SESOSTRIS (Σecτωσ-τpi5, so Herodotus; Diodorus writes Sesoosis; other forms are Sesonchosis, Sesosis, Sesothis, & c.) is according to Greek historians the name of a king of Egypt who conquered the whole world, even Scythia, the lands of the Ganges, and Aethiopia, which were not subject to any of the later great empires. The conqueror in whose exploits these extravagant legends took their rise was Ramses II. (see Egypt, vol. vii. p. 739); but the Greek accounts unite in his person all the greatest deeds of the ancient Pharaohs, and add much that is purely imaginary. In Manetho’s lists Sesostris is identified with a much older king, Usertesen II., perhaps because authentic tradition made him the conqueror of Aethiopia (see vol. vii. p. 731). When Herodotus says that he himself saw monuments of Sesostris in Palestine, he has been thought to refer to the figures of Ramses II. hewn in the rocks of Nahr-al-Kalb, near Beirút, but they do not agree well with his description (Hdt., ii. 102-106), which seems to point rather to Astarte pillars (Asherim). The monuments in Ionia of which he speaks still exist in the Karabel Pass. They are not Egyptian but so-called “Hittite,” i.e., probably Cappadocian. See Wright, Empire of the Hittites, last plate.