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This battle is renowned for the use the chariots by both sides. With the element of surprise, the hittites suddenly attacked the egyptian forces, which were almost defeated. But the desperate audacity of Ramesses II, who managed to adjust his forces, led to "the mother of all battles" to end up as a draw

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Infantry: Chariots:

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In the second half of the century XIV B.C, the Egypt of the XVIII dynasty experienced a serious political crisis that caused a military takeover in order to obtain a strong central power.

The egyptian revival came with the XIX dynasty, founded by Ramesses I (1305-1303 B.C). His son Seti I (1303-1289 B.C) conquered the south of Syria and Palestine in the same period that the Hittite Empire (who spread across Anatolia for the north, and Lebanon and Syria for the south) suffered a several disasters for the attacks of Mittani, allies of Assyria. The successor of Seti I, his son Ramesses II (1289-1224 B.C) disputed to the hittites the control of the region of Syria-Palestine and he organized an expedition to conquer the city of Kadesh, at the time under control of hittites. To achieve the purpose of the campaign, the ports of the palestinian coast needed to be reinforced by egyptian influence as logistic support .Without the control of these ports, it would have been impossible for the expedition to cross the almost 680 kilometres to Kadesh.



The egyptian expeditionary corps consisted of about 20.000 men distributed in 4 divisions: the Amun, that included the personal guard of the pharaoh and it was under the command of Ramesses II, the Re, the Path and the Seth; there was also the nearins, groups of mercenaries integrated into the egyptian army, who arrived from Syria by sea after the victory of Ramesses II.

The hittites had a multiethnic army under the command of the king Muwatalli (1320-1290 B.C) made up for 17.000 men and between 2.500 and 3.000 chariots, according to the egyptian sources, it was perphas exaggerated to exalt the glory of pharaoh.

Reached the north of Palestine, Ramesses arranged the order of battle: the lead division Amun, followed by the Re, the Ptah and the Seth. Along the coast, an expeditionary corps advanced (the nearins). Then, the egyptian army penetrated in the interior, they crossed the valley of Bekaa and they proceeded in the direction of Kadesh.

The battle of Kadesh took place between the eighth and the tenth day of the third month of Shemu (the egyptian day was divided into three seasons: Shemu, summer, Akhet, floods and Peret, winter).

In the eighth day, Ramesses and the division Amun came to the surrounding areas of Kadesh and they encamped in the nearby shores; the Ptah and the Ra remained in the south of the city, the first in the forest of Rawavo and the second across the Orontes.

In the ninth day, Ramesses and the Amun began to cross the river Orontes followed by the other divisions. In Shabtuna (the current Tell Maa’yan), the first hittite ambush took place: two local nomads (really, hittites spies) counted that the hittite army was very remote. Ramesses believed them and he continued, not knowing that the enemy was only 3 kilometres from Kadesh.

By nightfall of the ninth day, Ramesses and the Amun encamped, while the Re still had to wade the Orontes, followed with a considerable distance by the Ptah and the Seth, that was even more remote.

In the following days, the Re was launched for supporting the pharaoh, that was going 15 kilometres ahead. Meanwhile, the two fake hittites nomads were captured, that were forced to confess where the enemy campament was. In knowing, Ramesses forced the Ptah to hurry up in order that coming in his help.

Meanwhile, the hittites placed in the southern a strong contingent of 2.500 chariots under the command of one brother of the hittite king, ready to attack the right wing of the division Re. The nearins had left the coast and they drove down on dry land to Kadesh.



Suddenly, 250 hittites chariots burst against the right wing of the division Re, that was dismantled. The egyptian infantry fled. Most of the survivors escaped to the southwest, while the chariots were moving rapidly around the camp of Ramses for protect his. His arrival to the camp was so chaotic that it confused the guard.

The hittites attacked immediately the camp in three sides. The first chariots that entered, were neutralized by the personal guard of the pharaoh, but the pressure of the attackers was so strong that the egyptian resistance couldn’t hold on and the reserve chariots fled to the north, leaving Ramesses with only what was left of the Amun.

The tactic of the surprise of Muwatalli was a success, because involving only the chariots, he preserve the infantry and the reserve chariots. Homewer, in this first phase, he made a tactical error: he decided to stay in force pending of the events. The second great mistake was loading too much the chariots with the loot of the plunder of the troops and egyptian supplies, that were responsible a canaanites infantry regiment, who was armed with spears and it was trained to march and fight by squads.

Ramesses decide to undertake a last and desperate charge against the hittite front that was besieging the camp from the north-east and, protected by his personal guard, he attacked successfully. The survivors of the Re, the Ptah and the nearins came precisely at this time, that reinforced the offensive.

Muwatalli sent about 1.000 chariots for surprise again the pharaoh from the rear, but he failed due to a the action of the Ptah that attack in turn from the right and it killed all the hittites reinforcements.

Ramesses completed later the assault attacking the enemy forces, dispersed around the Orontes, and due to fact that the hittite infantry was idle behind the walls of Kadesh, the egyptians took back the camp.



Muwatalli avoided to imply his infantry in a combat with no hope of victory due to the force of the enemy archers, while he understand that Ramesses lost the chance to besiege Kadesh by means of a assault. Therefore, you can say that the first great battle of the history ended without winners or losers. The commanders of the combat unit that fled in the assault to the camp were executed. Ramesses made the arrangements with Muwatalli before reaching Egypt. The both sides claimed the victory. The propaganda of Ramesses in the epic poem of Pentaur and other figurative works of art celebrated the victory, thereby offered the world’s first complete story about a battle. About the hittites, according to the tablets of Hattusa (at the time, the capital of the kingdom, the present Boğazköy), the hittites proclaimed the victory, by ensuring that the pharaoh escaped to the south while the hittites were conquering Amurro, between Kadesh and the mediterranean coast.



The war chariot:

In antiquity, the part of the cavalry was recovered by war horse-drawn chariots (or other quadrupeds animals). But around the year 800 B.C, an assyrian bas-relief displayed for the first time archers who fighted mounted on saddle of the horse.

The war chariots appeared around the year 2.500 B.C with the sumerian. It had four compact wheels and high parapets, it carried a driver and a man with spear or javelin. In shooting, maybe they used onagers, wild ancestors of the domestic donkey.



Between the centuries XVIII and XVII B.C, the hittites and the hyksos in the Near East, who adopted the chariot of two wheels with a small platform and a low parapet, with two mens and a pair of horses. With that, the hyksos dismasted the egyptian troops.

Another model, that was perfected with sprockets, was the egyptian chariot of the XVII and XVIII dynasty, derived from version of the hyksos. The hittites reinforced the model with wheels of six-spoke wheels, they equipped it with a driver, an bowman and a men with spear and shield.

Around the century VII B.C, the assyrians developed the war chariot. In the century VI B.C with the persian of Cyrus appeared the scythe-shaped chariot, that was provided with cleaver in the wheels.

The egyptian chariot was designed to go behind the enemy lines and later change rapidly the direction. For that, during the battle, the egyptian chariots avoided the confrontations at close range with the hittites, that were top in this type of combat.

The egyptian chariot had strength and lightness, result of the development of the canaanite chariot and the chariot of the hyksos. Maybe 2.000 chariots intervened in Kadesh (500 for each of egyptian division).



The hittte chariot was a weapon designed to dimast the infantry lines. It was very heavy, which made possible for it to crush any obstacle that stood in his way.

It was unwieldy, the hittite chariot was a ripe target for the egyptian archers. It was essential that the charioteer and the spearman were accompanied by a squire who was procteting them of enemy arrows during combat.

The armies

The egyptian army was made up of armed infantry with long spears, swords (like the typical khepesh), bronze axes, very powerful arches and arrows. The defense armament was constituted by leather armor or bronze armor, shields and helmets.



In the hittite infantry, the soldiers were used tunics or they were bare-chested; they are just protecting with a helmet, while their armament was very similar to the egyptian armament.

Although Ramesses had defined the hittites as effeminate men, the men of Muwatalli were brave and skilled warriors. The hittite army strength was based on remaining compact and sending scouts or using deception against the enemy, while the main body of the army was moving rapidly until they find a plain where the chariots could attack.

Across the centuries, the hittites learned how to make use of horses, build solid fortifications and take the enemy’s forts. Their war chariots, that more heavier than the egyptian chariots, could transport three men armed with bow, spear and shield. The cavalry as was understood at later centuries was absent on both armies.

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Next Article: Marathon 490 B.C

Versión española el próximo domingo
English version will be published the next friday.

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[World Battles] Kadesh 1285 B.C

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