The mummy of Ramses II was found in the south of Egypt in 1881. He ruled for 66 years and was ninety years old when he died.

What did the pharaoh look like?

Now II. The mummy of Ramses is in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo.

• To reconstruct the face, the scientists created a three-dimensional virtual model of the pharaoh’s head and skull from the new computed tomography data.

3D model of Ramses’ skull / Photo by Face Lab

• After that, with the help of special programs used in criminal investigations, skin, eye and hair textures were added based on “the commonplace among the Egyptians at the time”. This gave us the opportunity to see what Ramses looked like at the time of his death.

The second phase of facial reconstruction involved the use of anatomical measurements and other methods to determine what the pharaoh looked like when he died at age 90 / Photo by Face Lab

Pharaoh II. This is what Ramses probably looked like when he died / Photo by Face Lab

Then came age regression software to show you what it looked like decades ago.

We performed a 3D age regression to remove some of the signs of aging and portray it at midlife, at its peak.
– Says Caroline Wilkinson, director of the Facial Lab at Liverpool John Moores University in Great Britain.

Ramses II is about 45 years old / Photo: Face Lab

historical reference

• Ramses II was born Pharaoh Seti I around 1303 BC.
• He became ruler of Egypt when his father died in 1279 BC.
• Ramses II expanded the Egyptian empire north into modern-day Syria and built many monumental structures, including the expansion of the Temple of Karnak.
• He died around 1213 BC.