"The Great Ancestor"

Destinations By Brian Wilkes

Pharaoh Ramesses II is known to historians and humble genealogists such as myself as "the Great Ancestor". The Greeks called him Ozymandias from his throne name Usermaatre, and his monumental statuary guarded the boundaries of his domain. I chose this angle of his 66 foot tall statues at Abu Simbel, placed to intimidate Nubian traders entering Egypt, because the recess into the stone cliff resembles both his nemes headdress and the pharaoh lying in his sarcophagus. Besides being the ancestor of many pharaohs to follow, he is the ancestor of Persian, Armenian, Roman, Byzantine, Bulgarian, French, German, Bohemian, Polish, Kievan, English, Italian, and Scottish royals, among others. 1922 marks the centennial of the discovery of King Tut's tomb, which sparked a global fascination with ancient Egypt, and I proudly take this opportunity to honor my 108th great-grandfather, whose bloodline flows as steadily northward as the Nile.