Image Details

O. Louis Mazzatenta, Courtesy of the National Geographic Society

Behind young Ramesses stands the hawk-god Horus, protector of pharaohs, in this 7.5-foot-high statue in the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo. Although this granite carving shows Ramesses as a boy, the pedestal is inscribed with the names—the so-called throne names—he would take upon becoming king. One of Ramesses’ throne names, Usermaatre (meaning Power and Truth of Re), was rendered as “Ozymandias” by the Greeks.