Ramses the Great's Food and Feast: Feeding an Empire

When you rule the ancient world's greatest superpower for 67 years, you need to feed millions. This episode explores the vast agricultural engine behind Ramses II's Egypt—the grains, cattle, and fish that sustained the might of Kemet. We follow the annual inundation of Hapi, the Nile's flood, which turned the desert green and filled the royal granaries. Lucas and Luna discuss the daily diet of a Deir el-Medina worker versus a Theban noble's banquet, with wine from the Delta, honey from the marshes, and the great baking industry at Per-Ramesses. They uncover how Ramses used grain as power—storing it against famine, paying his army of Sherden and Medjay, and hosting his Hittite allies with sumptuous feasts. The episode also looks at the role of the 'Scribe of the Fields' and the tax collectors who tracked every bushel. A surprising detail: the sacred Apis bulls were fattened on the best barley, and the royal kitchen at the Ramesseum employed hundreds. A conversation about the food that made an empire. #RamsesII #AncientEgypt #EgyptianFood #Nile #PerRamesses #DeirElMedina #EgyptianAgriculture #Hapi #Feasting #EgyptianBread #WineInEgypt #Ramesseum #ApisBull #Kemet #FexingoHistory #Podcast #History #NorthAfrica Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo