Ramesses II (Civ4)/Civilopedia

Also known as "Ramesses the Great," Ramesses was an Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty. He was the third king in his dynasty, the son of King Seti I and Queen Tuya. Ramesses was born around 1302 BC and ruled from approximately 1279 to 1213 BC. Among Ramesses' many wives, the most famous was Nefertari, who was his principal wife for over twenty years and was later deified and worshipped as a goddess. Ramesses seems to have enjoyed all of the benefits of his position as pharaoh, and he fathered about 100 children during his long rule. One of them, the Pharaoh Merneptah, became his successor.
Ramesses was most famous for leading several military campaigns along the eastern Mediterranean coast. On one of these expeditions into modern-day Israel and Lebanon, Ramesses ran into the Hittite army of King Muwatallis. At the Battle of Kadesh in 1274, the two sides fought for control of the territory comprising modern Syria. It was probably the largest chariot battle ever fought, with some 5000 chariots engaged on both sides. The battle was largely inconclusive, and both sides claimed victory. However Ramesses lost more men than Muwatallis, so the Hittites probably got the best of the Egyptians. Two sides continued to struggle against one another for decades to come until they signed a peace treaty in 1258 BC - this is the first peace treaty ever recorded in history. At the other end of his domains, Ramesses also campaigned extensively south of the First Cataract of the Nile in Nubia, winning additional land for Egypt.
Today Ramesses is one of the best-known Egyptian pharaohs, primarily because he had so many monuments and statues of himself erected. The renowned archaeological complex of Abu Simbel - one of the best-preserved sites from ancient Egypt - was built on his orders. Ramesses' mummy was discovered in 1881; it was moved to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, where it is still proudly displayed to the public today. (His 3000-year old body is in surprisingly good shape.)
Ramesses is often popularly identified as the pharaoh who confronted Moses in the Bible. However, Ramesses lived to the age of 90 after a long reign of 66 years, he did not drown in the Red Sea, and there is no mention in the records of a slave revolt during his reign - so this seems quite unlikely.