Ancient EGYPT (c. 5000-1786 B.C): Ancient Egypt New Kingdom Part 4 (.C 1304-1237 B.C)

New Kingdom (.c 1304-1237 BC)

The 19th and 20th dynasties, known as the Ramesside period (for the line of kings named Ramses) saw the restoration of the weakened Egyptian empire and an impressive amount of building, including great temples and cities. According to biblical chronology, the Exodus of Moses and the Israelites from Egypt possibly occurred during the reign of Ramses II (1304-1237 B.C.).

The son of Se-ti I and Queen Tuya was the third king of the 19th Dynasty. Called Ramses the Great, he lived to be 96 years old, had 200 wives and concubines, 96 sons and 60 daughters. One son, Prince khaemwese, was a high priest of Ptah, governor of Memphis, and was in charge of the restoration of the Pyramid of Unas. This son was buried in The Serapeum. Ramses II outlived the first thirteen of his heirs. Ramses was named co-ruler with his father, Se-ti I, early in his life. He accompanied his father on numerous campaigns in Libya and Nubia. At the age of 22 Ramesses went on a campaign in Nubia with two of his own sons. Set-i I and Ramses built a palace in Avaris where Ramses I had started a new Capital. When Se-ti I died in 1290 B.C.

King Se-ti 1 and the God Thoth

King Se-ti I

King Se-ti's I mummy well preserved

Se-ti's Temple design

Se-ti's I Temple

Se-ti's I Royal Family Tree

Queen Tu-ya

Ramses assumed the throne and began a series of wars against the Syrians. The famous Battle of Kadesh is inscribed on the walls of Ramses temple.The Battle of Kadesh took place between the forces of the Egyptian Empire under Ramses II and the Hittite Empire under Muwatalli II at the city of Kadesh on the Orontes River, in what is now the Syrian Arab Republic

The battle is generally dated to 1274 BC, and is the earliest battle in recorded history for which details of tactics and formations are known. It was probably the largest chariot battle ever fought, involving perhaps 5,000–6,000 chariots . Ra-messes' 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 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 Ramses misled by two spies whom the Egyptians had captured, thought the Hittite forces were still far off, at Aleppo, and ordered his forces to set up camp.

In his haste to capture Kadesh, Ramses II committed a major tactical error. He increased the distance between his Amun Division and the remaining RE, Pet-ah and Seth divisions, thereby splitting up his combined forces. When they were attacked by the Hittites, Ramses II complained of the failure of his officials to dispatch scouts to discover the true location of the Hittites and report their location to him. The pharaoh quickly sent urgent messengers to hasten the arrival of the Ptah and Seth divisions of his army, which were still some distance away on the far side of the River Orontes. Before Ramses could organize his troops, however, Muwatalli's chariots attacked the Re division, which was caught in the open and almost destroyed. Some of its survivors fled to the safety of the Amun camp, but they were pursued by the Hittite forces.

The Hittite chariotry crashed through the Amun camp's shield wall and began their assault. This created panic among the Amun troops as well. However, the momentum of the Hittite attack was already starting to wane, as the impending obstacles of such a large camp forced many Hittite charioteers to slow their attack; some were killed in chariot crashes.In the Egyptian account of the battle, Ramses describes himself as being deserted and surrounded by enemies:

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

Only with help from the gods did Ramses II 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..."

Ramesses counterattacks.

The pharaoh, now facing a desperate fight for his life, summoned up his courage, called upon his god Amun, and fought valiantly to save himself. Ramses personally led several charges into the Hittite ranks together with his personal guard, some of the chariots from his Amun division and survivors from the routed division of Re, and using the superior maneuverability of their Chariots and the power and range of Egyptian Composite Bows, deployed and attacked the overextended and tired Hittite chariotry

The Hittites, meanwhile, who understandably believed their enemies to be totally routed, had stopped to loot the Egyptian camp and, in doing so, became easy targets for Ramses counterattack. Ramses action was successful in driving the Hittites back towards the Orontes and away from the Egyptian camp, while in the ensuing pursuit, the heavier Hittite chariots were easily overtaken and dispatched by the lighter, faster, Egyptian chariots.

final phase of the battle.

Although he had suffered a significant reversal, Muwatalli still commanded a large force of reserve chariotry and infantry plus the walls of the town. As the retreat reached the river, he ordered another thousand chariots to attack the Egyptians, the stiffening element consisting of the high nobles who surrounded the king. As the Hittite forces approached the Egyptian camp again, the Ne'arin troop contingent from Amurru suddenly arrived, this time surprising the Hittites. Ramses had also reorganized his forces and, expecting the help, also attacked from the camp.

After six charges, the Hittite forces were almost surrounded, and the survivors were faced with the humiliation of having to swim back across the Orontes River to rejoin their infantry. Pinned against the Orontes, the elements remaining of the Hittites not overtaken in the withdrawal were forced to abandon their chariots and attempt to swim the Orontes (This flight is depicted in Egyptian inscriptions as "hurried" to say the least—"as fast as Crocodiles swimming"), where many of them drowned.

The next morning, a second, inconclusive battle was fought. Muwatalli is reported by Ramses to have called for a truce. Neither side gained total victory. Both the Egyptians and the Hittites had suffered heavy casualties; the Egyptian army failed to break Kadesh's defenses, while the Hittite army had failed to gain a victory in the face of what earlier must have seemed certain success .Logistically unable to support a long siege of the walled city of Kadesh, Ramses prudently gathered his troops and retreated south towards Damascus and ultimately back to Egypt. Once back in Egypt, Ramses proclaimed that he had won a great victory, but in reality, all he had managed to do was to rescue his army since he was unable to capture Kadesh. In a personal sense, however, the Battle of Kadesh was a triumph for Ramses since, after blundering into a devastating Hittite chariot ambush, the young king had courageously rallied his scattered troops to fight on the battlefield while escaping death or capture. The new lighter, faster, two-man Egyptian chariots were able to pursue and take down the slower three-man Hittite chariots from behind as they overtook them. The leading elements of Hittites' retreating chariots were thus pinned against the river and in several hieroglyphic inscriptions related to Ramses II, said to flee across the river, abandoning their chariots.

Although there is more evidence in the form of texts and wall reliefs for this battle than for any other battle in the Ancient Near East, almost all of it is from an Egyptian perspective, and indeed the first scholarly report on the battle, by James Henry Breasted in 1903, took the Egyptian evidence literally and assumed a great Egyptian victory. He was convinced that these sources allowed us to reconstruct the battle "with certainty".

Ramses II on his chariot

Hittites flee across the river

Ramses heading to kadesh

Ramses

The Battle of Kadesh holds great interest to scholars of military strategy but, its epilogue was equally historic in the realm of international diplomacy. After a dynastic struggle, Khattusilis III succeeded Muwutallis and subsequently invited Egyptian plenipotentiaries to Hattusas for what would amount to the first summit conference between two equally matched powers. In 1280 BC Ramses and Khattusilis signed history's oldest recorded international agreement,

establishing a condominium between the two empires. After 13 years of peace, Ramses sealed the treaty by marrying one of Khattusilis' daughters. With his northeastern borders secure, the Egyptian king ruled on until 1235 BC — a reign of 67 years, during which his name would be literally etched in stone as Ramses the Great. -

Ramses' building accomplishments are two temples at Abu simble, the hypostyle hall at Karnak, a mortuary complex at Abydos. the Colossus of Ramses at Memphis, a vast tomb at Thebes, additions at the Luxor Temple, and the famous Ramesseum. Among Ramses' wives were Nefertari, Queen Istnofret, his two daughters, Binthanath and Merytamon, and the Hittite princess, Maathornefrure. Ramesses was originally buried in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Because of the widespread looting of tombs during the 21st Dynasty the priests removed Ramses body and took it to a holding area where the valuable materials such, as gold-leaf and semi-precious inlays, were removed. The body was then re-wrapped and taken to the tomb of an 18th Dynasty queen, Inhapi. The bodies of Ramesses I and Seti I were done in like fashion and all ended up at the same place Amenhotep's body had been placed there as well at an earlier time. Seventy-two hours later, all of the bodies were again moved, this time to the Royal Cache that was inside the tomb of High Priest Pinudjem II. The priests documented all of this on the linen that covered the bodies. This systematic looting by the priests was done in the guise of protecting the bodies from the "common" thieves.