2487 AM · 1274 BCE · world history
The Battle of Kadesh
Ramesses II and the Hittite king meet at a Syrian fortress; victory goes to no one.
At Kadesh on the Orontes met the two strongest armies of their day—by various estimates, up to five thousand chariots between them. Ramesses believed planted deserters, divided his army and nearly lost it; reinforcements arriving in time saved the day. Both sides proclaimed victory, but the borders stayed where they were. Fifteen years later Egypt and Hatti concluded a treaty of peace and mutual extradition of fugitives—the oldest international treaty whose text survives, and in two versions at once, Egyptian and Hittite.
Sources
Documents of the period
- documents and chronicles of the period — the Poem of Pentaur and the text of the peace treaty in two versions, Egyptian and Hittite
Scholarship
- general histories of the region — the estimates of the forces engaged and the drawn outcome of the battle
Basis: documents and evidence.