Meshwesh

The natural contacts of Cyrenaica are northward with Crete and the Aegean world.

During the Ramesside period (late thirteenth century BCE), the Libu and the Meshwesh are tribes of the area of Cyrenaica which Egyptian records mention as making frequent incursions into the New Kingdom of Egypt.

Ramesses fortifies the western coast road of Egypt against Libyan invaders and constructs several large temples, most notably that at Abu Simbel in Nubia, where the four colossal statues of Ramesses II that form the facade of his rock-cut temple of Re Harakte, immense and imbued with awesome strength, exemplify the arc of the sculptural representations of Egypt’s kings in this epoch.

The plan of the impressive temple is similar to that of Egyptian freestanding temples except that the structure is carved out of a cliff face and the enormous statues of the king replace the pylons.

Ramesses II, called Ramesses the Great (also called Usermare Ramses) is the first truly historical redhead.

The third king of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, his reign is the second longest in Egyptian history.

Ramesses, whose family comes from the Nile Delta region, is given to boasting.

Creditably, he fought the Hittites to a standstill at Kadesh, but called it a victory rather than the draw it really was.

In addition to his wars with the Hittites and Libyans, he is known for his extensive building programs and for the many colossal statues of him found all over Egypt.

Microscopic inspection of the roots of Ramesses II's hair proved that the original color of the king's hair was once red, which suggests that he came from a family of redheads.

This has more than just cosmetic significance; in ancient Egypt, people with red hair are associated with the god Seth, the slayer of Osiris, and the name of Ramesses II's father, Seti I, means "follower of Seth.

A confederation of Libyan and northern peoples is supposed to have attacked the city of Perire, probably located on the western edge of the Delta, during the fifth year of Pharaoh Merneptah.

Included among the ethnic names of the repulsed invaders is the Ekwesh or Eqwesh, whom some have seen as Achaeans, although Egyptian texts specifically mention these Equesh to be circumcised (which does not seem to have been a general practice in the Aegaean at the time).

Homer mentions an Achaean attack upon the delta, and Menelaus speaks of the same in Book 4 of the Odyssey to Telemachos when he recounts his own return home from the Trojan War.

Later Greek myths also say that Helen had spent the time of the Trojan War in Egypt, and not at Troy, and that after Troy the Greeks went there to recover her.

There is also the strange myth of the brothers Aegyptus and Danaus, sons of Belus, with the latter supposedly coming from Egypt, that Marianne Luban has suggested may date to this time.

Ramesses III, in addition to defeating the Sea Peoples in two great land and sea battles, is also compelled to fight invading Libyan tribesmen in two major campaigns in Egypt's Western Delta in his sixth year and eleventh year respectively.

The heavy cost of these battles slowly exhausts Egypt's treasury and contributes to the gradual decline of the Egyptian Empire in Asia.

The severity of these difficulties is stressed by the fact that the first known labor strike in recorded history occurs during the twenty-ninth year of Ramesses III's reign, when the food rations for Egypt's favored and elite royal tomb-builders and artisans in the village of Deir el Medina cannot be provisioned, indicating severe famine.

Something in the air prevents much sunlight from reaching the ground and arrests global tree growth for almost two full decades until 1140 BCE.

One proposed cause is the Hekla 3 eruption of the Hekla volcano in Iceland.

The result in Egypt will be a substantial increase in grain prices under the later reigns of Ramesses VI–VII, whereas the prices for fowl and slaves remain constant.

Thus the cooldown affects Ramesses III's final years and impairs his ability to provide a constant supply of grain rations to the workmen of the Deir el-Medina community.

There is endless bickering among the heirs of Ramesses III following his death.

Three of his sons go on to assume power as Ramesses IV, Ramesses VI, and Ramesses VIII, respectively.

However, at this time Egypt is also increasingly beset by a series of droughts, lower than normal flooding of the Nile, famine, civil unrest, and official corruption.

Smendes eventually founds the Twenty-First dynasty at Tanis in about 1077 BCE.

Ramesses III repels a Libyan invasion in 1194 BCE and successfully defends Egypt three years later from a horde of invading Sea Peoples of Aegean and west Anatolian origins who have swept down the eastern Mediterranean coast toward Egypt.

Ramesses fights off another Libyan invasion in 1188 BCE.

The Third Intermediate Period refers to the time in Ancient Egypt from the death of Pharaoh Ramesses XI in 1070 BCE to the foundation of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty by Psamtik I in 664 BCE, following the expulsion of the Nubian rulers of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty.

This period is characterized by the country's fracturing kingship.

Even in Ramesses XI's day, the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt was losing its grip on power in the city of Thebes, whose priests were becoming increasingly powerful.

After his death, his successor Smendes I rules from the city of Tanis, and the High Priests of Amun at Thebes rule the south of the country in the period of the Twenty-first dynasty of Egypt.

This division is less significant than it seems, since both priests and pharaohs come from the same family.

The country is firmly reunited by the Twenty-Second Dynasty founded by Sheshonk I in 945 BCE (or 943 BCE), who descends from Meshwesh immigrants, originally from Libya.

This brings stability to the country for well over a century.

Sheshonk pursues an aggressive foreign policy in the adjacent territories of the Middle East, towards the end of his reign.

This is attested, in part, in three ways.

A statue base from the Lebanese city of Byblos bears his name, part of a monumental stela from Megiddo bears his name, and a list of cities in the region comprising Syria, Philistia, Phoenicia, the Negev and the Kingdom of Israel are among various topographical lists inscribed on the walls of temples of Amun at al-Hibah and Karnak.

There is no mention of either an attack or tribute from Jerusalem, which has led some to suggest that Sheshonk was not the Biblical Shishak.

The fragment of a stela bearing his cartouche from Megiddo has been interpreted as a monument Shoshenq erected there to commemorate his victory.

Some of these conquered cities include Ancient Israelite fortresses such as Megiddo, Taanach, and Shechem.