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This image shows the burial-temple complex of Ramesses III (1186–1155 BCE), one of the last powerful Egyptian kings.
The walls display an impressive array of inscriptions, hieroglyphics, and decorated reliefs. Some tell the story of the rise of the “Sea People” known as the “Peleshet.” These are the biblical Philistines, from which the modern term “Palestine” is derived. Ramesses inscriptions boast of victory over the Peleshet, but this probably includes more exaggeration than fact. Such boasting, at any rate, attests to the growing presence of sea-faring people into the eastern Mediterranean who sought to escape the economic crisis of the late Bronze Age. These “Sea People” ventured east and filled a power vacuum left by diminution of the Egyptians and Hittites.