Battle of Kadesh (1274 BC): Ramesses II Against the Hittites

The Battle of Kadesh was fought around May 1274 BC near the city of Kadesh on the Orontes River in Syria, between the Egyptian army of Pharaoh Ramesses II and the forces of the Hittite king Muwatalli II. It was probably the largest chariot battle in history, with several thousand chariots on the field. It is also the earliest battle in history whose tactics and formations can be reconstructed in some detail, thanks to the Egyptian texts and reliefs that describe it.

Background: Egypt and Hatti in Syria

In the Late Bronze Age, Syria was the frontier between two great powers. Egypt controlled Canaan and parts of southern Syria, while the Hittite kingdom, ruled from Hattusa in central Anatolia, dominated the north. The great Hittite king Suppiluliuma I had drawn the cities of Kadesh and Amurru into the Hittite orbit in the fourteenth century BC, at Egypt’s expense.

Ramesses II’s father, Seti I, campaigned in Syria and briefly retook Kadesh, but the city returned to Hittite control. When Ramesses II came to the throne around 1279 BC, he was determined to restore Egypt’s position in the north.

In his fourth year, around 1275 BC, Ramesses marched along the coast of Canaan and Lebanon. The king of Amurru, Benteshina, changed sides and accepted Egyptian overlordship. For the Hittite king Muwatalli II this was a direct challenge, and he gathered a large army of his own troops and allies from across Anatolia and Syria.

The armies

Ramesses set out in the spring of his fifth year with four divisions, each named after a god: Amun, Ra, Ptah and Seth. Each division is usually estimated at about 5,000 men, including infantry and chariots. A separate force, called the Ne’arin in the Egyptian texts, approached Kadesh by a different route along the coast. In total the Egyptian army probably numbered about 20,000 men.

Egyptian sources claim that Muwatalli brought 2,500 chariots into the first attack and held another 1,000 in reserve, plus very large numbers of infantry. Modern historians usually accept a Hittite force at least as large as the Egyptian one, with perhaps 3,000 or more chariots, but the Egyptian figures cannot be checked.

The Egyptian texts list the peoples who marched with Muwatalli, among them contingents from Arzawa, Lukka, Karkisa and Dardany in western Anatolia, and from Carchemish, Aleppo and Ugarit in Syria. The list shows how far Hittite power and alliances reached, and it contains some of the earliest references to peoples later linked by scholars with the world of the Aegean.

The chariots differed. Egyptian chariots were light and fast, carrying a driver and an archer. Hittite chariots of this period are usually shown with three men, a driver, a warrior and a shield-bearer, making them heavier and suited to shock attacks.

What happened

The Hittite trap

As the Egyptians approached Kadesh, two Shasu nomads came into the camp and told Ramesses that Muwatalli was far to the north, near Aleppo, too afraid to fight. Believing them, Ramesses hurried ahead with the Amun division and made camp north-west of Kadesh, while the other divisions strung out behind him on the march.

The nomads had been sent by the Hittites. Egyptian scouts soon captured two Hittite spies, who after a beating revealed that Muwatalli’s army was concealed just behind the city, on the far side of the Orontes. Ramesses summoned his officers in alarm and sent messengers to hurry the other divisions forward.

It was too late. Hittite chariots crossed the river and struck the Ra division as it marched towards the camp, scattering it. The fleeing soldiers and the pursuing chariots then crashed into the camp of the Amun division.

Ramesses’ counter-attack

According to the Egyptian accounts, Ramesses found himself almost alone, surrounded by enemy chariots. The Poem describes him calling on the god Amun and then charging the enemy repeatedly, driving the Hittites back towards the river. The heroic language exaggerates the king’s personal role, but the basic sequence is accepted by historians.

Several factors saved the Egyptians. Many Hittite charioteers seem to have stopped to plunder the camp, losing their momentum. Ramesses rallied his guard and the remaining chariots. Crucially, the Ne’arin force arrived from the west at this moment and struck the Hittites from behind.

Muwatalli sent a second wave of about 1,000 chariots, but it too was driven back to the Orontes, where some Hittite troops drowned. The reliefs show the Hittite ruler of Aleppo being held upside down by his men to empty the water from his lungs. Muwatalli himself, with a large infantry force, stayed on the eastern bank and did not commit it.

By evening the Ptah division had arrived and the Egyptians held the field. The Seth division probably arrived later still.

The second day and the outcome

The Egyptian Poem says that fighting resumed on the next day and that Muwatalli then sent a letter proposing peace. Ramesses accepted a truce and withdrew south. The Egyptian army had avoided destruction, but it was in no condition to besiege Kadesh.

Hittite sources tell a different story. Documents of Hattusili III, Muwatalli’s brother, who commanded troops in the campaign, imply a Hittite success. After the battle the Hittites marched south into the Egyptian-held land of Upi around Damascus, and Benteshina of Amurru was removed and taken to Hatti.

Most historians therefore regard Kadesh as a tactical draw and a strategic success for the Hittites. Ramesses had escaped a dangerous trap and won the fighting on the day, but the political map of Syria remained as it had been, or slightly worse for Egypt.

The rival accounts

Ramesses turned the battle into the centrepiece of his royal propaganda. Its story was carved on the walls of temples at Abydos, Karnak, Luxor, the Ramesseum and Abu Simbel, often in the form of huge relief scenes with captions. Two texts accompany them: a literary narrative known as the Poem, and a shorter prose account called the Bulletin, or Record.

The Poem was once known as the “Poem of Pentaur”, because a scribe named Pentaur copied a version on papyrus. He was the copyist, not the author. The texts emphasise the king’s courage and the cowardice of his troops, and they blame the near-disaster on the false report of the nomads and on negligent officers.

The Hittite side wrote no comparable account. Its view comes from later diplomatic letters and royal texts, which treat the war as part of a long contest for Syria rather than as a single great event.

Key people

• Ramesses II (reigned c. 1279-1213 BC): Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty, probably in his late twenties at the time of the battle.
• Muwatalli II (reigned c. 1295-1272 BC): Hittite king who had moved his capital south to Tarhuntassa and organised the ambush.
• Hattusili III: Muwatalli’s younger brother and a commander in the campaign, later king of the Hittites and Ramesses’ partner in the peace treaty.

By the numbers

Consequences

The war between Egypt and Hatti continued for more than a decade. Ramesses campaigned again in Canaan and Syria in the following years, capturing towns such as Dapur, but he never held Kadesh. Rock inscriptions he left at the Nahr el-Kalb (Dog River) north of Beirut mark the northern reach of these campaigns along the coast.

For Egypt, the lesson of Kadesh was that the Hittites could not be driven out of northern Syria by force. For the Hittites, holding the line against Egypt was costly at a time when other frontiers needed attention.

Over time both empires faced other pressures. The rising power of Assyria threatened the Hittites in the east, and dynastic conflict in Hatti brought Hattusili III to the throne after he deposed his nephew Urhi-Teshub. Around 1259 BC, Hattusili and Ramesses concluded the Egyptian-Hittite peace treaty, which fixed a lasting peace and was later sealed by a royal marriage.

Timeline

• c. 1279 BC: Ramesses II becomes king of Egypt.
• c. 1275 BC: In year 4, Ramesses campaigns in Lebanon; Benteshina of Amurru switches to Egypt.
• c. 1274 BC, spring: The Egyptian army marches north from the Delta with four divisions.
• c. 1274 BC, about May: The Hittites ambush the Ra division and attack Ramesses’ camp at Kadesh.
• c. 1274 BC: After a truce, Ramesses withdraws; the Hittites occupy Upi and depose Benteshina.
• c. 1272 BC: Muwatalli II dies and is succeeded by his son Urhi-Teshub.
• c. 1267 BC: Hattusili III seizes the Hittite throne.
• c. 1259 BC: Ramesses II and Hattusili III conclude a peace treaty.

Why it matters

Kadesh is one of the first battles that historians can describe in detail, from the spies and the order of march to the counter-attack. It shows chariot warfare at its height in the Late Bronze Age. Its very different presentation in Egyptian and Hittite sources is also a classic lesson in how rulers used victory, real or claimed, as propaganda, and its stalemate opened the way to one of the earliest well-documented peace treaties.