All Object Lessons
Belief & Identity

The Mummy of Ramses II: A Pharaoh Who Travelled to Paris

⏱ 45 minutes 🎓 Primary & Secondary 📚 history, science, ethics, geography, citizenship
Core question How does the body of a man who died over 3,000 years ago become a passport-carrying traveller in the modern world — and what do we owe to the dead when they become objects in our museums?
The mummy of Ramses II, one of the most powerful pharaohs of ancient Egypt. He ruled for 66 years and lived to about 90, an extraordinary age in his time. His mummified body has now travelled through more than 3,000 years of history and is on display at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo. Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0
Introduction

In a museum in Cairo lies the body of a man who has been dead for over 3,000 years. He is small now — shrunken by time, his skin leathery brown, his face thin. But he was once one of the most powerful men in the world. His name was Ramses II, and he ruled Egypt for 66 years, from 1279 to 1213 BCE. He fought wars, built temples, fathered around 100 children, and outlived most of his own family. When he died at about 90 years old, he had lived through the reigns of several younger pharaohs that he had outlasted. His subjects called him Ramses the Great. The Egyptians believed that the body had to be preserved for the soul to live on. So when Ramses died, his body was mummified — dried out with natron salt, treated with resins, wrapped in linen bandages, and placed in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings. The tomb was filled with treasures, food, weapons, and texts to guide him to the afterlife. The plan was that he would rest there forever. He did not. Within 200 years of his burial, tomb robbers were tearing through the Valley of the Kings, looking for gold. Ancient Egyptian priests, seeing the damage, moved Ramses and dozens of other royal mummies several times for safekeeping. Finally, around 1000 BCE, they hid him in a secret cache at a cliff face called Deir el-Bahari. There he lay, with several other pharaohs, for nearly 3,000 years. In 1881, a local Egyptian family who had been quietly selling antiquities from the cache for decades was discovered. Egyptologists were led to the cache and the mummies were transported by boat down the Nile to Cairo. As the boat passed villages along the river, Egyptian villagers came out to mourn the passing pharaohs, just as their ancestors had done thousands of years before. Since then, Ramses II has had an extraordinary modern life. He has been studied, photographed, X-rayed, and CT-scanned. In 1976, his mummy was flown to Paris for emergency conservation treatment to stop a fungal infection — and was issued an Egyptian passport. The passport listed his occupation as 'King, deceased'. He was given full military honours on arrival. In 2021, his mummy was moved to a new museum in Cairo as part of a spectacular public ceremony watched by millions of people. This lesson asks who Ramses II was, how his mummy survived, and what his strange modern life teaches us about how the past lives on in the present.

The object
Origin
Egypt. Ramses II ruled Egypt during the 19th Dynasty of the New Kingdom, from 1279 to 1213 BCE. He was one of the most powerful and longest-reigning pharaohs in Egyptian history. His original tomb was in the Valley of the Kings (tomb KV7), but his mummy was moved several times by ancient priests to protect it from tomb robbers. It was finally hidden in a cache at Deir el-Bahari, where it lay undiscovered for nearly 3,000 years.
Period
Ramses II lived from approximately 1303 BCE to 1213 BCE. He died at about 90 years old, an extraordinary age in his time. His body was mummified, buried, moved, hidden, and eventually rediscovered in 1881. He has been on public display in different forms since the late 1880s.
Made of
The mummified body of a real human being. The body was preserved using ancient Egyptian mummification techniques: the internal organs were removed (apart from the heart), the body was dried with natron salt for about 40 days, then wrapped in linen bandages with amulets and resins. The hair on the head was dyed with henna. The original wrappings were partly removed by Egyptologists in the late 1800s for study, then carefully replaced.
Size
The mummy is about 1.7 metres long. Ramses II was unusually tall for his time. Modern scientific study has revealed that he had reddish-blonde hair (rare in ancient Egypt), suffered from severe arthritis in his old age, and had serious dental problems including abscesses.
Number of objects
There is only one mummy of Ramses II. He is one of more than 20 royal mummies recovered from the Deir el-Bahari cache and the KV35 cache. Together they form one of the largest collections of ancient royal mummies anywhere in the world.
Where it is now
Since 2021, the mummy has been on display at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo. The mummy was moved from the older Egyptian Museum in a public ceremony called the Pharaohs' Golden Parade, in which 22 royal mummies were transported through Cairo on specially designed vehicles.
Before you teach this — reflect

Questions for you

  1. The mummy is the body of a real person. How will you teach the lesson with the respect that a real human being deserves, while also engaging students with what is genuinely fascinating about the science and history?
  2. Ancient Egypt is often presented in sensational ways — curses, lost treasures, mysteries. How will you teach the real history honestly without losing the genuine wonder?
  3. Some students may find mummies frightening or disturbing. How will you handle this calmly and matter-of-factly?

Common student difficulties — tick any you have noticed

Discovery sequence
1
Ramses II ruled Egypt at the height of its imperial power. He took the throne around 1279 BCE, when he was about 25 years old. He ruled for 66 years. To put that in perspective, the British monarch Queen Elizabeth II reigned for 70 years. Ramses ruled for almost as long, in an age when most people did not live past 40. During his reign, Ramses fought a long series of wars in what is now Syria and Lebanon, including the famous Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BCE. The battle ended in a truce, and Ramses signed a peace treaty with the Hittite king Hattusili III — one of the earliest peace treaties in human history. Copies of the treaty exist in Egyptian hieroglyphs and Hittite cuneiform. At home, Ramses built on a scale that no other pharaoh matched. He built or expanded major temples at Karnak, Luxor, and Abydos. He built his own great temple at Abu Simbel, with four giant statues of himself carved into the cliff. He built a new capital city, Pi-Ramesses, in the Nile Delta. His face appears on more statues than any other pharaoh. He also fathered around 100 children, including over 50 sons. Many of his sons died before him. By the time he died, he was an old man who had outlived most of his own family. Why might one ruler dominate the memory of a whole civilisation?
Points to consider (for the teacher)

Because he ruled for so long, in such a successful period, that his image became hard to escape. Most pharaohs reigned for 5 to 20 years. Their building projects were modest. Their statues were few. Ramses ruled for 66 years and built constantly. He put his name on so many monuments that even where he had not built the original, later kings sometimes added his cartouches to existing buildings. His image became inescapable. When later pharaohs and Egyptians looked back, Ramses was the example of what a great king could be. Three thousand years later, when European archaeologists started studying ancient Egypt, they found Ramses everywhere too — and he became, for many people, the face of ancient Egypt itself. The Bible's Pharaoh of the Exodus is sometimes identified as Ramses II, though scholars are not agreed on this. The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote his famous poem Ozymandias about a fallen statue of Ramses (Ozymandias is the Greek version of one of Ramses's names). Students should see that historical fame is partly about achievement and partly about scale of self-promotion. Ramses had both. Many other rulers in history were equally important but left fewer monuments and so are less remembered today.

2
When Ramses died, his body went through the mummification process that had been refined over more than a thousand years. First, the body was washed with palm wine and Nile water. The brain was removed through the nose, using a long hook. The other internal organs were taken out through a small cut in the side and placed in special jars called canopic jars. Each organ was protected by a different god. The heart was left in the body — the Egyptians believed the heart, not the brain, was the seat of thinking and feeling. The body was then packed in natron salt, a kind of natural drying agent found in dry lake beds in Egypt. The body lay in natron for about 40 days. The salt drew out all the moisture from the tissues. By the end of this period, the body was dry, light, and preserved. Then the embalmers prepared the body for burial. The skin was rubbed with oils and resins to keep it from cracking. The body cavity was packed with linen and resins to restore its shape. Amulets — small protective objects — were placed throughout the wrappings. Then linen bandages were wound around the body, layer after layer, until it was completely wrapped. The whole process took about 70 days. Finally, the wrapped mummy was placed in a series of nested coffins, each more elaborate than the last, and then buried in a tomb cut deep into the rock of the Valley of the Kings. Why might a civilisation invest so much effort in preserving the dead?
Points to consider (for the teacher)

Because the ancient Egyptians believed the body had to be preserved for the soul to live on after death. The soul, in Egyptian belief, had several parts — the ka, the ba, and others — and these parts needed the body to return to. If the body was destroyed, the soul could not survive. The afterlife the Egyptians imagined was a continuation of the best parts of life on earth — fields of wheat, rivers full of fish, family and friends. To get there, the soul had to pass through judgement, where the heart was weighed against a feather. If the heart was too heavy with sin, the soul was destroyed. If it balanced the feather, the soul went on to the eternal fields. Mummification was a way of giving the dead person the best possible chance at this passage. The body had to be there. The organs had to be preserved. The protective spells had to be inscribed. Everything possible had to be done. This was true for ordinary Egyptians too, though only the rich could afford the full elaborate process. Poor people received simpler mummifications, but the basic idea was the same. Students should see that the elaborate Egyptian funerary culture was not strange or morbid — it was a deeply rational response to a deeply held belief about what happens after death. If you believed what the Egyptians believed, you would do exactly what they did.

3
Ramses was buried in tomb KV7 in the Valley of the Kings, around 1213 BCE. His tomb was filled with treasures: gold jewellery, weapons, food, wine, statues of gods, and texts to guide him to the afterlife. The plan was that he would lie there forever. Within 200 years, the plan was failing. The Egyptian state was weakening. Tomb robbers were systematically breaking into the royal tombs, looking for gold. The robbers were sometimes priests who knew exactly where the treasures were. The Valley of the Kings was being stripped. A group of priests, late in the period now called the Third Intermediate Period (around 1000 BCE), made a difficult decision. They could not stop the robbery. But they could try to save the bodies of the kings themselves. So they began moving the royal mummies — sometimes hiding them in tombs of other kings, sometimes wrapping them in cheap reused linens, sometimes scratching the names on the wrappings so future generations would know who they were. Ramses II was moved several times. Finally, around 1000 BCE, dozens of royal mummies were gathered together and hidden in a single secret cache, deep in a cliff face at Deir el-Bahari, on the west bank of the Nile near Thebes (modern Luxor). The entrance was sealed and forgotten. The pharaohs of the New Kingdom — Ramses II, his father Seti I, the powerful Thutmose III, and many others — were placed in this cache, where they remained, undisturbed, for nearly 3,000 years. In the 1870s, a local Egyptian family from the village of Qurna stumbled across the cache and began quietly selling antiquities from it on the black market. Egyptian and European scholars eventually noticed unusual royal items appearing on the market. In 1881, the Antiquities Service traced the items back to the family, and the cache was officially opened. The mummies were transported by boat down the Nile to Cairo. As the boat passed villages, local Egyptian women came out and wailed in mourning, just as ancient Egyptian women had done for kings 3,000 years before. What does this teach us about how history survives?
Points to consider (for the teacher)

That survival is mostly accidental. Most ancient kings have not survived as bodies. Most have been lost — destroyed by tomb robbers, eroded by time, scattered. The Egyptian royal mummies survived because of a specific decision by a specific group of priests around 1000 BCE who chose to save the bodies even when they could not save the treasures. Without that decision, Ramses II would not exist as a body for us to look at today. The hidden cache is one of the great archaeological discoveries of the modern era. The mummies inside were a window into 500 years of Egyptian royal history. Modern study of the bodies has revealed enormous amounts about ancient Egyptian health, diet, family relationships (DNA analysis has confirmed which mummies are related to each other), and individual lives. The rediscovery in 1881 was also a moment when Egypt's past entered Egypt's modern political life. Egypt was at that time under heavy Ottoman and increasing British influence. The mummies became a symbol of Egyptian heritage at a time when Egyptians were struggling to control their own country and their own past. Students should see that the survival of any historical object is a chain of decisions made by many people over many years. Each person along the chain — the original priest, the family in Qurna, the modern museum curator — has made the rest of the story possible.

4
The modern life of Ramses II has been almost as eventful as his ancient one. After arriving in Cairo in 1881, the mummy was studied at the Bulaq Museum and later moved to the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square. He was unwrapped and photographed for scientific record. His face was finally seen, for the first time in 3,000 years. He was found to have been an old man with reddish-blonde hair, severe arthritis, dental abscesses, and the strong nose that the family of Ramses was known for. In the 1970s, scientists noticed that the mummy was deteriorating — fungal infections were spreading through the ancient tissues. The Egyptian government decided that emergency treatment was needed and that the only place equipped to do it was Paris. In 1976, the mummy was flown to France in a sealed case. Because France required a passport for any foreign national entering the country, even the dead, the Egyptian government issued Ramses an official Egyptian passport. The occupation listed on the passport was 'King, deceased'. When the plane arrived at Le Bourget airport in Paris, the mummy was given full French military honours, as is customary for visiting heads of state. Ramses was, by this point, no longer just a body. He was a kind of diplomat. At the Musée de l'Homme in Paris, French scientists treated the mummy with gamma radiation to kill the fungus. They also did detailed scientific studies of his hair, skin, and bones. After several months, the mummy was flown back to Cairo, healthier than when he had left. In April 2021, in a spectacular public ceremony called the Pharaohs' Golden Parade, the mummy of Ramses II and 21 other royal mummies were transported through the streets of Cairo from the old Egyptian Museum to the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. Each mummy was carried on a specially designed vehicle, accompanied by horses, music, and the Egyptian President. The streets were closed. Millions of Egyptians lined the route. Hundreds of millions watched on television worldwide. After 3,200 years, Ramses was on the move again. What does the modern life of the mummy tell us about Egypt today?
Points to consider (for the teacher)

That ancient Egypt is not just history for modern Egyptians — it is part of how Egypt sees itself in the world today. The 2021 parade was a national event. The Egyptian government invested heavily in it. Egyptian journalists wrote about it as a moment of national pride. Ordinary Egyptians watched it with the same kind of attention people give to a major coronation or state funeral. The pharaohs are not foreign curiosities for Egyptians. They are ancestors. There is also an ongoing debate about how human remains should be displayed. Some scholars and members of the public, in Egypt and elsewhere, argue that mummies should not be on public display at all — that they are people, not objects, and that their dignity should be respected by burying them again or at least keeping them away from tourists. Other scholars argue that the mummies are now part of the world's shared heritage, that displaying them carefully educates the public, and that Egyptian museums have the right and responsibility to make their own decisions about their own ancestors. The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization has tried to display the mummies with much more dignity than the older museum did, in dimmed light, with respectful labels, and without sensational presentation. The conversation continues. Ramses II, who never expected to be looked at by foreigners 3,000 years after his death, is now part of a real ongoing question about how the dead should be treated. End the discovery here. The next visitors are entering the museum.

What this object teaches

The mummy of Ramses II is the preserved body of one of ancient Egypt's most powerful pharaohs. Ramses II ruled Egypt from 1279 to 1213 BCE — for 66 years, one of the longest reigns in Egyptian history. He died at about 90 years old. His body was mummified using the elaborate ancient Egyptian process: the brain and most internal organs were removed, the body was dried with natron salt for 40 days, then wrapped in linen bandages with amulets and protective spells. He was buried in tomb KV7 in the Valley of the Kings. Within 200 years, tomb robbers had begun systematically attacking the royal tombs, and Egyptian priests began moving and hiding the royal mummies. Around 1000 BCE, dozens of royal mummies including Ramses II were hidden in a secret cache at Deir el-Bahari, where they remained undisturbed for nearly 3,000 years. The cache was rediscovered in 1881. The mummy of Ramses has had a remarkable modern life. He was studied, photographed, and X-rayed. In 1976, he was flown to Paris for emergency conservation treatment to stop a fungal infection — and was issued an Egyptian passport, listed as 'King, deceased'. He was given full French military honours on arrival. In 2021, his mummy was moved to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo as part of the Pharaohs' Golden Parade, a public ceremony watched by millions of people worldwide. The mummy is now displayed in dimmed lighting with much more dignity than older museums offered. The lesson asks who Ramses was, how his body survived, and what the modern life of his mummy teaches us about the relationship between past and present.

Date (approximate)EventWhat changed
1279 BCERamses II becomes pharaohHe is about 25 years old; the start of his 66-year reign
1274 BCEBattle of Kadesh against the HittitesEnds in stalemate; later peace treaty is one of the earliest in human history
1213 BCERamses II dies aged about 90 and is mummifiedBuried in tomb KV7 in the Valley of the Kings, with treasures and protective spells
around 1000 BCEEgyptian priests hide royal mummies in the Deir el-Bahari cacheRamses II and dozens of other pharaohs are hidden together to protect them from tomb robbers
1881 CEThe cache is rediscoveredAfter thousands of years, Ramses II is brought back into public view
1976 CEThe mummy is flown to Paris for conservation treatmentHe is issued an Egyptian passport listed as 'King, deceased' and given full military honours on arrival
2021 CEPharaohs' Golden ParadeThe mummy is moved to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in a televised public ceremony
Key words
Ramses II (1303-1213 BCE)
Pharaoh of Egypt during the 19th Dynasty, who ruled for 66 years (1279-1213 BCE) and lived to about 90. Also called Ramses the Great. Built temples, fought wars, signed one of the earliest peace treaties in human history, and fathered around 100 children.
Example: His name appears on more monuments than any other pharaoh. The temple of Abu Simbel, with its four giant statues of him, is one of the most famous ancient sites in the world. Many of his statues were also re-inscribed by later kings hoping to claim some of his glory.
Mummification
The ancient Egyptian process of preserving a body for the afterlife. The brain and most internal organs were removed, the body was dried with natron salt for about 40 days, treated with oils and resins, then wrapped in linen bandages with amulets. The whole process took about 70 days.
Example: The heart was usually left in the body, because the Egyptians believed the heart was the seat of thinking and feeling. The brain was thought to be unimportant and was usually removed and discarded.
Valley of the Kings
A burial valley on the west bank of the Nile, near modern Luxor (ancient Thebes). Pharaohs of the New Kingdom (around 1550-1069 BCE), including Ramses II, were buried here in tombs cut deep into the rock.
Example: Tomb KV7, the original tomb of Ramses II, is in the Valley of the Kings. It is one of the largest tombs in the valley but was extensively damaged in ancient floods. KV62, the tomb of Tutankhamun, is also in the Valley of the Kings.
Deir el-Bahari cache
A secret hiding place in a cliff face on the west bank of the Nile near Luxor. Around 1000 BCE, ancient Egyptian priests hid dozens of royal mummies there to protect them from tomb robbers. The cache was rediscovered in 1881.
Example: The cache contained the mummies of many of the most famous pharaohs of the New Kingdom — Ramses II, his father Seti I, Thutmose III, and many others. It is one of the most important archaeological discoveries ever made in Egypt.
National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC)
A museum in Cairo, opened to the public in 2021, that holds many of Egypt's most important artefacts. The royal mummies, including Ramses II, are now on display there in a special hall in dimmed lighting.
Example: The museum is in the Fustat district of Old Cairo. The mummy hall opened in 2021, after the Pharaohs' Golden Parade transferred the royal mummies from the older Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square.
Pharaohs' Golden Parade (2021)
A public ceremony held in Cairo on 3 April 2021, in which the mummies of 22 pharaohs and queens were transported from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square to the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. The parade was broadcast live worldwide.
Example: Each mummy travelled in a specially designed vehicle, accompanied by horses, music, and ceremony. The Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, received the mummies at the new museum. Streets were closed across Cairo. Millions watched.
Use this in other subjects
  • History: Build a class timeline: Ramses II becomes pharaoh (1279 BCE); Battle of Kadesh (1274 BCE); Ramses dies and is buried (1213 BCE); priests move and hide royal mummies (around 1000 BCE); cache rediscovered (1881 CE); mummy flown to Paris (1976 CE); Pharaohs' Golden Parade (2021 CE). The mummy's story spans more than 3,200 years.
  • Geography: On a map of Egypt, mark the Valley of the Kings (where Ramses was originally buried), Deir el-Bahari (where his mummy was hidden), Cairo (where it is now displayed), Abu Simbel (his great temple), and Pi-Ramesses (his capital). Discuss how the geography of the Nile shaped ancient Egyptian civilisation.
  • Science: Discuss the science of mummification. Why does drying with natron salt preserve a body? Why was the brain removed but the heart left in? Modern study of the mummy has used X-rays, CT scans, and DNA analysis to learn about Ramses's age, illnesses, family relationships, and even hair colour. Discuss how new scientific tools open old objects to new questions.
  • Ethics: Hold a class discussion: 'Should mummies be on display in museums?' Strong answers will see real arguments on both sides. For: they teach the public about ancient cultures, they are central to museum work, they can be displayed with dignity. Against: they are real human bodies, the people themselves did not consent to be on display, dignity is hard to maintain in a tourist-heavy museum.
  • Citizenship: The Pharaohs' Golden Parade in 2021 was both an archaeological event and a political event. The Egyptian government invested heavily in it. Discuss how a country's relationship with its ancient past shapes its modern identity. Egypt is one of the clearest examples in the world.
  • Language and literature: Read Percy Bysshe Shelley's 1818 poem 'Ozymandias', which is about a fallen statue of Ramses II (Ozymandias is a Greek version of one of Ramses's names). Discuss how the poem's image of fallen pride relates to what we know about Ramses today. Is the mummy a fulfilment of the poem, or a contradiction of it?
Common misconceptions
Wrong

Ramses II is famous because he was the Pharaoh of the Exodus story.

Right

Some people identify Ramses II with the unnamed pharaoh of the biblical Exodus, but scholars are not agreed on this. The biblical text does not name a specific pharaoh, and the dates do not match cleanly. Ramses is famous for his own actual reign — 66 years of rule, massive building projects, the Battle of Kadesh, the Hittite peace treaty — not just for a biblical story that may or may not refer to him.

Why

Reducing Ramses to a Bible character ignores the actual historical record of one of Egypt's most documented kings.

Wrong

Mummification was a strange or morbid Egyptian habit.

Right

Mummification was a deeply rational response to a deeply held belief. The Egyptians believed the body had to be preserved for the soul to live on after death. Given that belief, mummification is exactly what you would do. The Egyptians were not strange — they had a coherent theology of death and acted on it carefully and at scale.

Why

Calling other cultures' practices 'strange' usually reveals more about the speaker than the practice.

Wrong

The royal mummies were always in museums.

Right

They were buried in tombs in the Valley of the Kings around 1213 BCE, then moved repeatedly by priests over the next 200 years, then hidden in the Deir el-Bahari cache around 1000 BCE, then rediscovered in 1881. They have only been in museums for about 140 years out of more than 3,000.

Why

The long survival in hidden places is part of why the mummies exist at all.

Wrong

A 3,000-year-old mummy is just a museum object.

Right

He is also a real person who lived a real life. The body is a body. Modern Egyptians often relate to the royal mummies as ancestors, not as objects. The 2021 Pharaohs' Golden Parade was treated as a kind of state ceremony, not as a museum logistics exercise.

Why

Reducing human remains to 'objects' loses the dignity that real people deserve.

Teaching this with care

Treat the mummy as the body of a real person. Use respectful language — 'the mummy of Ramses II' rather than just 'the mummy'. Avoid the horror-film register that mummies sometimes get in Western pop culture. Ramses was not a monster, a curse, or a Halloween costume. He was a man who lived a long life and died old. Be careful with the science. The science of mummification is genuinely fascinating, and modern study of the mummy has revealed extraordinary things about Ramses's life and health. Teach this honestly. At the same time, do not let the science crowd out the human story. The body is a body. Be respectful of Egyptian heritage. Ancient Egypt belongs to Egypt in a deep sense, even though many ancient Egyptian objects are scattered in museums around the world. The royal mummies are now in Cairo. The Egyptian government has invested heavily in displaying them with dignity. Modern Egyptians often relate to the pharaohs as ancestors. Avoid presenting ancient Egypt as a generic 'lost civilisation' — it is specifically Egyptian, and modern Egypt is its inheritor. Be honest about the colonial period. Many ancient Egyptian objects were taken to European museums during the colonial era. The mummy of Ramses stayed in Egypt, but other objects (the Rosetta Stone, the bust of Nefertiti, many other items) did not. The repatriation conversation is real. Mention this honestly without making the lesson into a lecture about it. Be careful with the religious dimension. Ancient Egyptian religion was a real religion, with real beliefs about death, the soul, and the afterlife. Treat it with the same respect you would give to any major religion. Do not call it 'mythology' as if it were obviously false. The Egyptians believed it deeply, and many of their practices make perfect sense given those beliefs. Be careful with the body itself. The image shows a real human body. Some students may find this disturbing. Most will be fine. If asked, answer simply and matter-of-factly. Avoid sensationalising. The body is a body. We treat it with respect. Be aware of the ethics debate. Some scholars argue mummies should not be displayed at all. Others argue careful display is fine. Both views have real merit. The lesson should mention the debate honestly without taking a strong side. Finally, end the lesson on the present. The mummy is in a Cairo museum. Modern Egyptians visit. The story continues.

Check what students have understood

Answer each question in one or two sentences. Use what you have learned about the mummy of Ramses II.

  1. Who was Ramses II, and how long did he rule?

    He was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt during the 19th Dynasty. He ruled for 66 years, from 1279 to 1213 BCE, one of the longest reigns in Egyptian history. He died at about 90 years old, an extraordinary age for his time. He is also called Ramses the Great.
    Marking note: Award full marks for any answer that mentions the long reign and identifies him as a pharaoh of Egypt.

  2. How was Ramses's body preserved after death?

    Through mummification. The brain and most internal organs were removed (the heart was left in). The body was dried with natron salt for about 40 days, treated with oils and resins, then wrapped in linen bandages with protective amulets. The whole process took about 70 days.
    Marking note: Award full marks for any answer that mentions the natron drying and the wrapping. Mentioning the 70-day process is a bonus.

  3. How and why was the mummy hidden, and how was it rediscovered?

    Around 1000 BCE, ancient Egyptian priests hid dozens of royal mummies, including Ramses II, in a secret cache at Deir el-Bahari, to protect them from tomb robbers. The cache was rediscovered in 1881, when a local Egyptian family was found to be selling antiquities from it. Egyptologists then officially opened the cache.
    Marking note: Strong answers will mention the priests, the threat from tomb robbers, the cache at Deir el-Bahari, and the 1881 rediscovery.

  4. Why did the mummy of Ramses II travel to Paris in 1976?

    Because the mummy was developing a fungal infection that was damaging the ancient tissues. The Egyptian government decided that emergency conservation treatment was needed and that France had the equipment to do it. The mummy was issued an Egyptian passport for the journey, with the occupation listed as 'King, deceased', and was given full French military honours on arrival.
    Marking note: Award full marks for any answer that mentions the conservation treatment and the passport. The military honours detail is a bonus.

  5. What was the Pharaohs' Golden Parade, and what does it tell us about modern Egypt?

    It was a public ceremony in Cairo on 3 April 2021, in which 22 royal mummies including Ramses II were transported from the Egyptian Museum to the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. Streets were closed. Millions watched on television. It shows that ancient Egypt is not just history for modern Egyptians — it is part of how Egypt sees itself today, as a country with a deep and continuing heritage.
    Marking note: Strong answers will describe the parade and link it to how modern Egypt relates to its ancient past.
Discuss together

These questions have no single right answer. Talk in pairs or small groups, then share your ideas with the class.

  1. Should the mummies of pharaohs be on public display, or should they be reburied?

    There are real arguments on both sides. For display: the mummies teach the public about ancient cultures, they are central to museum education, modern Egypt has chosen to display them with care and dignity, the Egyptian people themselves seem broadly to support display. Against: they are real human bodies, the people themselves never consented to being looked at by tourists, a reburial would honour them more fully, dignity is hard to maintain in a tourist-heavy museum. The deeper point is that this is a real ongoing question, with thoughtful people on different sides. Strong answers will see that 'should we do this' is not a question with one right answer for all cases. Each case has its own ethics.

  2. Why might modern Egyptians relate to the pharaohs as ancestors, rather than just as historical figures?

    Push students to think about this seriously. Modern Egyptians have lived continuously in Egypt for many generations. Many can trace their language (Egyptian Arabic, with traces of Coptic) and their genetic heritage back to ancient times. The relationship with ancient Egypt is not the same as a British person's relationship with the Romans, or an American's with the Mayans. It is closer, more direct. The 2021 Pharaohs' Golden Parade was treated as a kind of homecoming, not a museum logistics event. Strong answers will see that 'ancient' and 'modern' are not separate worlds for Egyptians — they are part of one continuous story.

  3. If you were Ramses II, three thousand years dead, what would you think about being on display in a Cairo museum and watched by millions of people on television?

    This is a question that asks students to imagine across time. Ramses planned for an eternal afterlife in his tomb. He did not plan for any of what has happened to his body. He would probably be surprised. Whether he would be honoured or upset is hard to say. Strong answers will think about what mattered to Ramses in his own time — being remembered, being honoured, having his name spoken — and ask whether the modern attention fulfils those wishes or distorts them. There is no single right answer, but the question is real and worth taking seriously.
Teaching sequence
  1. THE HOOK (5 min)
    Without saying anything about the lesson, ask: 'How long has anyone here ever held a passport?' Take answers — usually a few months to a few years. Then say: 'In 1976, the Egyptian government issued a passport to a man who had been dead for over 3,000 years. We are going to find out about him.'
  2. INTRODUCE THE PERSON (10 min)
    Tell students who Ramses II was — pharaoh of Egypt for 66 years, who died at about 90, who built more monuments than any other pharaoh. Pause and ask: 'What might you do if you wanted to be remembered for thousands of years?' Listen to answers. Most will mention building things or having children. Ramses did both, on a huge scale.
  3. THE JOURNEY OF THE BODY (15 min)
    Tell the long story: buried in the Valley of the Kings (1213 BCE), moved by priests several times, hidden in the Deir el-Bahari cache (around 1000 BCE), rediscovered in 1881, flown to Paris in 1976, paraded through Cairo in 2021. Discuss: the body has had a longer life than most countries. What does this mean?
  4. THE QUESTION (10 min)
    Hold a short class discussion: 'Should mummies be on public display, or should they be reburied?' Hear real arguments on both sides. Note that this is a real ongoing debate among scholars and the public. The Egyptian government has chosen display with dignity. Other approaches are also possible.
  5. CLOSING (5 min)
    Ask: 'A 3,000-year-old body is just bones and skin. What does the mummy of Ramses II stand for?' Take a few honest answers. End by saying: 'For the longest reign in Egyptian history. For a civilisation that took death seriously. For the priests who saved him from tomb robbers. For the modern country that brings him through its capital with horses and music. The mummy is small and old. The story is large and continuing. Ramses lies in a Cairo museum tonight. The conversation continues.'
Classroom materials
The Mummification Steps
Instructions: On the board, list the steps of mummification in the wrong order. Have students put them in the right order: (1) wash the body with palm wine; (2) remove the brain through the nose; (3) remove the internal organs through the side; (4) place organs in canopic jars; (5) dry the body in natron salt for 40 days; (6) treat the skin with oils and resins; (7) wrap the body in linen bandages with amulets; (8) place in nested coffins. Discuss why each step matters.
Example: In Mr Hassan's class, students were surprised at how careful the process was. The teacher said: 'You have just walked through what an ancient Egyptian embalmer did over 70 days. Every step had a reason. Every step was based on what the Egyptians believed about the soul, the body, and the afterlife. The process is not random — it is one of the most carefully thought-through funerary practices in human history.'
Map the Mummy
Instructions: On a map of Egypt drawn on the board, mark the Valley of the Kings (where Ramses was originally buried), Deir el-Bahari (where his mummy was hidden), and Cairo (where it is now displayed). Mark also Abu Simbel (his great temple) and Pi-Ramesses (his capital). Add Paris on a wider map (where the mummy went in 1976). Discuss: in 3,200 years, the body has travelled what looks like a small distance, but each move tells a story.
Example: In Ms Mahmoud's class, students were surprised at how local most of the mummy's journey was. The teacher said: 'You have just mapped 3,200 years of one body's life after death. Most of the moves were within Egypt. The Paris trip was the longest journey he ever made. The Pharaohs' Golden Parade was through one city. The story of the mummy is, in some ways, a story about the same place — Egypt — across an enormous span of time.'
Write the Passport
Instructions: Each student designs an imaginary passport for a famous historical figure who has been dead for at least 100 years. They must include: name, date of birth, date of death (and listed occupation). The Egyptian passport for Ramses listed his occupation as 'King, deceased'. What would they list for their chosen figure?
Example: In Mrs Adel's class, students chose a wide range — Cleopatra, Genghis Khan, Marie Curie, Shakespeare, Florence Nightingale. The teacher said: 'You have just done what the Egyptian government did in 1976 — taken a deeply respected dead person and given them the documents of a modern traveller. The exercise is funny but also serious. It asks: what does it mean to grant someone the rights of a citizen long after their death? It is one of the small ways modern Egypt honours its ancient kings.'
Where to go next
  • Try a lesson on the Rosetta Stone for another major ancient Egyptian object with a long modern life.
  • Try a lesson on the bust of Nefertiti for another famous ancient Egyptian piece in the middle of an ongoing repatriation discussion.
  • Try a lesson on the terracotta army for another ancient ruler's elaborate plan for the afterlife.
  • Connect this lesson to history class with a longer project on the New Kingdom of Egypt and the wider ancient Mediterranean.
  • Connect this lesson to science class with a longer project on the science of preservation, decomposition, and what modern technology can learn from ancient bodies.
  • Connect this lesson to ethics class with a longer discussion of museum ethics and the display of human remains. The Ramses mummy is one case among many — including the bog bodies of northern Europe, the Inca mummies of the Andes, and many Indigenous ancestors held by museums in Europe and North America.
Key takeaways
  • Ramses II was pharaoh of Egypt for 66 years (1279-1213 BCE), one of the longest reigns in Egyptian history. He died at about 90 years old.
  • His body was preserved through the elaborate Egyptian mummification process — drying with natron salt for 40 days, then wrapping in linen with protective amulets. The whole process took about 70 days.
  • He was buried in the Valley of the Kings, but ancient priests moved his mummy several times to protect it from tomb robbers. Around 1000 BCE, he was hidden with other royal mummies in a secret cache at Deir el-Bahari.
  • The cache was rediscovered in 1881. The mummies were transported to Cairo, where they have been studied ever since.
  • In 1976, the mummy was flown to Paris for emergency conservation treatment. He was issued an Egyptian passport listing his occupation as 'King, deceased' and was given full French military honours on arrival.
  • In 2021, the mummy was moved to the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo, as part of the spectacular Pharaohs' Golden Parade. The story of how a society treats its ancient dead continues today.
Sources
  • The Royal Mummies of Egypt — Salima Ikram and Aidan Dodson (1998) [academic]
  • Ramesses II, Egypt's Greatest Pharaoh — Toby Wilkinson (2010) [academic]
  • The Pharaohs' Golden Parade in Cairo — BBC News (2021) [news]
  • National Museum of Egyptian Civilization — Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Egypt (2024) [institution]
  • When Ramses II travelled to Paris — Le Monde archives (2016) [news]