Pharaoh Ramesses II was issued a valid Egyptian passport after 3,000 years of his death

People put a spin on historical facts at every chance they get. In today's age of technological advancement, historical facts can be tampered with easily. Lately, an old post about Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II has resurfaced on the internet where it is shown that the mummy of the late ruler got a passport issued in his name, 3,000 years after his death, per USA Today. Though the news of issuing of passport is true, the picture circulating online isn't correct. For those who are wondering why this needed to be done, the answer is very simple.

The mummy of Ramesses II was flying to Paris for restoration and the country's law requires every living and deceased individual to cross their borders with a valid passport. Author Victor Fernando R. Ocampo (@VictorOcampo) recently posted the supposed travel documentation picture of the pharaoh on his X account (formerly Twitter). "Friday fun fact: In 1974, Ramesses II was sent on a flight to Paris for preservation and maintenance work. But since French law required every person, living or dead, to fly with a valid passport, Egypt was forced to issue one for the Pharaoh, 3,000 years after his death," he captioned. The viral passport picture is more like a representative picture of the original one, but people are circulating it nevertheless.

The tweet was reshared on Facebook by Abby Brooke, who jokingly captioned, "Imagine being the person sitting in the little booth at passport control." The Facebook post got thousands of likes and a bunch of interesting comments underneath it. Katherine Toms wrote, "I’m never going to complain about my passport photo ever again." Hansjurgen Jablonski remarked, "Well, Ramesses was taken to France in September 1976 (not 1974). There, however, he was welcomed with all military honors, including 21 gun salutes. That's funny enough, even without a fictional passport story."

Rammer Martinez-Sanchez added, "So, not only did he live the most privileged and most extravagant lifestyle, ruled and immortalized as king, but ended up traveling to France in the future. Wow!" Daniel Olsen joked, "I really should look into getting myself mummified when I die, I can still be traveling in style 3k years from now." Rose Mackenzie Booth mentioned, "Imagine being an immigration officer having to compare the photo to the face." Some other jokingly remarked how the pharaoh doesn't look too happy in his passport picture.

According to the World History Encyclopedia, the mummy of the pharaoh was indeed issued a passport in the 70s. Ramesses II was 96 years old when he passed away and was the third pharaoh of the 19th dynasty. The mummy had to be flown to Paris for restoration work and it had an authentic Egyptian passport where his occupation was mentioned as "king (deceased)," per National Geographic. His body was first entombed in the Valley of the Kings and was later relocated by ancient Egyptian priests to save it from rampant robbers.

When archaeologists noticed that the mummy was deteriorating, it was treated for fungal infection in Paris. As mentioned in a 1976 article from The New York Times, French military aircraft helped transport the remains of Ramesses II to Paris from Cairo Museum, where it was given the Grade Republicaine, which is the French equivalent of the U.S. Marine honor guard. The image on the passport was also created by an artist and wasn't the actual photograph of the mummy. It was taken from an archaeological site called Heritage Daily. The image was meant solely for representational purposes and the actual picture of the passport is not publicly available.