拉美西斯一世

他出生於非王室的軍隊指揮官的家庭，是第十八王朝末代法老霍倫海布的庭臣。在第18王朝的最後10年裡，一直在後來的國王霍倫海布的身邊參加戰鬥，深得霍倫海布的寵愛。他在軍隊中服役以其卓越的成就達到了顯要的地位。他曾是一個軍隊指揮官，騎兵部隊長官，具有將軍的身份，又是“尼羅河口”（尼羅河三角洲支流）的管理人。普拉美斯還被霍倫海布任命為維西爾，又得到了埃及首席大祭司和阿蒙高僧的頭銜，擔負了行政和全國宗教的重要職務。作為非王家血統家世出身的霍倫海布拋開他親生系統的後嗣，任命了維西爾普拉美斯為繼承人。大約在公元前1320年霍倫海布去世時，普拉美斯登上王位的寶座成為拉美西斯。拉美西斯一世加冕后僅僅一年零四個月就去世了，被葬於帝王谷，霍倫海布墓的附近。拉美西斯一世在位的時間雖然較短，卻標誌著統治埃及的法老由穩定埃及發展的哈倫海布轉移至如塞提一世及拉美西斯二世等強權的法老——這兩位法老將埃及的國勢推至頂峰。

拉美西斯一名意為“拉塑造了他”，他的王位名“門帕提拉”可解釋為“拉的權利是持久的”。這個稱號是拉美西斯一世作為對新王國的創建者阿赫摩斯一世的頌辭而得到的。這些名稱說明了新的王權對拉神的崇拜與信仰。在新王國時代，拉神已經和阿蒙神融合為一體，所以，作為新王朝的國王的第一個行動是恢復和整修卡納克的阿蒙大神廟。

在拉美西斯一世登基后不久，他就指定了他的兒子塞提一世作為共同攝政王，而他的兒子已經是一名軍隊指揮官，熱衷於遠征敘利亞，並企圖恢復埃及在那裡逝去的地位。但是，拉美西斯一世加冕后僅僅一年零4個月便去世。拉美西斯一世被葬於帝王谷，霍倫海布墓附近的一座倉促建造的陵墓中。

拉美西斯一世的木乃伊曾在19世紀埃及木乃伊瘋狂盜賣中被當地僧侶轉移並保護起來，但是仍被倒賣至加拿大尼亞加拉瀑布博物館，后輾轉至美國。經一系列現代科學鑒定，確認其身份就是埃及新王國時期（18-20王朝）的19王朝的開國法老拉美西斯一世，最後於2003年回贈埃及，與其子孫塞提一世、拉美西斯二世等法老一同陳列。

Around 1290 BC, the pharaoh Ramesses I, ancestor of Egypt's most illustrious rulers, was buried in a richly painted tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Ramesses entered his tomb expecting to undertake an arduous journey through the underworld. The king could hardly have imagined that his journey would take over three thousand years, winding a path to Atlanta, Georgia.

At the close of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the Egyptian royal family was in disarray, allowing Horemheb, a military commander of non-royal blood to become the last king of the dynasty. Since he had no heir, Horemheb appointed his military comrade and most trusted advisor, Paramessu, to be his successor. Paramessu, son of Seti, a judge and troop commander from Avaris in the northeastern Delta, began his career as a mid-level military officer, rising rapidly through the ranks. During the reign of Horemheb, Paramessu reached the highest levels of power, surpassing his father's position as troop commander to become "master of horse, commander of the fortress, controller of the Nile mouth, charioteer of His Majesty, king's envoy to every foreign land, royal scribe, colonel, and general of the Lord of the Two Lands."

Paramessu took the name Ramesses when he claimed the throne and founded the 19th Dynasty, becoming the first of eleven rulers by that name, including his grandson, Ramesses the Great. Ramesses had reached at least middle-age when he became king and ruled for only two years. This left him little time to erect temples, statues, or other monuments, and leaves us with little evidence of his reign. In fact, Ramesses did not even have time to complete his tomb (KV 16) in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes.

The tomb of Ramesses I was located in October 1817 by the Italian explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni. Inside, Belzoni found several wooden statues and a red granite sarcophagus with cursorily painted decoration and damage on the lid, where it had been pried open in antiquity.

The plan and decoration of the tomb were abbreviated in comparison to others in the Valley due to the brevity of the king's reign; the niches along the corridor were left unfinished and only the burial chamber itself was decorated.The bulk of the funerary equipment was absent, having been stolen during the late New Kingdom, when tomb robbery in the Valley of the Kings went unchecked. The mummy of Ramesses I was also missing from the tomb.

According to both textual and archaeological evidence, Ramesses I was reburied in a cache of royal mummies during the Third Intermediate Period. At that time, Thebes was ruled by a series of military leaders who also held the prestigious title of High Priest of Amun, the preeminent god of Egypt whose worship was based at Karnak temple. It was the priestly officials of Thebes who re-consecrated and reburied the kings whose tombs had been violated. Recent scholarship has even suggested that the priests themselves stripped the gold and precious materials from the royal mummies and coffins, enriching the Amun Temple through officially sanctioned tomb robbery.