19th dynasty

Menpehtyre Ramesses I  was the founding Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt's 19th dynasty.
The dates for his short reign vary from late 1292-1290 BC is and 1295-1294 BC.

Ramesses, who was known as Paramessu before he claimed the throne, worked closely with Horemheb, the king who preceded him, to restore law and order to a country that had been torn apart by ill-conceived religious reforms.

While Ramesses I is credited with estalishing the 19th Dynasty, his short reign of less than two years marked the transition between the reign of Horemheb and the rule of the powerful Pharaohs of the 19th dynasty, particularly Seti I and Ramesses II.

Ramesses I died and was buried in his unfinished tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Four hundred years after his burial he was moved from his sarcophagus to a replacement coffin and taken from the royal necropolis. Eventually, in 890BC, his mummy was finally laid to rest in a tomb high in the cliffs above Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el Bahri.

Sometime in the mid-1800s, the tomb at Deir el-Bahri was accidentally discovered by Ahmed Abd el-Rassul who sold off off mummies, coffins, and royal artifacts to tourists and collectors. When he was caught and stopped in 1881 the tomb contained 40 mummies, coffins, including that of Ramsses, but there was no sign of his mummy.

Seti I, son of Ramesses I and Queen Sitre, became the second king of the 19th Dynasty of ancient Egypt. Seti followed in his father's military footsteps, taking three divisions of 60,000 men into battle on a campaign in Asia, and reoccupying Egyptian posts and garrisoned cities in the Syrian territory. He plundered Palestine and brought Damascus back into Egyptian control. Proving himself a shrewd political tactician, he also reconciled with the Hittites who were fast becoming the most powerful state in the nation.

With his first son and heir, Ramesses II, Seti campaigned against Kadesh. In Karnak he completed his father's plan by converting the court between the second and third pylons into a vast hypostle hall. He built his vast mortuary complex at Abydos and went on to build his own tomb in Thebes, located in the Valley of the Kings. Cut 300 feet into the cliffs, it was the largest tomb in the area. Buried with him were over 700 Shabti - carved stone or wooden figures that were to accompany him to the afterlife to comply with the requests from the gods. His tomb in the Valley of the Kings was vandalised and his body was relocated to Deir el Bahri.