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The 20th Dynasty: the last Ramesses kings
17 October 2026
The 20th Dynasty was the last royal house of the New Kingdom, ruling Egypt from about 1186 to 1069 BC. Its founder, Setnakhte, reigned only a few years. His son Ramesses III beat back the Sea Peoples and built the great temple at Medinet Habu, and every king after him took the name Ramesses, down to Ramesses XI.
The dynasty is known as much for its troubles as its monuments: the first recorded strike, a plot to murder the king, and trials of the thieves who robbed royal tombs on the Theban west bank. Its texts, carved in stone and written on papyrus, show a state running short of grain and of authority.
Ramesses III built the temple at Medinet Habu
Ramesses III ruled for about 31 years, from about 1184 BC. In his 8th year he fought off the Sea Peoples, migrants and raiders who came by land and by sea, and his memorial temple at Medinet Habu shows the battle on its outer north wall, including one of the oldest pictures of a fight between ships. Long texts beside the scenes tell his version of the war.
The temple is the best place in Egypt to learn deep-cut signs. Its sunk relief is carved so deep that the hieroglyphs cast hard shadows and stay readable even at midday. A calendar of feasts runs along the outer south wall, and paint survives on many signs in the second court.
Ramesses III modelled his cartouches on Ramesses II's
Ramesses III modelled his names on Ramesses II's. His throne name is wsr-mꜣꜥt-rꜥ mry-imn, said Usermaatre Meryamun: "strong is the Maat of Ra, beloved of Amun". The sun disc (N5) writes Ra and comes first out of respect. The head of a canine (F12) is wsr, "strong", and the feather (H6), or the seated goddess (C10) on many walls, is mꜣꜥt, the order of the world. Then the reed, the game board and the water ripple (M17, Y5, N35) spell imn, Amun, the god "beloved" here.
His birth name is rꜥ-ms-sw ḥqꜣ-iwnw, Ramesses Heqaiunu, "Ra bore him, ruler of Heliopolis". The fox skins (F31) write ms, "to bear", and the folded cloth (S29) adds s. The crook (S38) is ḥqꜣ, "ruler", and the column (O28) writes iwnw, Heliopolis, the city of the sun god.
Ramesses II's throne name is Usermaatre too, but it ends in Setepenre, "chosen of Ra", with the adze (U21). His birth name ends in Meryamun. So the crook in the birth name, or Meryamun in the throne name, marks Ramesses III.
The first recorded strike came under Ramesses III
In Ramesses III's 29th year the craftsmen of Deir el-Medina, who cut and painted the royal tombs, stopped work because their grain rations had not come. The scribe Amennakht wrote down what followed on a papyrus now in the Museo Egizio in Turin: the men sat behind the memorial temple of Thutmose III, were paid, then walked out again. It is the earliest strike on record.
The king's end was violent. A queen named Tiye plotted to put her son Pentaweret on the throne, and court records from the trials survive as the Judicial Papyrus of Turin. A CT scan of Ramesses III's mummy, published in 2012, found a deep cut across his throat, so the plot seems to have killed him.
Eight more kings took the name Ramesses
Eight more kings named Ramesses followed, most with short reigns. Their throne names reuse the same parts: Ramesses IV started as Usermaatre Setepenamun, Ramesses V was Usermaatre Sekheperenre, Ramesses VI Nebmaatre, with the basket (V30) for nb, "lord".
Ramesses VI took over a tomb begun for Ramesses V in the Valley of the Kings, KV9. Its burial chamber ceiling, with the sky goddess Nut stretched twice across it among the Books of the Day and the Night, is one of the most photographed in Egypt. Debris from its builders' huts covered the entrance to Tutankhamun's tomb nearby, which helped keep it hidden until 1922.
Papyri record the trials of tomb robbers
Under Ramesses IX the robbing of tombs on the west bank of Thebes became a scandal. The Abbott Papyrus, now in the British Museum, records an inspection in his 16th year. Paser, mayor of the east bank, had reported robberies on the west bank, the territory of his rival Pawero. The commission checked ten royal tombs and found one, that of the 17th Dynasty king Sobekemsaf II, broken into.
The thieves' own words survive. Papyrus Leopold II-Amherst, split in two in modern times and now kept in Brussels and New York, holds the confession of eight men, led by a stonemason named Amenpanefer, who tunnelled into Sobekemsaf's tomb and stripped the king's and queen's mummies of their gold. These papyri are written in hieratic, the scribes' joined-up hand.
Throne names tell the Ramesses kings apart
The dynasty had ten kings, nine of them called Ramesses. The numbers are modern, so on a wall you must tell them apart by the throne name, and several throne names begin with the same Usermaatre.
Names were also taken over. Later kings sometimes recut a predecessor's cartouches with their own, so a deep, clean cartouche on an older wall may be a second name over a first.
The end is blurred. Under Ramesses XI the high priest of Amun, Herihor, ruled Thebes and wrote his own name in a cartouche, and Smendes held the north. Smendes then founded the 21st Dynasty at Tanis. Books end the 20th Dynasty anywhere from 1077 to 1069 BC.
Questions
Who founded the 20th dynasty of Egypt?
Setnakhte, who came to power after the troubled end of the 19th Dynasty and reigned only a few years. His son Ramesses III succeeded him.
Who were the Sea Peoples?
Groups of raiders and migrants from around the eastern Mediterranean who attacked Egypt and its neighbours around 1200–1170 BC. Egyptian texts name several of them, among them the Peleset, often linked with the Philistines.
Where is Ramesses III buried?
His tomb is KV11 in the Valley of the Kings. His mummy was moved by priests in the following centuries and found in 1881 in the royal cache at Deir el-Bahari.
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.
- dynasty
- A line of kings counted together, usually one family. Egyptologists number Egypt's kings in about 30 dynasties, following the priest Manetho.
- hieroglyphs
- The picture signs of ancient Egyptian writing, used from about 3200 BC to AD 394. A sign can stand for sounds, for a whole word, or for the kind of thing a word means.
- 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.
- New Kingdom
- Egypt's age of empire, about 1550 to 1069 BC, the time of Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II.
- papyrus
- A writing sheet made from strips of the papyrus reed laid in two crossing layers and pressed. Sheets were glued into long rolls.
- relief
- A carving on a flat surface. In raised relief the background is cut away. In sunk relief the figures are cut into the stone.
- scribe
- A person trained to read and write, who kept accounts, wrote letters and copied texts. Few Egyptians could write, and scribes were well respected.
- temple
- The house of a god, where priests served the god's statue. Temples for dead kings kept up their offerings after death.
- 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
- Medinet Habu site
- Tomb of Ramesses VI (KV9) monument
- Valley of the Kings site
- Deir el-Medina site
- Museo Egizio, Turin museum
- British Museum, London museum
- Temple of Hatshepsut (Deir el-Bahari) site
- Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62) monument
Sources
More to read
- What is a serekh? The royal frame before the cartouche What is a serekh? The palace-front frame topped by the Horus falcon that held the first kings' names, read sign by sign from Narmer to Khufu.
- How many pharaohs were there? How many pharaohs were there? About 170 known by name, over 200 counting every king in the lists. Why the count is uncertain, and who came first and last.
- What does the Rosetta Stone say? The decree in plain words What does the Rosetta Stone say? A priests' decree of 196 BC thanking Ptolemy V for tax cuts and temple gifts, and ordering his statues and festivals.