All language subtitles for Battles BC s01e07 Ramses - Raging Chariots

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.