Ramesses III

Ramesses III ruled about 1187 to 1157 BCE. Britannica says he defended Egypt in three great wars, including against the Sea Peoples, the seaborne migrants and raiders linked to the collapse of Late Bronze Age kingdoms around the eastern Mediterranean. His memorial temple at Medinet Habu shows the land and sea battles in large reliefs.

His later years were troubled. Workers at Deir el-Medina, who built the royal tombs, staged what is often called the first recorded strike when their rations were late. He was killed in a conspiracy within his household, documented in surviving trial papyri. A CT scan of his mummy published in 2012 showed a deep cut to the throat, supporting the view that the plot succeeded.

The Sea Peoples inscriptions name groups such as the Peleset, usually identified with the Philistines, and describe them sweeping through Hatti, Cyprus and the Syrian coast before reaching Egypt. They are one of the main written sources for the wider collapse of Bronze Age states around 1200 BCE.