 Piramesse was Pharaoh Rames II the Great s new capital at the Nile, called  house of the son of Ra , peopled by some 100,000 subjects and littered with glorious monuments, but quickly fell in total disuse after his over 60 year long reign, even its site was forgotten and covered by the moving Nile delta. In the 1920s, the French archaeologist Pierre Montet s diggings in Tanis made him believe it could well be Piramesse, but his assistant remarked too many finds don t fit, and all Ramses statues lacked the base. Over half a century later the Austrian Manfred Bietak discards Montet s simplism and tries to reconstruct the Nile shifting and drying-up, testified by hight lines and modern dating of ceramic finds from daily life, far too few from Ramses II s time for Tanis to be Piramesse- his massive monuments seem moved centuries after Ramses. Bierak and German colleague Edgar Posch focus next on the better fitting Pelusian Nile-arm, which indeed yields daily life period finds, especially near the Qantir temple site, yet no visible trace of monuments, just fields, which soon prove rich in mysterious artifact fragments. Then a uniquely preserved bronze horse tackle part and horse-toilet are found, indicating major garrison stables from Ramses s age, and parts of war chariots, royal guards equipment known generally to be stationed at the Pharaonic capital. Modern prospection scanners allow to identify foundations under the fields, of a size fitting the royal capital, divided east-west in upper - and lower class quarters, with a giant Amun-temple; the palace is probably under the modern town. The also find why the metropolis was abandoned: the Nile arm dried up, so the royal seat had to be moved westward to Tanis, and numerous major Ramses-monuments were also moved to a specific quarter there, an astonishing operation in itself without modern equipment.