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| Ramesses II is the most famous of the Pharaohs, and there is no doubt that he intended this to be so. In astronomical terms, he is the Jupiter of the Pharaonic system, and for once the superlative is appropriate, since the giant planet shines brilliantly at a distance, but on close spection turns out to be a ball of gas. | |
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Ramesses has gained a multimedia afterlife: his mummy is flown from Cairo to Paris to be exhibited and re-autopsied, and aeries of airport-lounge best-sellers by a French writer, Christian Jacq, gives a soap-opera version of his life. |
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