This is Ancient on Instagram: "By 1260 BCE, Ancient Egypt stood at the height of its imperial power. The Nile Valley had already seen over 2,000 years of civilization — from the first pharaohs of the Early Dynastic Period to the monumental achievements of the Old and Middle Kingdoms. But it was the New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 BCE) that transformed Egypt into a true superpower. In 1260 BCE, Egypt was ruled by Ramesses II, known to the Greeks as Ozymandias and remembered today as Ramesses the Great.