Psusennes I, The Silver Pharaoh.

Psusennes I The Silver Pharaoh speaks about himself :

I am Psusennes I, I was a chief priest of the Sun God Amun at Tanis and traced my family lineage back to the great king Ramesses I.

I was both king at Tanis and the High Priest in Thebes at the same time, meaning I did not resign my office as High Priest of Amun during my reign.

I was the third ruler of the 21st Dynasty who ruled from Tanis between 1047 and 1001 BC.

Psusennes name means The Star Appearing in the City. My highly refined and the very sophisticated gold death mask was to be my face in the world to come.


My heart is the heart of the sun, the heart of the sun is my heart’.


The ancient Egyptian desired gold as a symbol of survival and eternity and their myths describe the gods as possessing ‘silver bones, golden flesh and lapis lazuli beards’.


Silver in ancient Egypt was symbolic of the Moon. However silver was far less common and so that’s why finding that the royal burial chamber of mine contained a silver sarcophagus was so startling.


Until that point in the discovery I had been just an obscure ruler, who had governed Egypt 3000 years ago before and during one of its most difficult periods. Egypt during my reign was a fractured kingdom divided between the rival rulers of north and south.


The high priests seized power seeking to command the southern region from Thebes, while the deposed rulers were exiled north to Tanis. From Tanis, I ruled for an impressive 46 years; a later study of my skeleton revealed that I was a hard-working man who suffered from a debilitating rheumatic disease, but nevertheless lived well into my eighties.


During My long reign, I built the enclosure walls and the central part of the Great Temple at Tanis which was dedicated to the triad of Amun, Mut and Khonsu. I was ostensibly the ruler responsible for turning Tanis into a fully-fledged capital city.
#Psusennes I #Sun God Amun