Battle of Kadesh - Egypt vs. the Hittites
Ramesses II and Muwatalli II fought at Kadesh on the Orontes around 1274 BC, in the largest chariot battle recorded and the best-documented engagement of the ancient world. Both sides claimed victory, and both accounts survive, which is what makes it exceptional — almost everywhere else in the Bronze Age we have one side or none. Muwatalli's plan was deception. Two bedouin came to the Egyptian column reporting themselves as deserters and said the Hittite army was still far north at Aleppo. Ramesses believed them, pushed ahead with the division of Amun, and made camp north-west of the city while his other three divisions were strung out for miles behind. The Hittite chariotry crossed the river and struck the division of Ra on the march, broke it, and rode into the Egyptian camp. What saved Ramesses was the arrival of a separate force from the coast — the Ne'arin, probably Canaanite allies or Egyptian troops sent by a different route — hitting the Hittites in the flank while they plundered, and the disorder of chariots that had stopped fighting. Ramesses' own version has him fighting almost alone, abandoned by his troops, calling on Amun and driving the enemy into the river single-handed. It was carved at Abydos, Karnak, Luxor, Abu Simbel and the Ramesseum, at enormous length. Neither side took the city. Sixteen years later Hattusili III and Ramesses concluded the earliest surviving peace treaty, in Akkadian and in Egyptian. A copy hangs at the United Nations. The two empires were allies for the rest of their existence, and both were destroyed within a century by the Bronze Age collapse.
- Year: 1274 BCE
- Category: Military
