Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Ancient Egypt.

A civilisation immortalised by awe-inspiring monuments,

and priceless treasures.

Ruled by Pharaohs: living Gods

and legendary warriors...

But their wealth masks a darker truth,

power was bought with blood.

They assembled the greatest armies in history.

Revolutionised the art of warfare.

And waged spectacular battles...

and titanic conquests.

- (elephants trumpet) NARRATOR: This is the hidden face

of Egyptian history, the story of the Pharaohs at War.

- (swords zing)

- (doors lock) - (battle cries)

NARRATOR: May 1274 BCE.

In front of the city of Qadesh, Pharaoh Ramses II

fights for his life.

- So there was a moment for Ramses II,

where he must have thought that he would die,

that everything would be lost.

NARRATOR: Facing him are the warriors of the powerful

Hittite Empire, located in present-day Turkey.

- (translation from French) The Hittite Empire

is as powerful as the Egyptians.

They are forces of equal strength and prestige.

NARRATOR: On one side Ramses II, the Pharaoh of Egypt

who has just come to power and is determined

to prove his worth.

- When he started his reign, he was 20 years old,

his dynasty had not even 15 years.

NARRATOR: On the other, the Hittite King Muwatalli II,

whose reign fixated on expanding his territory.

- He was a worthy opponent to Ramses.

NARRATOR: This battle is a clash between the two most influential

rulers of their time.

For years, the Egyptians and Hittites have been fighting

over the lands of the Levant, which lie between the two countries.

But this time, the rival kings have mobilised their entire armies.

The decisive fight will take place at Qadesh,

on the border between the two empires.

- (translation from French) It's the meeting of two giants..

NARRATOR: 5,500 chariots, and 50,000 men.

Under the fortress of Qadesh,

one of the greatest chariot battles of history is at its height.

And when the dust settles... both sides claim victory.

- (dramatic music plays)

NARRATOR: So who is the real winner?

How did the Battle of Qadesh become the most famed battle in Egypt?

This bloody conflict would permanently alter relations

between the Hittites and the Egyptians.

- (dramatic music playing)

NARRATOR: Celebrated in the temples built by Ramses II,

this battle played a founding role in the reign and eternal glory

of the most famous of all pharaohs...

Ramses the Great.

NARRATOR: In the south of Egypt stands the awe-inspiring temple

of Abu Simbel.

- I'm standing in front of this colossal statue of Ramses II.

It's over 20 metres tall.

Ramses II carved this image to show that he's powerful,

that he's a mighty pharaoh and a divine king.

And I'm small, nothing but a mortal going to his temple.

It's so impressive.

NARRATOR: The excess doesn't stop there.

The 60 metre long and 8-metre-high temple,

built shortly after the battle of Qadesh,

is carved entirely out of the rock.

An architectural masterpiece.

- It's a place where Ramses II wanted to make something bigger

than anyone ever had done.

It's absolutely stunning.

This is a monument to a monumental Pharaoh.

NARRATOR: And as expected, inside the temple,

the battle of Qadesh occupies a special place.

MEREDITH: Oh, wow.

This is the inscription of the battle of Qadesh.

All the parts of the battle are on this wall.

Ancient Egyptians when they talked about battles, they would say,

I went to this place, I won.

And that was it.

We don't have the details that give us a rich military history.

This is the first document of its kind,

and it tells us of one of the largest chariot battles

that ever took place in the ancient Near East.

NARRATOR: All pharaohs represent their military victories,

but Ramses II takes the tradition to another level.

The battle of Qadesh is carved onto gigantic walls

in Egypt's main temples, Luxor and Karnak.

An action that might suggest Ramses II had something to prove...

- We are in the temple of Karnak,

dedicated to the great God, Amun, magnificent temple.

NARRATOR: Amun, recognisable by the two feathers on his headdress,

was the main god at the time of Ramses II.

And his temple is the most important in ancient Egypt.

A sacred space 400 metres wide and 600 metres long.

It is monumental.

Here, Ramses II presents a key moment in his reign:

his coronation.

- Ramses II became Pharaoh in 1279 BC, at the age of 25.

NARRATOR: In Egyptian tradition, the God Amun

is the divine father of the pharaohs.

For centuries, they have been crowned in his temple at Karnak.

- Up at the top, here, we have the coronation of Ramses II.

He is surrounded by four different gods.

NARRATOR: The young Pharaoh appears in the company of the goddesses

Nekhbet and Ouadjet...

and the falcon-headed god Horus and the Ibis-headed god Thoth.

Because he needs his kingship to be indisputable.

Ramses II was the third king of the 19th Egyptian dynasty.

A recent lineage with no blood ties to the previous one.

A problem in a country where divine blood

is supposed to flow in the veins of the Pharaoh.

He owes his accession to the throne to his grandfather, Ramses I,

who was opportunely promoted when the last king

of the 18th dynasty died without an heir.

- Ramses I was chosen because he's a military man

and he could protect the borders of Egypt,

where we have a significant rising in power of great nations

like the Hittites.

- This was a brand new dynasty that aimed to be a dynasty of kings,

even though they were kind of picked for it at random.

NARRATOR: To prove that he is worthy of being Pharaoh,

Ramses II must show that the gods support him

and protect Egypt's borders.

In his time, the main threat came from a powerful enemy:

the Hittites.

- (suspenseful music plays)

NARRATOR: When he became king, the Egyptian Empire extended

from the 4th cataract of the Nile to the Levant,

and the edge of the Hittite Empire...

From Hattusa, their capital, the Hittites controlled

a large territory currently located across Turkey and southern Syria.

Situated on the border separating the two Empires,

Qadesh has been an area of tension for centuries.

The ruins of Hattusa, the Hittite capital,

demonstrate the power of this empire.

Hidden deep in the Anatolian mountains in present-day Turkey,

the 180-hectare city is being carefully studied by archaeologists.

- Since 1952, the excavations are continuing without any interruption.

NARRATOR: These excavations have enabled us to understand

how this Empire operated.

- The Hittite Empire is like a federal state.

Each city of the Hittites was in itself more or less independent.

NARRATOR: At the time of Ramses II,

the king of the capital of this federal state was Muwatalli II.

- Muwatalli was the Great King, but he always had to find

compromises with the other important families and rulers in the country.

So he was not an absolute ruler like Ramses.

NARRATOR: The title of 'Great King'

did however give Muwatalli II a special position.

As the head of an empire,

he was the one who made decisions for the country.

And Hattusa, the city he ruled, also had a special status.

- We have a large palace area.

We have about 32 temples, we have official buildings.

But there is no area where ordinary people lived.

So this settlement is probably not functioning as a normal city.

NARRATOR: Evidence the city is unique is everywhere in Hattusa.

- We are just coming in front of the reconstruction of a part

of the city wall.

It's sitting exactly on top of the original foundations.

It is about 8 metres wide and, the wall itself is 9 metres high,

and the tower is up to 13 metres high.

NARRATOR: An impressive fortress, yet this 70-metre-long wall

only represents 1% of the walls that once protected the city.

From this citadel, soldiers could keep a watchful eye

on the surrounding area.

In this astonishing city, everything is designed to impress.

The site can even be seen from 20 kilometres away.

On one of the highest points in the Hittite capital

sits the Royal Palace.

- (translation) We are here at the palace complex

of Hattusa where the great king Muwatalli lived

with his wives and children.

Muwatalli became the Great King around 1290 BCE

and inherits a vast empire.

NARRATOR: An empire that was already encroaching

on ancient Egyptian land, but in respect of Hittite tradition,

the Great King wished to continue expanding.

But Ramses II is determined to put a stop to Muwatalli II's desires.

At the heart of the conflict,

two territories are particularly disputed:

the city of Qadesh, allied to the Hittites,

and the Egyptian region of Amurru.

- (translation) The Hittites need Amurru

because it's a southern passageway

that gives them access to the riches of the Levant.

NARRATOR: An essential strategic territory for both the Hittites

and the Egyptians.

- The area from Amurru in the north and Syria, all the way to Canaan

and Palestine was like a highway

in the ancient world for trade goods.

Ramses II was very interested in keeping this trade highway open.

He wanted to get luxury goods like perfume from the Near East,

cedars from Lebanon that were used to build ships

and massive constructions in Egypt.

NARRATOR: But what he wants most of all is copper and tin,

which mixed together form bronze...

the most important metal at the time.

Thanks to bronze, the Egyptians were able to work with stone

and build incredible monuments.

But importantly, this metal made it possible to quickly craft weapons

in large quantities,

weapons that Ramses II's soldiers could use at the battle of Qadesh.

- Egypt had very minimal sources of tin,

and so if they wanted to expand the bronze industry,

they needed trade relationships.

And this was an entirely new situation for Egypt.

Egypt always had all the minerals, all the wealth,

everything you could need,

and this was the first time it didn't have something

they needed.

NARRATOR: A confrontation is inevitable.

Ramses II has three good reasons for fighting the Hittites.

He wants to secure the trade routes...

weaken his main enemy...

and establish his reign by winning a victory

that will prove to everyone he is worthy of being Pharaoh.

NARRATOR: Archaeologists are studying the city where Ramses II

prepared for battle.

Its name is Pi-Ramses, which means the House of Ramses.

In the Nile Delta, Pi-Ramses was the most important city

under Ramses II.

The Pharaoh made it his new capital, instead of Thebes, now Luxor,

more than 700 kilometres away.

- It was a move to concentrate power in his hands.

Because Ramses, when he came to the throne,

his dynasty had just about 15 years.

So he founded a new capital to choose all the people

around himself.

So he could cut off old elites from the access to power,

the access to the King himself.

NARRATOR: And he has other reasons for building his city in the Delta.

- On the one hand, his family came from the region.

On the other hand, it's in a perfect strategic location,

very close to the Mediterranean Sea and also close to the Levant,

close to the place where Ramses knew that he would go to battle.

NARRATOR: Thanks to its location, which gave it easy access

to goods entering Egypt, the city rapidly developed.

- Pi-Ramses was one of the largest cities of its time.

We have living quarters, we have big buildings like palaces,

temples, administrative buildings,

but also a kind of factory for military goods, for weapons.

- One of the most exciting archaeological finds

is a bronze foundry.

There was this huge area for smelting bronze

and moulds found for making different weapons.

And these are the same weapons that we see

in the reliefs of the Battle of Qadesh.

NARRATOR: Its production opens up new opportunities.

- Raw copper and raw tin would have been brought into Pi-Ramses

and worked especially into weapons.

And the facilities that were excavated

have proven to be capable of producing probably

200 kilograms of bronze in a span of a few hours.

And when you think that one small arrowhead,

weighs probably 5 or 10 grams, then you can produce weapons

for a whole army within a rather short period of time.

NARRATOR: Ramses II is a warrior.

His father and grandfather were generals.

His power comes from the military, and he supervises his army closely.

- The major part of the army, was closely attached to the king.

So we have these huge workshops, a palace

and just 2-300 metres away we have huge stables.

NARRATOR: The reason the stables are so close to the palace

is because horses played an essential role at the time.

At the battle of Qadesh, the most important weapon was the chariot.

- It's not stables made out of wood, you had stone columns,

and every box kept five or six horses.

From what we know is, that at least 500 horses

could have been kept in the stables, enough for 250 chariots.

NARRATOR: To lead these war horses

and drive the chariot required specially trained soldiers.

An honour reserved for members of the elite and pharaohs.

- Chariot was befitting the high status of the pharaoh.

He could be above everybody else.

NARRATOR: The invention appeared in Egypt

just 400 years before Ramses II.

- Kings really loved to show themselves on a colossal scale,

on these huge chariots as separating themselves

from the rest of the army.

So this image is so fantastic because we have Ramses II,

and he has the reins of the horse tied around his waist.

You can see the little bow in the back,

and he's somehow steering the horses,

barrelling down a field.

And he's also got this huge bow strung

and shooting arrows at the same time.

So this image becomes a very important element

of royal iconography.

NARRATOR: Is this representation of the warrior pharaoh realistic?

Could Ramses II really drive his chariot while shooting

down his enemies by bow and arrow?

- (translation) In this position, Ramses would need

to steer his chariot alone, by hooking the reins behind his hips.

Ramses would have to steer his chariot, watch the terrain,

aim at the enemy, and avoid oncoming arrows to survive.

This would be impossible.

That's why Ramses II, although he claims otherwise in the temples,

needed a chariot driver.

NARRATOR: Studying the texts more closely

reveals Ramses II was not alone.

In the temple of Abu Simbel, amidst heroic images of the Pharaoh,

one man stands out.

Depicted on the reliefs of the Battle of Qadesh,

in the midst of the other soldiers,

he is the only one holding the reins of a chariot.

And this soldier is so important that Ramses II writes his name:

Mena.

- In the text, he's listed as the "shield bearer".

Mena's job was to ride in the chariot with Ramses II

holding the shield, protecting him from bows and arrows,

and also probably steering the horses.

NARRATOR: Mena was just one of more than 5,000 charioteers

that fought in the battle of Qadesh,

considered to be the largest chariot battle in Ancient Egypt.

But before fighting, the two kings must prepare themselves.

On the Hittite side, the Great King Muwatalli II

must ensure the Gods are on his side before entering into battle.

The Yazilikaya temple, a few kilometres from Hattusa,

provides an insight into the relationship

between the Hittites and their deities.

- (translation) On the left here, there's a storm god

standing on mountain gods who are lowering their heads.

Opposite, there is his Divine Wife standing on a lioness.

The Hittites say they are a kingdom of 1,000 gods,

and so far we have found more than 600.

Every time the great Hittite King conquered a new territory,

the first thing he did was integrate the God of that territory

and worship them equally to the Gods of his kingdom.

And so, there was an integration that included

all the conquered Gods.

NARRATOR: Before leaving for Qadesh,

the gods must validate Muwatalli II's plan to wage war

against the Egyptian Pharaoh and assure him

of their support in battle.

A guarantee that the great king could only obtain with a soothsayer,

considered a scientist by the Hittites.

- (translation) There are a whole series of techniques,

and one of the best known is reading the liver of a sacrificed animal.

The marks on the surface of the liver are observed.

If a specific mark goes in a specific direction,

or is of a certain colour, has a certain appearance,

it indicates a particular divine omen.

NARRATOR: In Pi-Ramses, the Pharaoh has gathered all his men.

He too is preparing for war.

- (translation) The Egyptian army is made up of both conscripts

and professionals.

All troops are armed with important weapons:

bows, spears, clubs, axes, khopeshes.

And then there are the chariots mounted by seasoned charioteers

and exceptionally trained archers.

NARRATOR: Ramses II makes sure his soldiers have the best training

and equipment.

- Chariot troops, they are definitely professional soldiers

equipped by the state with weaponry

provided for by the state,

with horses that were kept, at least partially, by the state.

When you want to go around on a chariot,

this is a rather difficult thing.

And when you want to go to war with it,

you must have been trained since childhood.

In the Ramesside period,

everything is basically constructed around the army.

- The Army was fully part of the government.

NARRATOR: Some describe this period as a military dictatorship.

- It's probably pretty close to what it really was,

that the military was the most important institution

within the Egyptian state at that point in time.

NARRATOR: For the Hittites too, the army was extremely important.

In Hattusa, the capital of their vast empire,

one of the rare statues discovered, represents a warrior god.

- (translation) He's wearing a horned helmet with ear protection

and he's carrying an axe and an important dagger.

War was at the heart of the Hittite king's agenda,

as he had a duty to expand the kingdom during his lifetime.

The problem was that the Hittite kingdom was never stabilised,

because conquered territories easily rebelled.

NARRATOR: In order to carry out conquests and keep the peace,

the Hittite kings needed a powerful military force.

- (translation) The Hittite army contained professional warriors,

mostly elites, and conscripts.

NARRATOR: And this system required serious organisation.

- (translation) The Hittite army is extremely hierarchical.

At the very top is the great king, the symbolic leader of the army.

Just below him is the chief of the king's bodyguards,

a role reserved for members of the royal family.

And below him are the Mesedi

an elite army responsible for the king's safety.

NARRATOR: After this comes the chiefs of the cities

subject to Muwatalli II and finally their men,

soldiers from all over the Empire.

- (crowd roars)

NARRATOR: At Hattusa, excavations have uncovered

numerous weapons, many of which are identical

to those used by the Hittites at the battle of Qadesh.

- (translation from Turkish) During the excavations,

we found axes.

You can also see arrowheads here.

Finally, the Hittite army had defensive weapons,

such as armour.

They sewed bronze strips onto a leather base,

forming a suit of armour.

NARRATOR: The battle ahead will be a meeting of two

expertly prepared giants: two empires, each as vast,

rich and powerful as the other.

Two armies led by two great warlords.

Aware of the challenge ahead, Muwatalli II has assembled

a colossal force...

- There could have been up to 3,500 chariots on the Hittite side

and around 37,000 infantry men.

NARRATOR: Ramses II also assembled a considerable army.

But in his writings, the Pharaoh does not reveal

the number of soldiers, preferring to insist on the power

of his opponents in order to emphasise his bravery.

- We know that Egyptian army divisions were made up of units

of 5,000 infantrymen

and up to 500 chariots in each division.

NARRATOR: Since Ramses II leaves with four divisions,

that's 20,000 men and 2,000 chariots.

- There was the Amun Division who Ramses II was the head of.

So it's his main division,

then following that was the army of Ra, the sun god.

Following that was Ptah, the main god of Memphis,

and then after that was Seth.

NARRATOR: Divisions to which we must add two elite groups.

First of all, the Sherdens.

- They're known for their leather helmets with horns

and discs on top of their heads.

They have round shields,

which are different than the more rectangular Egyptian one.

They have a dagger that's long and pointy.

And then they have these very fun kilts that are short in the front

and long in the back.

- The Sherden were invaders and combatants.

And the second year of Ramses reign,

he won a decisive battle against the Sherdens,

and from that battle, many of the Sherdens were captured

and integrated into the Egyptian military.

- And they were serving right underneath the Pharaoh.

They're his bodyguards.

So he must have trusted these foreign mercenaries.

NARRATOR: These fearsome warriors fight alongside

another remarkable battalion: the Nearins.

- The Nearins are a very interesting group.

We don't know much about them. We don't have text about them.

It's an uncommon military division in Ancient Egypt,

but Ramses II says that these were his elite troops.

- (battle cries)

NARRATOR: In the spring of 1274 BCE,

the Egyptian army left the capital Pi-Ramses for the Levant.

The city of Qadesh had fallen back into Hittite hands

and they were now threatening the trade region of Amurru...

A confrontation was inevitable.

Ramses II takes the head of Amun's division.

And considering the large number of soldiers,

he decides that each division will leave one day

after the previous one.

After 10 days of marching, when he arrives in the city of Tyre,

the Pharaoh makes a surprising decision:

he divides his forces.

- The elite division, the Nearin separate

and they go north as if they're going to Amurru.

NARRATOR: While the best soldiers travel along the coast,

the Pharaoh and his four main divisions advance inland.

They follow the road to Qadesh.

And just a few kilometres from the city,

Ramses II had a pivotal encounter.

An encounter so important that he records it

on the walls of his funerary temple.

This vast sacred domain, 240 metres long and 160 metres wide,

located near the city of Luxor, is called the Ramesseum.

- Near Qadesh, Ramses II encounters two Bedouin.

They tell him that the Hittite king is absolutely terrified of him.

- According to Ramses II, the Hittite king is so weak

and so cowardly, he has run north and he's hiding, hiding, hiding.

- He has holed himself up in Aleppo,

which is much further north than Qadesh.

- Ramses II thinks, well, this must be true,

because of course, I'm an intimidating leader

and they should be afraid of me.

NARRATOR: The Pharaoh then resumes his journey

and as soon as he reaches the foot of the fortress of Qadesh,

he gives an order that will seal his fate.

- He decides: "OK, I have plenty of time.

I'm going to go make camp near Qadesh."

- (ominous music plays)

NARRATOR: Ramses II moves to the west of the fortress.

He has no reason to be suspicious as he has been assured

that the region is deserted.

At first, everything is calm in the Egyptian camp...

- We have some people who are carrying food,

and a lovely little donkey here.

- We have this quite lovely scene where you have a cooking pot

on three legs.

- We have another person who is bringing a horse to eat.

- And then we have quite a sweet scene of a guy

who must have a foot injury.

And so, someone's there trying to tend to his foot.

NARRATOR: Unbeknownst to Ramses II, he has just fallen into a trap...

MEREDITH: An incident changed everything for Ramses II.

What we can see here are two spies being dragged in

by Egyptian officials.

And this is an Egyptian euphemism.

They were questioned with a stick, which means they were beaten.

And we can see these guys beating and beating and beating them.

- Ramses asks them, "What do you want?

What are you doing?"

- And these scouts said that everything

the Shasu Bedouin told Ramses II was a lie,

and that the Hittite army was in fact right behind Qadesh

only around 5 to 10 kilometres away from Ramses II.

- (battle cries)

NARRATOR: Muwatalli II, leading his huge army of 37,000 men

and 3,500 chariots, ambushed the Pharaoh.

- Ramses is very much not prepared for this outcome.

His divisions aren't even all there.

NARRATOR: To face the Hittites, Ramses II has only 5,000 men

and 500 chariots...

As the Egyptian divisions left a day apart, they haven't all arrived yet.

The closest one, Ra,

is only 5 or 10 kilometres away,

Ptah is 30 kilometres away,

and Seth 50 kilometres away.

- There was no way that the entire army

would make it in time to deal with the upcoming Hittite onslaught.

NARRATOR: Ramses knows Muwatalli II is going to attack.

So, he goes ahead and readies his troops for battle.

- So this is Ramses II in his camp, sitting on his throne,

and he has his vizier in front of him

and his closest advisers.

- Ramses II formed an army council.

- He was mad.

He was yelling at everyone. He's saying, how could this happen?

And he was really angry with them and screaming.

And what I find so fantastic about this scene

is they're bending down, grovelling to Ramses II.

But in their posture they know they're in trouble.

- So, what he does is he makes a strategic decision

to send away his vizier to go and hurry up the other divisions,

so that they can arrive and fortify his own.

NARRATOR: But the vizier doesn't have time to warn

the nearest division of Ra.

Muwatalli II is already in action.

Hittite chariots are bearing down on Egyptian soldiers.

- Muwatalli is attacking the Ra Division

which is only ten kilometres away from the Amun Division

in order to make sure that he doesn't have an army at his back

when he goes to attack the Amun division.

- So the army of Ra must have come out of the mountains in the woods,

feeling quite happy. They were going to join the camp

and have a relaxing time. But to their surprise,

they were met with Hittite chariots.

NARRATOR: They're not in formation.

And they don't have time to re-assemble

their chariots for battle.

Many run away in panic...

Others try to fight... But get killed...

Muwatalli II sent 2,500 chariots, enough to completely overwhelm

the Egyptians.

And his crews have a secret weapon that terrifies

the Pharaoh's soldiers:

there are three fighters per chariot.

- This was something quite unusual

and it's depicted high up there in one of the battle scenes.

NARRATOR: Hittite chariots carry three men.

Why can the Egyptian chariots only carry two?

- It could be that there were maybe larger chariots that had three men

for more shooting power.

NARRATOR: But another theory is also possible.

- The chariots would convey these additional infantrymen

to the battle, after which they would jump off the chariot

and create their own infantry division and fight the Egyptians.

Meanwhile, the charioteers who would have now two to a chariot

would also fight the Egyptians.

- (translation) We know that there are at least

three or four different types of chariot, fast war chariots,

and transport chariots which were much larger.

- So we don't know exactly whether it's a larger chariot

or a sort of taxi service to the battle.

- (uplifting music plays)

- (swords clash, horses neigh)

NARRATOR: Quickly, Ra's division, attacked by surprise, is decimated.

Now that he no longer feared being caught off guard,

Muwatalli II launched his main attack:

Ramses II and the division of Amun.

The 2,500 chariots that had just crushed Ra's division

moved up towards the Egyptians.

They were soon joined by another 1,000,

sent by the Hittite emperor to ensure victory.

Their arrival caused panic in the Pharaoh's camp.

BRIANA: We have people running and being very afraid.

- Ramses II sees his entire dream and potentially even his ability

to be king and his life coming to an end.

NARRATOR: The Pharaoh proclaims his soldiers run away, abandoning him.

- He tells us that he is alone.

And he's also afraid which is, unusual for a king

because this puts him in a very vulnerable position.

- It's where Ramses II has this rare moment of human doubt

and he prays to the God Amun.

- He says, "Why are you abandoning me?

"I've done all of these wonderful things for you.

You should be helping me."

- And the God tells him everything's going to be OK.

I'm with you.

- "And you will be able to defeat the Hittites

because I am supporting you."

NARRATOR: Reassured, Ramses II regains the strength and composure

to fight.

MEREDITH: And he's able to see the way forward.

- Ramses II is ready to get into his chariot.

But his shield bearer, Mena, is not ready. And he's afraid.

He wants to run away.

MEREDITH: Mena, is saying: "Everything is lost.

We're all going to die. This is absolutely terrible."

But Ramses II, stands up big and strong

and has a superhero moment and says :

"No no, the god Amun is with me.

Don't fear. You're with me. Everything will be fine."

NARRATOR: With Mena convinced,

Ramses II abandons his camp for the Hittites.

He bets that his enemies, instead of fighting his army,

will allow themselves to be distracted by Egyptian riches.

- Ramses II, hoping that this would buy him some time

because he was hoping for reinforcements.

NARRATOR: And his strategy works.

MEREDITH: The Hittites started to take all of the food and the gold

and the chariots and the weapons.

NARRATOR: While part of the enemy army goes astray,

the Pharaoh attacks the rest of the Hittites.

- Ramses II says that he does six different charges

on the Hittite line.

- This is questionable, because it's also possible

that it was the Hittites themselves who were charging Ramses II.

- This is propaganda, this is something that he projected

to the population and to the gods so that he would be seen

as the ultimate hero, but it wasn't the case.

NARRATOR: What might be true though,

is that the Hittites overwhelmed the Egyptians.

- In the thick of battle, Ramses II

was surrounded by the Hittite Army.

NARRATOR: Contrary to what he writes,

the Pharaoh is obviously not alone.

At his side, his soldiers fight passionately.

But it's not enough...

Thousands of Egyptian soldiers are dying.

The battle seemed lost.

But just when hope was running out, against all the odds,

a saviour appeared.

- What happens next is a true miracle

that is worthy of almost a Hollywood movie.

- At the decisive moment of the battle,

a kind of special troops, the so-called Nearins arrive.

- They would have probably received the message of the vizier.

NARRATOR: The Nearins, the elite troops the Pharaoh sent

along the coast, attack the Hittites who are pillaging the camp...

- The Hittites must have been completely surprised

because they didn't even know the Nearins were coming.

The Nearins killing every single Hittite in the camp,

completely obliterating them.

And we have this fantastically chaotic fight scene

where the Nearins are coming in, they're charging

and there's hand battles, there's chariot battles,

and they're expelling the entire Hittite army out of the camp.

NARRATOR: With the camp liberated, the Nearins rally Ramses II

and his soldiers.

- (battle cry)

NARRATOR: With a second wind behind the Egyptians,

Ramses II gathers the Nearins, the men of Amon's division,

those who survived the attack of Ra's division,

and charges the destabilised Hittites.

- All of his army rallied behind him,

because now they were confident that they could defeat the Hittites.

- Here is Ramses II, giant, colossal Ramses II

shooting bows and arrows

and he's leading the Egyptian army to attack the Hittites.

But the Hittites have been running and charging

and fighting all day long.

Their men were very tired.

Whereas Ramses II's army is now gathered, they're exhausted.

- (horse neighs)

NARRATOR: It's the crucial moment.

Defying all the predictions, Ramses II and his men

gain the upper hand and drive back the Hittites.

- So, this was the moment the battle turned.

The Egyptian Army make all of the Hittite Army

run panicking and screaming.

- And as it's being shown, in the scenes, in the reliefs,

many of those people went into the river.

NARRATOR: On the immense walls of the Ramesseum,

Ramses II revels in the agony of the Hittites,

trapped between the Egyptian troops and the Orontes river.

BRIANA: It looks like they're swimming,

but probably they have drowned.

NARRATOR: Hittites who don't drown in the river are slaughtered

on the battlefield.

- They're dying. Arrows are piercing them.

The arrows are piercing the horses.

It's just an absolute disaster battle scene.

- But not a single Egyptian has been killed by a Hittite warrior,

which obviously is not accurate.

NARRATOR: And Ramses II doesn't just show his superiority in this battle.

He humiliates Hittite allies, like the King of Aleppo.

- Soldiers are holding him upside down

because he had fallen into the river.

He's shown as very vulnerable and being turned upside down,

it's certainly taking away any form of strength in this king.

NARRATOR: The Pharaoh also attacks Muwatalli II.

- According to the text, Muwatalli fled

and Ramses refers to him as "the despicable loser".

NARRATOR: But there's no proof Ramses II is telling the truth.

In fact, there's no proof the Great Hittite King

fought either.

- (translation) He was probably at the back

acting as supreme commander, but in a very symbolic way.

Obviously, he's not going to risk his life in battle.

NARRATOR: As night falls, the fighting stops...

- They can't see what they're doing anymore.

Ramses II gathering his men,

they somehow miraculously survived, but they also knew

that the Hittites were behind the City of Qadesh in their camp.

They didn't win.

So the coming day would be another battle

where they didn't know what would happen.

NARRATOR: On the Hittite side, Muwatalli II is confident.

- Muwatalli thinks that he was victorious

because Ramses II's Army was considerably smaller,

and they had gotten even smaller because of the battle.

And he was confident that the Ptah division

and the Seth division were still far away.

So he thought he had all the time in the world to defeat the Egyptians

the following morning.

NARRATOR: But defying all the odds...

- When Ramses II awoke, the division of Ptah,

the division of Seth,

the division of Ra, the division of Amun

and the Nearins were all there.

So, Ramses II would have woken up thinking,

this is a good situation.

NARRATOR: Ptah and Seth's troops ran 30 to 50 kilometres

to meet the Pharaoh on the battlefield...

- It's very shocking that the Ptah and Seth Division managed to arrive.

Possibly, this was an inspiration to these two divisions

to get to Ramses and protect their king.

NARRATOR: Now that the two armies are complete,

they are of equal strength.

And that changes the game.

- (roar)

- Muwatalli was quite surprised.

And he certainly saw his demise in front of him.

NARRATOR: The texts provide few details about what happened

that morning.

There would have been a fight, but it would have been short-lived.

The death toll had already reached thousands

from the previous day's fight, and the two leaders

would not want to prolong the carnage.

- What Ramses II says is that Muwatalli sent an emissary

begging for peace, saying, there's no way we can possibly beat you.

- When we are looking at what happened later,

it's difficult to believe that really,

the Hittite king begged for truce.

MEREDITH: Whether that happened or not, we don't know,

but there was a stalemate.

- It's just a battle with no conclusion. Nobody's winning.

Which I guess you could say nobody's losing either.

NARRATOR: Based on this principle, both sides claimed victory.

And even today, the question of who won divides the experts.

- (translation) It's clear that the Hittites won

the battle of Qadesh for a number of reasons.

Not only did the Hittite Army advance into southern Syria,

they were not blocked at Qadesh.

And Amurru returned to Hittite rule.

- Ramses II won this battle. He had a moral victory.

He fell into the trap that made it very much certain

that he would die and he was able to walk away with some sort of dignity.

This proved that he was the son of the God

because how else could anyone have survived this if they were not

the son of Amun and they were not the rightful Pharaoh of Egypt?

NARRATOR: Whether the battle was won by the Egyptians

or the Hittites, one thing is certain,

the two empires will never again face each other

in a battle of this magnitude.

In 1259 BCE, a diplomatic act changes the course of history

for the rival empires.

- 15 years following the Qadesh battle,

Hattusili III contacted Ramses II to engage

in a peace treaty.

NARRATOR: Muwatalli II is dead,

the new Hittite ruler is his younger brother, Hattusili III.

Ramses II accepts the outstretched hand of his sworn enemy.

This is the world's first international peace treaty.

And it was so important that the Hittite king

had it engraved on a silver tablet...

a precious tablet, which Ramses II had reproduced

in the heart of the temple of Karnak on a monumental stele.

- First, they agree that they will not war against each other.

A second feature of this peace treaty is up at the very top,

the Hittites and Egyptians agreeing that they will help each other

in case of a foreign enemy invading their land and fighting them.

NARRATOR: The former rivals agree to share the lands of the Levant

and set up extradition agreements for their prisoners.

But for this treaty to be permanent, it must be validated by the gods.

- There is a list of Egyptian and Hittite gods

because they are meant to be the witnesses

to ensure that they are going to uphold this treaty

for the rest of history.

NARRATOR: A first guarantee that the two kings

reinforced with a second one.

So important that Ramses II had it engraved on another stele.

This was placed outside the temple of Abu Simbel for all to see.

- (translation) Hattusili is going to offer one of his daughters

in marriage to Ramses II.

Once the two families are linked by blood, through children,

the alliance is supposed to be ratified forever

and impossible to undo.

- And this is a way that Ramses II

showed that he was a diplomat

and not just a warrior.

NARRATOR: The epic battle of Qadesh ended in a stalemate,

but it served the glory of Ramses II.

And the intelligent diplomatic decisions he made afterwards

ushered in an era of peace and prosperity for Egypt...

- There wasn't fights between Egypt and the Hittites anymore.

Egypt put itself back on the golden age.

Goods were flowing north, south, east, west,

and the entire country prospered...

NARRATOR: A prosperity that allowed Ramses II

to build immense statues, gigantic temples,

and even surpass the achievements of the great pharaohs before him.

But this golden period would be short-lived...

- There were difficulties because Ramses II, he reigned for 67 years.

By the time he finally died, his eldest son was an old man.

So there wasn't the young, vigorous warrior

to maintain the empire that he established.

So on the one hand, he created a golden age, on the other hand,

he opened up the decline of Ancient Egypt.

NARRATOR: Ramses II was the last Great Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.

At the end of his reign, the country began a long decline,

but his name remained synonymous with power.

So much so, that after his death, many kings would be named Ramses.

And almost 1,000 years later, when the Ptolemies ruled Egypt,

they had only one ambition: to equal Ramses the Great.

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