Was Ramses II the pharaoh of the Exodus?

A:

Although The Bible confidently dates the Israelite Exodus from Egypt at around 1440 BCE, there are certainly good reasons for believing that Ramses II was the pharaoh of the Exodus, since it was he who built the city of pi-Ramses, mentioned in the story of the Exodus. The Amarna letters prove conclusively that the Canaanite rulers were still in full control of the land just a few decades before his reign began. Furthermore, archaeologists say that Hebrew settlements gradually began to appear in the hitherto sparsely populated Canaanite hinterland during the reign of Ramses II. However, it could not have been Ramses II who pursued the Hebrews out of Egypt, as he died peacefully as an old man and was buried in the Valley of the Kings, whereas Exodus 14:28 says that the pharaoh of the Exodus drowned in pursuit of the fleeing Israelites. For that matter, it could not have been any other pharaoh of the Late Bronze Age, since they have all been accounted for, and none died by drowning.

There are just too many discrepancies between the Exodus story and what we now know of history, so that nearly all scholars now believe there never was an Exodus from Egypt as described in the Bible. Pharaoh Ramses II died peacefully, unaware that the Israelites were beginning to develop settlements in the northern reaches of the Egyptian empire.