, where it lay for over 80 years, then to the tomb of Queen Ahmose-Inhapi, and finally to a family tomb of the priest-king Pinedjem II at Deir el-Bahari. The Antiquities Service emptied that tomb in July 1881 and found more than 50 kings, queens and relatives inside.
The gold comes from Tanis
The pharaohs' gold of the title is mostly from Tanis in the Nile Delta, where Pierre Montet found untouched royal tombs in 1939 and 1940. The show has jewellery from the tomb of Psusennes I, the gold funeral masks of King Amenemope and of Wendjebauendjed, a general of Psusennes, and the restored coffin of Shoshenq II.
Psusennes I's birth name, pꜣ-sbꜣ-ḫꜥ-n-njwt, means "the star that appears in the city". The flying pintail (G40) writes pꜣ, "the", the star (N14) sbꜣ, and the sun rising over a hill (N28) ḫꜥ, "to appear". The ripple (N35) is n, "in", and the village sign (O49) writes njwt, "the city", here Thebes. These kings took stone, statues and coffins from older reigns, and the show includes pieces reused this way, among them a sarcophagus of Ramesses' son Merneptah.
Abu Simbel and Nefertari come by film and VR
Two famous places of Ramesses' reign cannot travel, so they come as models, film and an optional virtual reality ride: the temples of Abu Simbel, cut out of the cliff and moved higher up in the 1960s before Lake Nasser covered their old site, and the painted tomb of his queen Nefertari in the Valley of the Queens.
Other rooms cover his early reign, the battle of Kadesh against the Hittites and the peace treaty that followed in 1258 BC, the court of the vizier Paser and the queen mother Tuya. There are also stone flakes with workmen's sketches and animal mummies, among them cats.
Plan about an hour and a quarter
Most visitors spend 60 to 75 minutes inside. The venue recommends the show for children aged five and over, with separate age limits for the VR. Reviews say the small cases crowd at weekends, so a weekday slot leaves room to stand at the cartouches and read them.
The camera on this site reads signs from a photo on the phone, and the picture never leaves it. Point it at a case label's cartouche and check your reading of Usermaatre.
Questions
How long is Ramses and the Pharaohs' Gold on in London?
It opened at NEON in Battersea Power Station on 28 February 2026 and runs until 1 January 2027.
Is Ramesses II's mummy in the exhibition?
No. The coffin that held it is on show. The mummy stays in Egypt, at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo.
Was the coffin made for Ramesses II?
Probably not. Its style is late 18th Dynasty, older than his reign, and it was reworked for his reburial. Some scholars think it was first made for Horemheb.
Where has the exhibition been before?
It opened in Houston in 2021 and has since been to San Francisco, Paris, Sydney, Cologne and Tokyo before London.
Glossary
- birth name
- The name a king was given at birth, written in the second cartouche after the title "son of Ra". Egyptologists also call it the nomen.
- cartouche
- An oval ring drawn around a royal name, a loop of rope tied at one end. Kings wrote their two main names in cartouches.
- coffin
- A box for the body, of wood or stone, often shaped like a person and painted with spells, names and gods. Rich burials nested several coffins inside a sarcophagus.
- dynasty
- A line of kings counted together, usually one family. Egyptologists number Egypt's kings in about 30 dynasties, following the priest Manetho.
- Maat
- Truth, justice and the right order of the world, shown as a goddess with an ostrich feather on her head. Kings claimed to uphold it.
- mummy
- A body dried and wrapped in linen so that it would last. Egyptians believed the spirit needed it in the afterlife.
- New Kingdom
- Egypt's age of empire, about 1550 to 1069 BC, the time of Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II.
- obelisk
- A tall, four-sided stone pillar with a pointed top, usually set up in pairs before a temple and carved with the king's names.
- pharaoh
- The king of Egypt. The word comes from per-aa, "great house", a name for the palace that came to mean the king himself in the New Kingdom.
- priest
- A servant of a god in a temple, who washed, dressed and fed the god's statue each day. A high priest led the staff of a great temple.
- throne name
- The name a king took when he came to the throne, written in the first cartouche after the title "King of Upper and Lower Egypt". Egyptologists also call it the prenomen.
- tomb
- A burial place: a pit, a mastaba, a pyramid or rooms cut into rock. Its chapel was where the family brought offerings.
People in this article
Where to see it
- Egyptian Museum, Cairo museum
- Temple of Hatshepsut (Deir el-Bahari) site
- Abu Simbel site
- Tomb of Nefertari (QV66) monument
Sources
- Ramses and the Pharaohs' Gold Exhibition, Battersea Power Station
- See Ramses II's intricately decorated coffin, Smithsonian Magazine
- NEON announces Ramses and the Pharaohs' Gold for London, Blooloop
- Ramses and the Pharaohs' Gold at Neon, The Upcoming review
- Coffin of Ramesses II, ARCE
- Royal Cache (Wikipedia)
More to read
- Who were the Sea Peoples? The raiders who fought Ramesses II, Merneptah and Ramesses III Who were the Sea Peoples? Pirates, hired fighters and migrants who raided the eastern Mediterranean and fought three pharaohs between 1278 and 1177 BC.
- How to read hieroglyphs How to read hieroglyphs: find the way the signs face, sound out the alphabet signs, spot the silent ones. A king's name read sign by sign.
- Which way do you read hieroglyphs? Which way do you read hieroglyphs? Toward the faces: birds, snakes and people look at the start of the line. Rows, columns and the odd exceptions.