Original subtitles

1300 BC, two great empires battle for regional dominance.

A powerful people called the Hittites and the mighty Egyptians.

This is the story of Ramses, a brash young pharaoh whose bold military

and strategies put his life and his empire in grave danger.

The fate of Egypt and the entire Middle East hangs in the balance when the two

forces collide at the Battle of Kadesh.

A battle of deception, treachery, and raging chariots.

At Kadesh, 17 ,000 Hittites face off against 20 ,000 Egyptians.

Both forces fight to expand their borders and ultimately control the

East.

The Battle of Kadesh represents one of the most important battles in antiquity.

It represents a clash...

of major empires, the Hittite Empire and the Egyptian Empire, in a crucial zone

of military operations around Kadesh, which is in modern Syria.

Egypt is located in northeastern Africa.

The Hittites' homeland, called Hadi, is about a thousand miles away in what's

now Turkey.

But this battle between the superpowers rages in between the two homelands, in

an area called Amaru in modern -day Syria.

The Amaru is the ancient world's crossroads. If you want to trade, you

travel through the Amaru. If you want to attack someone, you need to travel

through the Amaru.

And if you want to prevent attack, you need to control the Amaru.

The Hittites are led by a young king named Muatali.

Believed to be in his early 30s, Muatali is known for his cleverness in battle.

The Egyptians.

are led by Pharaoh Ramses II.

Ramses II is the son of Seti I, who was one of the great warrior pharaohs of

Egyptian history.

Ramses comes to the throne at about age 22, 23, and sees himself in that long

tradition of warrior pharaohs. Indeed, like the great warrior pharaohs who

preceded him since the establishment of the Egyptian empire 200 years earlier,

Ramses sees himself as actually the personification of the Egyptian military

tradition to accomplish two things. One, to make sure that Egypt never again is

threatened, that Egypt is safe. And secondly, to expand the borders of the

empire against Egypt's enemies.

The bad blood between the Egyptians and the Hittites has been brewing for

centuries, since both empires were in their infancies.

Egypt emerged around 3200 BC at the collection of feudal settlements along

fertile Nile River Delta.

Over the course of several thousand years, it grew and spread, but remained

peace with its neighbors.

which had its advantages and its disadvantages.

The advantage of having a country that's prosperous and at peace for so long is

it becomes incredibly well -developed in terms of the arts, engineering,

architecture, painting, poetry, and religion.

It's amazing from that perspective.

The disadvantage is the world is spinning on around you. New

developments are occurring, and you're not part of that deal. And as long as

don't have to interact with the outer world, it'll work. What happened in 17th

century or 1650 B .C. is the Egyptians got the rudest surprise of their life.

The surprise is an attack by northern invaders called the Hyksos.

The Hyksos come from the city -states of Canaan and Syria.

These northern invaders sweep into Egypt on a bloody path of destruction.

Egypt was almost hermetically sealed from the greater influences of the

world, so the invasion came as an incredible shock. It shook Egyptian

the core and changed it forever.

The Hyksos occupy Egypt for nearly 80 years.

Finally, the Egyptians rebel and fight a 30 -year -long war of liberation.

They eventually succeed in driving the Hyksos out, but the northern influences

remain.

One of the positive consequences of the occupation of Egypt by the invaders from

the north was the transfer of their superior military equipment into the

Egyptian army.

The Egyptians adopt the use of new hand -to -hand fighting weapons.

And a new way to maneuver around the battlefield.

The two -man war chariot.

But the Egyptians not only used the chariot, they improved it.

The Egyptians essentially made three major changes to the chariot, which

revolutionized its application in warfare.

The first of these was to move the axle and wheel from the center of the

chariot, as is the case of the northern invaders, back to the rear of the

chariot.

The axle is about three and a half feet in length, set back as far as possible

for greater balance, speed, and maneuverability.

The chariot's cab is about three feet wide, one and a half feet deep, and two

and a half feet high.

The frame is made of wood, steam -bent ash or elm, covered with animal hide or

reeds.

The floor of the cab is made of flexible layers of leather or specially woven

cloth to help the archer balance and absorb shock.

The Egyptians also replaced the Hyksos four -spoke wheel with a six -spoke

wheel.

This seemingly simple change made for a much stronger wheel, a wheel better able

to withstand speeds of up to 12 miles an hour along bone -jarring, uneven

terrain.

And probably one of the most amazing technological innovations was the

of what's called a U -joint, where the pole of the chariot coming off the

joins the cab of the chariot.

Because this joint is able to move and isn't locked in place, it can absorb a

lot of shock.

This not only ensures the integrity of the chariot, but it makes the ride more

stable for the men inside.

You put this all together and you end up essentially with the Egyptians having

changed the machine to such a degree it would be the equivalent of essentially

having a superior modern main battle tank on the field. The chariot

a huge step in warfare because it brought mobility to war.

And of course it also became a sign of status. If you were a nobleman, you

wanted to be a chariot warrior.

The individual chariot squad consisted of three men.

The driver navigates the horse and machine across the battlefield.

The archer must be skilled enough to launch arrows from a moving platform at

speeds of up to 12 miles an hour.

The runner runs alongside the chariot.

He serves both an offensive and defensive purpose.

As a defender, he protected his chariot from opposing runners, but he would also

attack enemy chariots.

dragging warriors out of their machines and slaughtering them.

In modern warfare, you never send in tanks without infantry support.

That's exactly what this is like.

The runner fights with the bronze sickle sword.

About three feet long, the sword weighs approximately two pounds. It can be

swung with enough force to slice off an arm or a head in one chop.

The runner may also be equipped with a six -foot spear.

The shaft is made of wood. The tip, razor -sharp bronze.

After revamping their fighting force, the Egyptians develop a new strategy.

Attack the enemy first, ask questions later.

They would put this strategy into action some 30 years after their liberation

from the Hyksos.

When Egypt had secured her own domestic position, had rebuilt her army, she

turned to the north for revenge.

And at that point, you have the formation of the Egyptian empire and the

beginning of its expansion to the north into Canaan and what is now Lebanon and

Syria.

The Egyptians' quick and nimble chariots give them a great advantage as they

spread north and conquer most of their enemies.

But as they begin to spread into what is modern -day Syria, they come into

contact with the Hittites, who are expanding their territory as well, and

also have chariots.

Egypt and Hatti are separated by nearly 1 ,000 miles, but both are threatened by

one another, and both see the land between Egypt and Hatti as an essential

buffer zone.

Initially, when you do that, the buffer zone is, of course, just that, a buffer

zone that's expendable. It's not the homeland. But over time, what happens?

defense of the buffer zone becomes almost identified with the defense of

homeland. And so you end up fighting wars and wars in the buffer zone.

For centuries, the Egyptians and Hittites spill each other's blood in

skirmishes as they clash over incursions into the buffer zone.

Sometimes it's an infantry fight.

But other times, the chariots engage.

When people think about chariot warfare in the ancient world, what they imagine

is lines of chariots either smashing into enemy infantry or lines of chariots

smashing into another line of enemy chariots.

That's not how it worked. A little thinking will show you that horses will

charge against a phalanx of infantry spirit, and there wouldn't be much point

trying to slam into an enemy chariot. More commonly, the way chariots were

when they were used against chariots, was essentially in a kind of swirling

combat. The lines would attack towards one another, but they would never really

get in contact.

The object would be for the archer on each chariot to pick off the archer or

driver or horse of the other chariot.

As they pass by, or in military terms, what's called en passant, as they pass

one another. Then they would wheel around, whirl around, and come back at

another.

Sometimes not at the same target, but picking the closer target.

While the two -man Egyptian chariot is light and mobile, the Hittite chariot is

a larger, heavier, and slower machine.

The axle is positioned in the center of the carrying platform.

This reduces speed and stability, but allows a great advantage, the ability to

carry a crew of three.

Now, the charioteer, archer, and runner can all ride together into battle.

Some historians believe this innovation was developed years earlier after the

Hittites defeated another enemy, the Mitanni, who had lived in the area

the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

In addition to ridding themselves of an enemy, the Hittites gained the famed

Mitanni military horse trainer named Kikuli.

Kikuli changes the future of chariot battle using a surprisingly simple

technique.

What Cuculli did was to write a training manual on how to train horses to be

stronger and able to pull heavier loads. This was huge because it enabled the

creation of a completely new chariot and a new way to fight with chariots. With

two -man chariots, the runner had to obviously run alongside.

This inhibited how fast and how far they could travel because obviously the

runner, who was the chariot's main defense, would be completely exhausted.

But Kekuli -trained horses were able to pull a larger chariot with three men

inside.

The Egyptians and Hittites have each improved and perfected their own

into a lethal weapon.

And after hundreds of years, the showdown between these two great chariot

cultures will erupt when Pharaoh Ramses meets his adversary on the plains of

Kadesh.

Two armies, the Egyptians and the Hittites, are on a collision course

of the greatest battles of antiquity, the Battle of Kadesh.

Kadesh is located midway between the two empires in modern -day Syria.

For many centuries, the Egyptians and the Hittites fight small skirmishes over

this land because each believed the area holds strategic and tactical

importance.

The skirmishes at the edges of both empires, the Hittite and Egyptian

just wax and wane on and off for about 30 years, and which no real conclusion

is ever reached. They're just border skirmishes and not quite serious.

What happens while these skirmishes are going on is a very bizarre event that

occurs inside Egypt itself that will, in a very strange way, set in motion a

series of chain reactions that leads ultimately to the clash of both empires

the Battle of Kadesh.

This chain reaction begins with the death of the famous pharaoh Tutankhamen

1323 BC.

Well, Tut died.

And according to Egyptian law, his widow can choose a new husband.

In Egyptian tradition, it's the female's bloodline that is royal, not the man's.

So she can marry whomever she wants, even a commoner. What she does in an act

that by today's standards would be insane, it was actually regarded as

the time, is she writes a letter to the king of the Hittites saying, send me

one of your sons.

I will marry him and he will be Pharaoh.

My husband has died, and I have no son.

They say about you that you have many sons.

You might give me one of your sons to become my husband.

I would not wish to take one of my subjects as a husband.

Turns out that Tut's widow believed Tut was assassinated by his own subjects.

For many years, Egypt was in a tremendous amount of internal turmoil.

between traditional polytheists, Egyptians who believed that the national

religion should continue worshipping several gods, and monotheists, those who

believed in only one god.

It was a terribly bloody time in Egypt.

Civil war erupts throughout Egypt, resulting in thousands of deaths.

Some believe King Tut is amongst the victims.

Now, at this point in Egyptian history, the polytheists had greater power in

Egypt, and they were also enemies of Tut's widow.

So what's their solution?

Essentially bring down the empire. Make a Hittite prince pharaoh?

Absolutely incredible.

The entire Middle East would have completely changed.

If the Hittites can absorb Egypt and her territories, they will control every

trade route and every military launching point from Egypt to Mesopotamia.

Keenly aware of the political advantages, the Hittite king agrees to

arranged marriage and sends one of his younger sons to Egypt.

What happens next is the spark that ignites the Battle of Kadesh.

Egyptian enemies of Tut's widow discover the marriage plan.

and ambush the Hittite prince.

The Hittite prince never sets foot on Egyptian soil.

Eventually, Tut's wife dies.

Some say she was murdered.

But the bigger point is how the Hittites reacted to the assassination.

As you can imagine, the Hittite king is furious.

The Hittite king is the great warrior Shupiluliuma, and even raised.

His desire to avenge his son's death motivates his resumption of war against

Egypt.

But this isn't the only reason.

Shupiluliuma isn't stupid.

He's not going to allow the death of his son to drive the empire's foreign

policy. It is, however, a good excuse to start fighting again over the valuable

Amaru region.

Shupiluliuma leads his forces against Egypt for nearly a decade.

But around 1322 BC, the Hittite king is killed.

Not by the blade of an enemy's sword, but by an invisible enemy, far more

deadly.

One incident in which an Egyptian garrison was overrun by Hittite groups

took some prisoners and apparently transported the prisoners back to the

homeland in modern -day Turkey.

It seems, or at least there's some evidence to suggest, that some of the

prisoners had been infected with some kind of a plague.

And the plague...

not only infected some of the soldiers of the Hittite army, but spread

throughout Anatolia and much of the Middle East. What the consequence is

the death rate was so high, indeed the king himself died of this disease.

After Shupiluliuma dies, the skirmishes between the Egyptians and the Hittites

slow down significantly.

It is during this period of relative stability, around 1300 BC, that Pharaoh

Ramses II comes to power.

Only in his mid -twenties, Ramses is a warrior king with a reputation for being

brash and cocky.

He understands that to protect Egypt, he must occupy the buffer zone to the

north.

Ramses comes from a military tradition. He sees himself not only as the pharaoh

of the period of time in which he ruled, but as a continuation of the tradition

of great warrior pharaohs that has come into existence since the Egyptian empire

was formed 200 years earlier.

So when you look at trying to get inside of his head, what you're looking at as

a person who sees himself not only as a great warrior, but a man whose primary

function, primary purpose, primary reason for existence is to protect

Five years into his reign as pharaoh, Ramses launches an attack against the

Hittite.

He leads 24 ,000 soldiers north of the coast road toward Gaza.

His force is divided into four divisions, all named after Egyptian

Amun, the Ra, the Ta, and the Seti.

Each division is made up of 6 ,000 soldiers.

5 ,000 infantry and 500 two -man chariot teams.

The Hittites learn of the Egyptian movement and immediately counter with a

of about 17 ,000 who travel south from Hatti.

Their general is the grandson of Shupilu Yuma, King Muwatali.

Like Ramses, Muwatali is also a battle -hardened warrior.

We don't know much about Muwatali.

But the texts suggest he was a good thinker.

He fought with his head and had a good strategic mind.

He went into these battles with a game plan and he stuck to it.

In many ways, he was a perfect foil to Ramses.

Both forces are heading toward the city of Kadesh.

While controlling the city is not the end goal for either army, whoever

Kadesh will have an easier time conquering the entire Amaru region.

Kadesh is built atop a small ride near the mouth of the Orontes River Valley.

The city is surrounded by casement walls, two 50 -foot -high parallel

each about 400 yards long, roughly the length of four football fields.

The important thing about Kadesh is that its walls are faced with limestone.

And although its walls are casement walls, its walls are faced with

Why this is important, and very important for 200 years of the Egyptian

to push...

the Syrians and the Hittites north.

The problem was they couldn't take the city.

And the reason why they couldn't take the city is because the battering ram,

effective battering ram against stone was unknown.

It did not make its way into the Middle East until the 8th century.

Ramses wants to get to Kadesh first so he can avoid having to attack the stone

-walled city.

But when he finally does reach the city, He is in for the biggest surprise of

his life.

The Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II leads 24 ,000 soldiers to attack the Hittites.

They are on their way to the Amaru, a strategic buffer zone between the two

empires.

Near the town of Byblos, Ramses divides his force.

He personally leads three divisions, the Amun, the Ra, and the Ta, up the Latani

River. These 18 ,000 soldiers will approach the strategic city of Kadesh

the south.

He sends 6 ,000 of his troops, the Seti Division, north along the coast.

They'll cross the Lebanon mountains and approach Kadesh from the northwest.

What Ramsey's intends is essentially a pincer movement against the city. The

larger force up the valley comes in this way, and what happens coming from the

west is a smaller force at the city of Kadesh. So that's the

strategic plan.

This is a massive undertaking.

Ramsey's army takes up 15 miles of road on the march at four breast.

Some 4 ,000 mules and donkeys are needed as transport.

Each soldier requires three pounds of grain made into bread each day, eight to

nine pints of water.

In a march like this, lasting over a month, about 17 % of the manpower would

lost to sprains, broken bones, lung infections, things like that.

It's quite a feat to move an army of over 20 ,000 men some 500 miles and

in fighting condition.

After a grueling 40 -day march.

Ramses and his three divisions make camp 10 miles south of the city of Kadesh,

near the forest of Rabawi.

But to say that Ramses' three divisions all camp together isn't quite accurate.

Yes, they all stopped at the same time, but there are a lot of troops.

So the guys at the back were 15 miles away from Ramses in the front.

Ramses is now pretty deep into the Amaru, and the Hittites could be

Whether he fails to send reconnaissance scouts up ahead or they don't discover

anything,

Ramesses has no information as to the Hittite whereabouts.

Near Ramesses' camp, Egyptian patrols capture two local Bedouins hoping to

the location of the Hittite army.

We know from temple inscriptions that Ramesses had a pet lion that he took

him on campaigns.

It's been suggested that the lion was used to, how should I put this,

cooperation.

According to the Bedouins, Muwatali and the Hittites are still 100 miles away to

the north of Kadesh at Aleppo.

Now he sees an opportunity.

Kadesh is defenseless. I can grab it. I can use it as a logistics base, rebuild

my army, get everybody arrested, and then we're just a short step up the road

confront the Hittite army.

Ramses is so excited that he jumps on his chariot with his bodyguard and darts

for the city of Kadesh.

But here's the problem.

Ramses, in his youthful enthusiasm, takes off.

His army is spread out over 15 miles behind him. The Amun division quickly

gathers its stuff. It's not in battle -ready conditions. It's slung over its

shoulder at any time. And it starts boogieing up the road trying to catch

guys.

Ramses begins to make camp on the plain.

The unprepared Amun division slowly catches up to him.

The Ra is strung out a few miles behind.

And the Ta is still near the forest of Rabawi.

And the Seti division is somewhere on the coast of the Mediterranean.

Ramesses thinks it's a walk in the park.

His bodyguard starts building the camp.

Elements of the Amun division just begin to arrive in the camp. Everything's

kind of disorganized.

The Re division is...

Route -stepping it across an open plain, Emu Atali springs the trap.

From orchards south of the city emerge 2 ,000 Hittite chariots.

They burst out of the orchards, take the Ray Division right in the flank.

Bang!

Just imagine turning to see thousands of Hittite chariots.

Even for a trained army like the Egyptians, it would have been utterly

terrifying.

Ramsey's raw division is absolutely laid to waste by these chariots.

They're not battle -ready, they're not formed for battle, they just get hit and

they scatter all over the plains.

The Hittite charioteers navigate the chaotic battlefield while archers launch

their missiles with deadly accuracy.

Chariot archers and drivers worked as pairs.

That is to say, they trained together, and their horses trained together, on

off, on and off, hour after hour after hour.

Both Hittite and Egyptian archers use a composite bow made of wood, horn, and ox

tendon laminated together.

A composite bow is an awesome weapon.

It has a very high penetrating power and deadly accurate in the hands of a good

archer.

Some archers will join the runners on the ground and join in the infantry

battle.

Some historians believe that the Hittite king Muwatalli is already inside Kadesh

and has orchestrated this surprise attack.

The Bedouin story, a lie.

Ramzi's army, blindsided.

Muwatalli's plan, brilliant.

1279 BC, the Battle of Kadesh begins.

A vicious Hittite chariot ambush against an unprepared Egyptian force draws the

first blood of the conflict.

And it's all Pharaoh Ramesses' fault.

Pharaoh, in his haste, took off practically by himself. He's only got

couple of hundred soldiers with him.

Bedouin spies gave Ramesses false information that the Hittites were 100

to the north at Aleppo.

when in reality they were already in the city of Kadesh.

It never dawns on anybody that maybe somebody like the Hittite intelligence

officers put the Sashu Bedouins up to the story, namely that this is a classic

piece of intelligence deception to lure the Egyptian army into a trap.

As Ramsey sped off to claim the city, he left his force unprepared and strung

out behind him for 15 miles.

At the same time, 2 ,000 Hittite chariots stealthily made their way south

the east side of the Orontes River, hid in the orchards, then smashed into the

Ra Division.

One of the things that happens on a battlefield is as tactics and situation

changes, what happens is if you're not careful, you let operational success

drive strategic goals. You start changing the goals. That's a basic

And in this case, that's exactly what happened with Ramesses.

Given the opportunity suddenly to grab Kadesh, he could hardly resist it. And

took it and fell right into the Hittite trap.

Some historians believe that the key to Muwatali's successful ambush is the

three -man chariot.

Because of specially trained horses that possess greater endurance, the Hittite

chariot can carry the charioteer, the archer, and the runner.

This allowed the chariot force to travel the approximately two and a half miles

from the city to the orchard quickly, without exhausting the runners, the

chariot's main defense.

Chariots aren't supposed to be able to move like this. The ancient world has

never seen chariotry like the Hittites bring to bear at Kadesh.

I firmly believe that the three -man chariot innovation completely changed

warfare. And I really believe that at Kadesh, the Hittite surprise attack was

directly related to this type of chariot warfare.

The surprise attack slaughters thousands of Egyptian soldiers.

Ramses watches the carnage from his camp.

Ramses is about two miles to the north of the ambush site. His only defense is

the disorganized Amun division on the outskirts of his camp.

About 15 miles to the south is the third Egyptian division, the Ta.

And somewhere to the west is the Seth division, who has come up the coast.

So Ramses is in real trouble because his army is so spread out.

Ramses is getting pummeled. His forces are spread out. It's just chaos.

I mean, if the Egyptians get to Ramses, this could cripple the Egyptian empire.

And Ramses is the Hittite chariot force's next target.

The Hittite chariots turn north and take dead aim on Ramses' half

-built, disorganized camp where the Amun division is just stumbling in the camp

trying to keep up. And bam!

They smash right into the camp, dismount from their chariots, and a terrible

infantry battle erupts.

The Hittites maul the Egyptians.

To make matters worse for Ramses, Many of his elite chariot teams desert the

battlefield, abandoning their king in his most desperate hour.

But suddenly, the Hittite advance toward Ramses' camp slows.

Instead of continuing to charge toward the Egyptian pharaoh, many of the

Hittites stop and begin looting the camp.

But that's not even the real problem. The real problem is the Hittite infantry

is nowhere to be seen on the battlefield.

And that will prove costly.

10 ,000 Hittite infantry and 1 ,000 reserve chariots wait on the east side

Kadesh.

To have 10 ,000 infantry doing nothing doesn't make much sense.

Muwatali has Ramses against the ropes, and he should commit his infantry to

knock him out.

But Muwatali does not deploy his infantry.

Despite the slowing of the Hittite attack, Ramsey's situation is still

He has no choice but to take matters into his own hands.

Ramsey's no weekend warrior or spoiled prince.

He's led his army into this trap, and he's prepared to lead his remaining

out. So he and some of the elite infantry guard, and pretty much all

from the Amun division, march into the fray.

You know, people say he was a braggart or whatever, but he was one hell of a

soldier. What he does is he rallies what chariots he has, rallies his arm around

them, and literally takes a section of the attack to the northeast, which

probably was the weakest area, and attacks it.

Ramesses gathers momentum and begins to drive the Hittites back.

But his forces are too scattered to make a significant impact.

Muatali still has the advantage.

He can end the battle by deploying his 10 ,000 reserve infantrymen.

Now, now is the time. You're going to bite the nose, kick him in the ear. Now

the time for Muatali to commit his infantry.

Moatali is about to make one of the most important decisions of his life. A

decision that will determine the course of history.

The fight between the Egyptians and Hittites has reached the most critical

of the battle.

An initial chariot attack has turned into an infantry fight on the plains of

Kadesh.

This is good for the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses, as he is able to stop the

momentum gained with the shock of the attack.

If the Hittite king Mawatali, however, makes the right next tactical move and

launches his infantry, he can easily surround Ramses, kill him, and in one

stroke, conquer the mighty Egyptians.

Now, now is the time. You gotta bite the nose, kick him in the...

Now is the time for Mu 'atalesh to commit his infantry.

Committed across the northeast, committed across the ford northeast of

and it would have been all over.

Chariots coming up from the south, infantry from the north. They got the

commander. It's over.

He doesn't do it.

He does nothing.

And so the Hittite attack bogs down.

It's essentially...

trapped in the camp fighting an infantry battle. It's given away its

advantages in shock and mobility.

It's stuck in an infantry battle. He has a hammer fist of infantry, and he

doesn't commit it.

Molotov's failure to deploy his infantry remains a colossal mystery to scholars.

Ramesses, however, is still in trouble.

Despite being stuck in an infantry battle, the Hittites fight furiously.

But Ramsay's luck holds.

Precisely the right time, marching down through the pass, across the Lebanese

mountains, onto the plain of Kadesh, comes the second Egyptian force, the

Division, at the precise time to Ramzi's rescue.

Ramzi's Seth Division, which had been marching up the coast from Egypt,

reaches Kadesh.

The Seth Division brings with it 5 ,000 infantry and 500 chariots.

Ramses now has the force he needs to push the Hittites across the Orontes

A great chariot and infantry battle rages on the plains outside Kadesh.

But because of the crowded battlefield, The more mobile Egyptian chariots are

able to maneuver more easily and get the best of the Hittite chariots.

Ramsey has successfully turned the tide.

Finally, Muatali launches reinforcements, but not infantry. He

chariots.

Muwatali's chariot reinforcements move south from the city, across the Orontes

River, then head north toward the battlefield.

But suddenly, they are attacked from the rear.

It's the final Egyptian division, the Ta, and they are ready to fight.

Muwatali, he forgot about the Ta division.

Now, I mean, it's got eyes. There's a hell of a battle raging over there. We

better not cross the plain in route step. They're in battle formation.

And they're marching up on the plain just as the Hittites cross the Orontes

turn their back.

Bang. They hit them in the back and shatter the Hittite reserve forth.

The Hittites are caught in a fight.

Ramzi, what's left of the Amun division and the theft division battle in front.

The Ta division attacks from the rear.

Muwat Thales committed a grave error, and that is never throw good forces

bad. If you're going to use forces, you do it to exploit a victory. You never do

it to stave off a defeat. And he did it for the latter reason.

The Hittite chariots cannot escape.

They have Egyptian forces on both sides of them, and they can't maneuver because

they're right in the middle of Ramzi's half -built camp.

Two thousand Hittite chariots are lost, and Mawatali has squandered an

overwhelming advantage.

But despite Ramzi's ability to turn the battle around,

The Egyptians have also suffered badly.

Most of the Amun division is probably dead.

A good part of the Ray division is killed, certainly scattered.

So you've lost half its force.

And a goodly number, at least two divisions of organic chariots, just a

machines, maybe more.

So it's been a bad day at Black Rock all around.

The sun sets on the battlefield, dead and dying horses and individuals

screaming.

The Hittites retreat toward the base behind Kadesh.

The Egyptians don't try to chase them.

In the morning, Muwatallis sends a message to Ramses.

This has gained no one anything.

Let's just mutually disengage. We'll fight again another day.

Ramses accepts.

He has no choice. He has no hope of moving north of Kadesh.

But that doesn't stop Ramses from claiming himself the victor.

He engraves depictions of a great victory at the Battle of Kadesh on

throughout Egypt.

Ramesses records the Battle of Kadesh as a great personal victory. And of

course, we have multiple sources and the archaeological record, so we know that

he exaggerates. But if you consider that he ultimately saved himself and his

army from what could have been complete annihilation, his version of the truth

makes some sense.

Before Ramses heads back to Egypt, he takes care of one final piece of

Ramses assembled the chariot commanders of the units that had broken ran under

attack, forced them to kneel in the dust with their hands tied behind their

back, and personally beheaded some of the sons of the most powerful nobility

Egypt.

It's a bloody finale to one of the bloodiest battles of ancient times, and

Ramesses makes sure that his army knows the price of failure.

Ramesses learns his lesson from the mistakes he made at Kadesh, but his

are all too common to history's great generals.

George Armstrong Custer fell into a similar trap as Ramesses did at Kadesh.

He was chasing a group of Indians when he failed to detect the main force.

Having driven off the smaller group of Indian raiders, he got ready to attack

what he thought was a defenseless and small village.

To his surprise, an enemy of greater strength took him onto the flank.

Unlike Ramesses, Custer was killed, but the mistake and the tactics were the

same.

The two superpowers continued to fight over the strategic buffer zone for

several years after the Battle of Kadesh.

But in 1262 B .C., the Egyptians and Hittites are forced into an alliance to

combat a growing threat from what is now Iraq,

the Assyrians.

And that alliance lasted for almost a century.

So in the same sense, perhaps, like the Battle of Berlin in World War II marked

the point where two superpowers met and essentially tolerated one another

because they couldn't shove the other fellow up. Same thing is true of the

Battle of Cadet.

The Battle of Kadesh might not have been the overwhelming victory that Ramses

would have his people believe it was, but it tells the story of a brash young

monarch who rushes into war, finds himself outsmarted, but claws his way

save himself and his empire.