Why Mosses Was Not Portrayed on Egyptian Monuments?

“It is a surprising fact,” these were the words pronounced by the Head of the Antiquities’ Museum (at the Bibliotheca Alexandria) Hussein Bassir about not portraying Moses on the Egyptian monuments.

Probably because history is usually written by victors and based on the fact that the king and his successors, who lived through Moses’ era, were not fine with the concept of depicting their defeat, Moses’ image was not shown.

Another vivid example is Ramses II, who was portrayed as a hero on many of his monuments after Kadesh battle against the Hittite Empire.

In this regard, Bassir added, “During this era Jewish in Egypt were few. Monuments with themes about them were also few, including Merneptah (Ramses II’s son)’s painting which records many of his victories against foreigner peoples.On the painting, Israel was mentioned as a tribe without a specific geographical location.

King Akhenaten was neglected by some ancient Egyptian sources, so probably because of the same reason of ignoring a whole incident or not admitting a certain character, Mosses’ presence was disregarded.

Worth noting is that Mosses is an Egyptian name originating from Msa (which means Born), a straucture that was added to some names such as Msa Raa (which means the son of Raa, a minister and the governor Thebes).

Contributed by Maydaa Abo El-Nadar