Unrealistic? Farfetched? Frickin' crazy?

Well, of course. Nothing like this could ever happen. Or could it? Could it?

The reign of Ramses II
As hard as it is to imagine, this was what the reign of Ramses II was like, 3,286 years ago, back in 1279 BC.

Ramses II lived into his 90s, back when the average life span was a third of that. Most people who lived under Ramses II rule knew only Ramses II. When you put it into modern terms and calculate that someone now would have had to live for 240 years or so to have lived as long, relatively speaking, as Ramses, you see where our magical, imaginary analogy is going.

Although our real George never became king or emperor (and, in fact, vocally rallied against the notion), there are some interesting true parallels between Ramses and our own GW.

What's now called the 19th Dynasty started with the first Ramses (creatively known as Ramses I). Ramses I is believed to have been born to a family near the former Hyksos, capital of Avaris. He wasn't of royal birth.

Next up was his son, Seti, and after that, Ramses II, who was the grandson of Ramses I. Seti was a soldier who took over as Pharoah after Ramses I died approximately 17 months into office.

Although George's parents Augustine and Mary Ball were wealthy, they weren't particularly big names. As a young man, George fought to prove himself by exploring the unknown territories of what would become the United States. He also, pretty much single handedly, started the French and Indian War. Pretty much by accident. Major George Washington was young, only 21 at the time. Stuff happens. What were you doing back when you were 21?

Anyway, although George eventually grew up and became President, he wasn't from a line of national leaders.

Neither Seti nor Ramses II were of royal birth either, having been born before Ramses I came to power. By the time Ramses II walked like an Egyptian to the Pharoah's throne, he was not yet a "god". He was, however, trained to be a leader by Seti and was definitely down with the mass media of the time: carving into the sides of buildings and erecting statues.

We know so much about Ramses now because he conducted so many enormous self-promotion projects throughout his reign. He even chipped off the carvings that extolled previous rules (including Papa Seti and Grandpa Ramses I), and made the carvings about himself so deep that to remove them would damage the structural integrity of the walls and columns into which they'd been carved.

Every schoolkid knows about the Washington Monument, the 555 foot tall marble, granite, and sandstone obelisk, erected in 1884. What most people don't know is that the Washington National Monument Society and Congress examined numerous designs and although they prefered a design by William Wetmore Story, they eventually settled on an obelisk modeled on those in ancient Egypt.

Of course, our parallel is that Ramses II erected obelisks outside the Luxor Temple (in what was Thebes back in ancient times), although his were only 85 feet tall. That was ok with Ramses, because he also built six gargantuan statues of himself. Not shy, our Ramses.