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“Once supreme in the Levant, Egypt’s imperial star began to wane during the latter half of the 18th dynasty. With the pharaohs focused on theological disputes and succession crises, Egypt’s holdings in retjenu1 grew weaker and weaker. The Mittani and the Hitties scented blood and advanced, seizing land, riches, and power.

However, the usurpation of the general Horemheb in the closing decades of the 14th century BC2 reversed this process. The might of pharaonic campaigns returned the full force of imperial Egypt to dhajy3. Horemheb’s successor, Seti I of the 19th dynasty, continued his predecessor’s revanchist policies, pushing into amurru4 and capturing the town of Kadesh.

The record is unclear on what happens next, but at the beginning of the reign of Seti’s successor, Ramesses II, amurru had reverted to Hittite control, and the Egyptian hold on dhajy was uncertain. Ramesses spent the first several years of his reign campaigning to reestablish Egyptian control in dhajy.

Then, in 1274 BC, he gathered an army and marched on Kadesh…”


1: Egyptian expression for Canaan and Syria
2: Exact date uncertain
3: Egyptian expression for Canaan, part of retjenu
4: Egyptian expression for the part of retjenu between dhajy and the Orontes river; also an Amorite kingdom

Excerpt from A History of Late Bronze Age Egypt, by Robert Corde


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The largest pharaonic army ever assembled marched downstream through the land of dhajy: 20,000 men with 4,000 chariots divided equally into the Amun, Ra, Ptah, and Set divisions. The irregular Nearin division trailed in its wake. The Pharaoh rode at its head. The Asiatics had forgotten the might of Egypt. It was time they were reminded.

One night, after the army made camp, the Pharaoh’s general told him of two Asiatic spies. The godless heathens had broken with only the lightest of interrogations, and informed the Pharaoh’s men all they knew of the Asiatic army. Not only was it smaller than his own, but it was far away, outside the walls of Aleppo. The Pharaoh, upon hearing this, smiled and stroked his beard, his head full of dreams of an easy victory.

On the morrow, the Pharaoh – riding with the Amun division – pushed ahead of the rest of his army in his haste to capture Kadesh. Days later, they made camp only 11 miles from Kadesh. The Ra, Ptah, Set, and Nearin divisions – along with the Pharaoh’s son Amun-her-khepeshef – were left behind. When his generals protested that the army was split too far apart, the Pharaoh declared “Fear not the army of the Asiatic, for they are few and far away.” Fears assuaged, the generals returned to the men who slept easily.

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The Pharaoh’s arrogance invited disaster. The Asiatic spies were in truth Hittite double agents, sent by the Hittite king Muwatalli II to cause Ramesses to blunder. The Hittite army – 48,000 men with 3,000 chariots – was not in Aleppo, but just across the Orontes River from the Amun division. Muwatalli could recognize a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when it stared him in the face.

With the rising of the sun, the full force of the Hittite army descended upon the Amun division and Ramesses II.

The Amun division was waking up, not expecting an attack, and outnumbered by an order of magnitude. Its resistance was magnificent but short lived: the Amun division was slaughtered to a man before the sun was halfway across the sky.

Ramesses II, Pharoah of Egypt, son of Ra, was dead.

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After his annihilation of the Amun division, Muwatalli sent a message to the remaining Egyptian army:

“From Muwatalli, King of Hatti, Great King

Bow before me Egyptians!

You have unjustly crossed my borders, trespassed upon my lands, and attacked my cities.

My army has met your army upon the field of battle and slain every man.

Your Pharaoh, son of your gods, is dead.

Return to Egypt in shame!”

The Egyptian army, of course, did not believe the message and killed messenger. When it advanced upon the site of the battle, however, it was forced to confront the truth. The Pharaoh had died outside the land of Egypt, and his body was unidentifiable. His place in the afterlife was all but denied.

The Egyptians, equal parts aghast at the sacrilege and in fear for their lives, fled dhajy and retreated back into Egypt.
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