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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

RAMESES (Place)

Place (also called Ra’amses or Ramses) mentioned with Pithom in Exodus 1:11 (KJB “Raamses”) as one of the locations where the Hebrews were engaged in a building program for the pharaoh. Here they were afflicted with heavy burdens by the pharaoh’s officers. In due course they escaped their oppression and set out for the Promised Land (Ex 12:37; Nm 33:3). The identification of this place and the period is important for establishing the date of the exodus from Egypt.

The great Ramses II (c. 1290–1224 BC) built extensively in the east Delta region. The ambitious pharaoh determined to add a center of his creation, using as a nucleus the old family seat of Avaris, where his father had built a summer palace. On the north side of Avaris, he built a majestic palace that he named Pirameses. The location of its site is much debated, having been variously located at Pelusim (on the Mediterranean Sea) and at Tanis (or Zoan). This latter suggestion is now rejected since the stonework was reused material taken from elsewhere and not original. However, 19 miles (30.6 kilometers) south of Tanis, near the town of Qantir, considerable remains of a palace commenced by Seti I, with an adjacent glazing factory, dwellings of princes and high officials, and traces of a temple and public audience halls, are now recognized as the site of Ra’amses (Pirameses). The old Hyksos center was destroyed when these foreigners were expelled early in the 18th dynasty (c. 1552–1306 BC). The place was then abandoned but later rebuilt under the 19th dynasty. Ramses II lavishly adorned his father’s palace and established nearby a marshaling place for his chariots, a mustering place for his infantry, and a mooring place for his ships.