Raamses

Raamses (also spelled Rameses or Ramses) was one of the two store-cities built by the enslaved Israelites for Pharaoh in Egypt (Exodus 1:11), along with Pithom. The city's name preserves that of the great pharaoh Rameses II (c. 1279–1213 BC), who built extensively in the eastern Nile Delta. It is generally identified with the site of ancient Pi-Ramesses, near modern Qantir, which Egyptian archaeology has confirmed as a major royal and administrative center of the Ramesside period. The construction of Raamses is the setting for the intensified oppression of Israel just before Moses's birth, establishing the backdrop for the Exodus narrative.