Toby Wilkinson explores the remarkable reign of Ramesses II and considers whether he really was the most accomplished of all Egyptian pharaohs

By Rob Attar

Published: Wednesday, 17 May 2023 at 12:00 am


Ramesses II is the only pharaoh in history to be known as ‘the great’, but does he deserve that title? Was he the pharaoh in the Exodus story? And was his mummy really given a passport when he travelled to France? Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson has just written a new biography of Ramesses and he answered these questions and more in conversation with Rob Attar.

Toby Wilkinson is the author of Ramesses the Great: Egypt’s King of Kings (Yale University Press, 2023)