Egypt's Greatest Pharaoh's Digital Dissection Reveals Eye-Catching Features

Ramesses II is a multifaceted character who is frequently hailed as Egypt's "greatest pharaoh." The sacred sovereign is shown as a handsome, godly man with a round face, a prominent nose, and high cheekbones in statues and artworks from more than 3,000 years ago. His 1881 mummy discovery contains fewer subjective details. Scientists, historians, and painters have all used its structure to recreate the pharaoh's face over time.

Ramesses II's nose has seen very strong hooking variations. There is less of a hump in some. The pharaoh's eyes can be described as either beady or bug-eyed online. Additionally, his face's actual shape is either shown as round and squat or long and slender.

With the help of radiology professor Sahar Saleem of Cairo University and researchers at Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom, it is now possible to "digitally unwrap" the pharaoh's remains and see his face in greater detail than ever before. Sahar Saleem is an expert on Egyptian mummies. The work was done with extreme care. To reconstruct the pharaoh's face from the bones up, historical information was merged with CT scans and images of the mummy, which is now on display at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo.

The powerful jaw and the wide nasal bone, which is located "between the eyes, quite high and extremely apparent," are the most noticeable features of the mummy's face, according to forensic anthropologist and director of Liverpool John Moores' Face Lab Caroline Wilkinson.

The same software that is used for criminal reconstructions was utilised to input the data after the general facial structure was established. Researchers recreated the covering muscles and ligaments based on the underlying bones and assessments of the thickness of the face muscles in Egyptian populations. The end result is an older man with a long face, wide aquiline nose, narrow upper lip, widely spread eyes, and bushy grey brows.

The pharaoh's skin and hair were the last components to be added to the reconstruction. Based on what is believed to have been typical at the time in Egypt, the skin tone was chosen. The hair colour, meantime, was determined by evidence, such as microscopic examinations of Ramesses II's and other fair-haired mummies' hair, which indicate that he originally had a full head of red hair.

Ancient Egyptians feared and revered red hair as a sign of divinity, and Ramesses II himself was frequently portrayed in art as a god. It's unknown if Ramesses II had an advantage over other leaders due of his red hair, or if his success contributed to red hair becoming a symbol of leadership.

Using comparable methods, the team is currently working on reconstructing King Tutankhamen's face. The study of King Amenhotep I's face (1525–1504 BCE) is a continuation of earlier work by Saleem, which was published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine.