‘The Donald Trump of ancient Egypt’: Ramses II’s ego is on full display in new exhibition

A collection of 3,000-year-old artefacts at Battersea power station gives Egypt’s most ambitious, self-aggrandising pharaoh a chance to emerge from Tutankhamun’s shadow The mummy of Egypt’s most ambitious pharaoh, Ramses II (often spelt Ramesses), is a masterpiece of the embalmer’s art. The amazingly preserved 3,000-year-old face with its proud, beaky nose looks much as it must have when he died at the age of 90 or 91, after ruling for 66 years, fathering more than 100 children, smiting his e...

By Jonathan Jones