Kadesh, 1274 BC: Ramesses II, the Hittites, and a Disputed Victory

History

The trap at Kadesh

Imagine a spring morning in the year 1274 BC on the banks of the Orontes River, near a walled town called Kadesh. Two empires are about to collide. Egypt, led by Pharaoh Ramesses II, and the Hittites, led by King Muwatalli II.

Ramesses is in a hurry. Two captured nomads have told him the Hittite army is far away in the north, near Aleppo, too frightened to come south. It is a lie. Muwatalli has hidden his troops behind the town. and Ramesses is marching into a trap with only part of his army.

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Battle of Kadesh

Planner: Sophia West

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Hittite assault and Egyptian recovery

Then comes the turning point. Hittite chariots cross the river and smash into an Egyptian division still on the march. The soldiers scatter. The chariots sweep north into the Egyptian camp, and Ramesses finds himself surrounded. In his own account, he says, no officer was with him, no charioteer, no soldier.

But the attack loses momentum. The camp is crowded with obstacles, and chariots crash into them. Worse for the Hittites? Many stopped to plunder, believing the battle was already won.

Ramesses leads charge after charge with his bodyguard. Fresh Egyptian troops arrive from Amuru, taking the Hittites by surprise. And another division comes up from the south. The Hittites are driven back to the river. Some abandon their chariots and try to swim across.

Who won, and why it matters

So who won? Nobody, really. Ramesses could not hold a long siege of the walled town, and the Hittites kept Kadesh. He went home and announced that he had routed his enemies. the Hittite records from Hattusa tell it differently.

Here is what changed, though. Kadesh is the earliest pitched battle in recorded history whose tactics and formations we can actually follow, and probably the largest chariot battle ever fought, 5,000 to 6,000 of them. Two kings each claimed victory. Historians got something more valuable. Detail.