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Battle of Kadesh
Part of the Egyptian-Hittite wars
Ramesses atop chariot, at the battle of Kadesh. (Relief inside his Abu Simbel temple.)
Date 1274 BC[1] Location On the Orontes River near Kadesh Result Tactical: Egyptian pyrrhic victory Operative: Egyptian failure (campaign ends in Egyptian retreat) Strategic: Hittite victory (Hittite Empire expands southward to Upi)
Combatants
New Kingdom of Egypt	Hittite Empire
Commanders
Ramesses II	Muwatalli II
Strength
2,000+ chariots[2] and ca. 20,000 infantry[3] (only half engaged)	ca. 2,500[4][5] or 3,500 chariots[6] and 37,000 infantry (not engaged)
Casualties
Unknown (considerably higher)	Unknown (considerably lower)

The Battle of Kadesh took place between the forces of Ramesses II's Egypt and the Hittites of Muwatalli II at the city of Kadesh, the modern Tell Nebi Mend,^[7] on the Orontes River of modern Syria. The battle is generally dated to 1274 BC, around Year 5 III Shemu day 9 of Ramesses II's reign when the Pharaoh arrived in the vicinity of Kadesh^[8] (or more precisely May 12, 1274 BC based on Ramesses' commonly accepted accession date in 1279 BC). It was probably the largest chariot battle ever fought, involving perhaps 5,000 chariots.

After expelling the Hyksos 15th dynasty, the native Egyptian New Kingdom rulers became more aggressive in reclaiming control of their state's borders. Thutmose I, Thutmose III and his son and coregent Amenhotep II fought battles from Megiddo North to the Orontes river, including conflict with Kadesh.

Many of the Egyptian campaign accounts between c.1400 and 1300 BC reflect the general destabilization of the region of the Djahi. The reigns of Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III were undistinguished except that Egypt continued to lose territory to Mitanni in northern Syria.

During the late Egyptian 18th dynasty, the Amarna Letters ^[9] tell the story of the decline of Egyptian influence in the region. The Egyptians showed flagging interest here until almost the end of the dynasty. Horemheb, the last ruler of this dynasty, campaigned in this region, finally beginning to turn Egyptian interest back to this region. This process continued in the 19th Dynasty. Like his father Ramesses I, Seti I was a military commander and set out to restore Egypt's empire to the days of the Tuthmosis kings almost a century before. Inscriptions on Karnak temple walls record the details of his campaigns into Canaan and Syria. He took 20,000 men and reoccupied abandoned Egyptian posts and garrisoned cities. He made an informal peace with the Hittites, took control of coastal areas along the Mediterranean, and continued to campaign in Canaan. A second campaign led him to briefly capture Kadesh where a stela commemorated his victory and his son and heir Ramesses II campaigned with him. However, this city would soon lapse back into Hittite control.

The immediate antecedents to the Battle of Kadesh were the early campaigns of Ramesses II into Canaan. In the fourth year of his reign, he marched north into Syria, capturing the Hittite vassal state of Amurru.^[10] The recovery of Amurru was Muwatalli's stated motivation for marching south to confront the Egyptians. Ramesses marched north the 5th year of his reign, and encountered the Hittites at Kadesh.

The Hittite Empire (red) at the height of its power ca. 1290 BC and the Egyptian Empire (green)

Ramesses's army crossed the Egyptian border in the spring of Year five of his reign and after a month's march reached the area of Kadesh from the south. The army was divided into four divisions, Amun, P're, Seth and the apparently newly formed Ptah division.^[11]

The Hittite king Muwatalli, who had mustered several of his allies (among them Rimisharrinaa, the king of Aleppo), had positioned his troops behind "Old Kadesh", but Ramesses, misled by two spies whom the Egyptians had captured, thought they were at Aleppo.

As Ramesses and the Egyptian advance guard approached the city, two Shasu Bedouin prisoners were captured and revealed that the entire Hittite army and their king were actually near to hand, hidden behind the city to the east. Immediately Ramesses sent messengers to hasten the coming of the Ptah and Setekh divisions of his army, which were still on the far side of the river Orontes. Before Ramesses could organize his troops, Muwatalli's chariots attacked the P're division, which was routed, and plundered the Egyptian camp. In the Egyptian account of the battle, Ramesses describes himself as being deserted and surrounded by enemies;

"...No officer was with me, no charioteer, no soldier of the army, no shield-bearer ..."^[12]

Only through the gods did Ramesses personally defeat his attackers and return to the Egyptian lines;

"...I was before them like Seth in his monument. I found the mass of chariots in whose midst I was, scattering them before my horses..."

Meanwhile a small group of Egyptian chariotry had formed, made up of Ramesses, his personal bodyguard and some of the chariots recovered from the broken divisions of Amon and Re. At this time a troop contingent from Amurru called Ne'arin, suddenly arrived, surprising the Hittites. Ramesses reorganized his forces and drove the Hittites back across the Orontes. Muwatalli sent an additional 1,000 chariots against the Egyptians, but the Hittite forces were almost surrounded and retreated back across the Orontes River to join their infantry.

The Shasu spies shown being beaten by the Egyptians

Ramesses recorded the names of the Hittite allies who opposed him; among them are the following: 1) Pi-da-sa, 2) Da-ar-d(a)-an-ya, 3) Ma-sa, 4) Qa-r(a)-qi-sa, 5) Ru-ka, and 6) Arzawa. The first name has been associated with Pedasos in Mysia of the Troad south of Troy, the second with the Dardanoi of the Troad, the third with southwest Anatolia, the fourth with Caria, the fifth with Lukka/Lycia, and the sixth with Arzawa in western Anatolia.^[13]

The next morning, a second, inconclusive battle was fought. Muwatalli is reported by Ramesses to have called for a truce but this may be propaganda since Hittite records note no such arrangement. Neither side gained total victory. The Egyptians had suffered heavy casualties and Kadesh's defenses remained unbroken. Muwutalli's army, though bloodied, was intact and posed a formidable force to the Egyptians.

The Kadesh peace agreement - on display at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum

Ramesses prudently gathered his troops and retreated south towards Damascus, and ultimately back to Egypt. Once back in Egypt, Ramesses proclaimed that he had won a great victory but in reality all he had managed to do was to rescue his army.^[14] In a sense, however, the Battle of Kadesh was a personal triumph for Ramesses since after blundering into a devastating Hittite ambush, the young king had courageously rallied his scattered troops to fight on the battlefield while escaping death or capture.^{[citation needed]}

Hittite records from Boghazkoy tell of a very different conclusion to the battle where a humiliated Ramesses was forced to depart from Kadesh in defeat. The Hittite king, Muwatalli II, continued to successfully campaign as far south as the Egyptian province of Upi (Apa), which he placed under the control of his brother Hattusili III.^[15] Egypt's sphere of influence in Asia was now restricted to Canaan.^[16] Even this was threatened for a time and Ramesses was compelled to embark on a series of campaigns in Canaan in order to uphold his authority there before he could initiate further assaults against the Hittite Empire in his Years 8 and 9 when he successfully captured the cities of Dapur and Tunip.^[17]

The conflicts were finally concluded by a peace treaty in 1258 BC, in the 21st year of Ramesses II's reign, with Hattusili III, the new king of the Hittites.^[18] The treaty that was established was inscribed on a silver tablet, of which a clay copy survived in the Hittite capital of Hattusa, in modern Turkey, and is on display at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. An enlarged replica of the Kadesh agreement hangs on a wall at the headquarters of the United Nations, as one of the earliest international peace treaties. Its text, in the Hittite version, appears in the links below. An Egyptian version survives in a papyrus.

The Egyptian version of the battle of Kadesh is recorded in 2 forms, known as the Bulletin and the Poem. These are repeated multiple times (7 for the Bulletin and 8 times for the Poem, in temples in Abydos, Luxor, Karnak, Abu Simbel and the Ramesseum.) ^[19] The Hittite version has been found at Hattusa, and tells the story of the battle as recalled by the brother of Muwatalli II, Hattusili III.

• Michael Roaf(1990). Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East. Equinox. ISBN 0-8160-2218-6. includes information of the clash of the Egyptians and Hittites including the battle of Kadesh and maps of the regions controlled by the peoples named in the accounts.
• Healy, Mark (1993). Qadesh 1300 B.C, Clash of the Warrior Kings. Osprey Publishing. 
• Shaw, Ian (2003). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
• Lichtheim, Miriam (1976). Ancient Egyptian Literature. Berkeley: University of California Press. 

Selected quotes from "Ancient Near Eastern Texts" by James Pritchard^[20] are of special interest:

• Thutmose III (Late Bronze Age, 15th c. B.C.): ANET., p.234 ANET., pp.234-238. ANET., pp.238-242.

• Seti I (Late Bronze Age, 13th c. B.C.)Campaign against Kadesh, Campaign of Seti I in Northern Palestine," ANET., pp.253-254. Pritchard: The alliance is Retnu, Kharu, Hamath, Pahel, Yanoam all near Beth Shean south of Kadesh ANET., pp.254-55. Temple of Karnak, Campaigns in Djahi Beth Shan stela). the felling of trees around the "town of Yanoam." (in Lebanon)

• Seti I engaged with the Hittites in Syria. He is shown attacking a mountainous settlement, "the town of Kadesh." in Syria... the land of Kadesh and the land of Amurru. The great princes of the wretched Retenu, Beth-Shan Stelae of Seti I ANET., p.254. BASOR (1952): 24-32. The Apiru of Mount Yarmuta(identified by Albright as at or near Belvoir, 10 km from Beth Shan), with Teyer..., have arisen in attack upon the Asiatics of Rehem. ...the foreign country Djahi.

• Rameses II (Late Bronze Age, 13th c. B.C.): "The Asiatic Campaigning of Ramses II" ANET., pp.255-256.

• End of Egyptian–Hittite hostilities
• Hittite version of the Peace treaty of 1258 BC
• The Battle of Kadesh in the context of Hittite history
• Battle of Kadesh
• The actual Battle of Kadesh
• The Eternal treaty from the Hittite perspective