Image Details
Avraham Hay, courtesy of the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums
His majesty unimpaired by the centuries, the mummy of Pharaoh Ramesses III (c. 1182–1151 B.C.) stares blindly out from across the millennia. Ramesses is chiefly remembered because he successfully repelled an invasion by marauding Sea Peoples. It was not a victory without cost; the effort probably weakened Egypt’s hold on its Canaanite possessions. Lachish’s final destruction may have come at the hands of the Sea Peoples, or of Joshua and the invading Israelites, as Egyptian strength waned during the troubled 12th century B.C.