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Where was Per Ramessu located?

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Ramses II A larger-than-life Ramses II towering over his prisoners and clutching them by the hair. Limestone bas-relief from Memphis, Egypt, 1290–24 bce; in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

Per Ramessu was located in the northeastern Nile River delta, approximately 62 miles (100 km) northeast of Cairo. In ancient times, the city was situated on the Bubastite branch of the Nile.1

While there was historical confusion regarding the exact location of the capital due to the extensive plundering and reuse of its stone in later periods, archaeological excavations—beginning in the 1940s by Egyptian researchers and continued by an Austrian expedition since 1975—have firmly identified the site of Ramses II’s capital.1