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Ramses’s IX father could be identified as the heir apparent, Ramses’s III son
who never reigned over the country. It’s believed also that Ramses IX is the
following Egyptian pharaoh’s father, the tenth Ramses. Ramses IX reigned for almost eighteen years in a country devastated by corruption. The empire was in terrible condition: in an uneasy climate of anarchy the Egyptian people had to learn to face even the constant threat of foreign invasions. The phenomenon of the incursions of nomadic peoples with their terrible raids besides terrifying the pharaoh’s subjects damaged the safety of the country, that was indefebo, without an army able to protect it. About the situation in Nubia some names of vice-kings are know, who gave life to an actual dynasty. Among these we remember Naherha, with his son Untawat and his nephew Ramessenakht. It seems in fact that Nubia wasn’t peaceful or, if it was, the peace was limited to the territory along the Nile and not to the desert, the reign of Nomadic peoples. During Ramses’ IX reign the Nubian mines in fact had to be protected from their atatks. But not only the deserts were threatened: even other Beduins’ attacks. The Egyptian army was not sufficient to defend these places and the pharaoh asked for help to the Nubian troups that didn’t hesitate to grasp their arms to drive away the ravagers. As a proof of the lock of an Egyptian intervent we have some letters written by Amon’s great priest in which he thanks the Nubian militaries. Even the oasis didn’t have a serene climate but they suffered for the presence of western peoples, such as the Habu and the Meshues. After the advance of these enemies, the workers in Deir el Medina around the 10th and 13th years of Ramses’s IX reign, were moved for safety and also the archives of the worker city. In this climate of disorder in Egypt there was another source of tension, came from the phenomenon of the desecration of the Kings’ sepulchrals. Ramses IX never faced himself the bad things that afflicted his reign and he never even tried to defend his position. The priests acquired always more power giving the impression that they wanted to compare themselves to the sovereign himself – it’s significant a relief found in Karnak where Amon’s great priest, Amenhotep, has been immortalized in the pharaoh’s same size. Even the economic situation is certainly not at its best: the workers were not regularly paid so in consequence they were always more often forced to abandon their work to reunite themselves and go on strike, slowing the productive activity of the country. When Ramses IX died, he was buried in the valley of the kings, but his mummy was moved to the cachette in Deir el Bahari after the desecration of the sepulchral.
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