page_title: Timeline of Middle Eastern history
section_title: 2nd millennium BC
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of Middle Eastern history / Ancient Near East / 2nd millennium BC
caption_attribution_description: English: Median Empire about 600 B.C.
context_page_description: This timeline tries to compile dates of important historical events that happened in or that led to the rise of the Middle East. The Middle East is the territory that comprises today's Egypt, the Persian Gulf states, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Cyprus and Northern Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Gaza Strip, UAE, and Yemen. The Middle East with its particular characteristics was not to emerge until the late second millennium AD. To refer to a concept similar to that of today's Middle East but earlier in time, the term Ancient Near East is used.
  This list is intended as a timeline of the history of the Middle East. See Ancient Near East for ancient history of the Middle East.
context_section_description: 1900 BC – Hittites Old Kingdom in Anatolia
  1800 BC – civilization in Canaan
  1800 to 1200 BC – the emergence of the city of Ugarit when it ruled a coastal kingdom, trading with Egypt, Cyprus, the Aegean, Syria, the Hittites, and others
  1792 to 1750 BC – the reign of Hammurabi of the First Babylonian Dynasty, extended control throughout Mesopotamia, known for the Code of Hammurabi, one of the earliest codes of law
  1763 to 1595 BC – Paleo-Babylonian Empire
  1725 to 1550 BC – Hyksos (Canaanite) domination of Egypt
  1600 to 1360 BC – Egyptian domination over Canaan and Syria
  1594 BCE – Cassites take Babylon
  1595 to 1155 BC – Cassite Dynasty
  1550 to 1077 BC – New Kingdom of Egypt
  1500 to 1300 BC – Kingdom Mitanni, a Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria and southeast Anatolia
  1500 to 539 BC – Phoenicia and the spread of their alphabet from which almost all modern phonetic alphabets derived
  1457 BC – Battle of Megiddo
  1380 to 1336 BC – Shuppiluliuma, king of the Hittites who challenged Egypt for control of the lands between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates
  1370 to 1200 BC – Hittite Empire
  1350 to 1050 BC – Middle Assyrian Empire
  1300 BC – discovery of iron smelting and smithing techniques in Anatolia or the Caucasus: start of the Iron Age
  1300 to 125 BC – Kingdom of Edom
  1274 BC – Battle of Kadesh between the Egyptian Empire under Ramesses II and the Hittite Empire under Muwatalli II, largest chariot battle ever fought
  1259 BC – Egyptian-Hittite peace treaty, the first peace treaty ever recorded in history
  1245 to 1208 BC – Tukulti-Ninurta I, king of Assyria, first native Mesopotamian ruler in Babylon, took on the ancient title "King of Sumer and Akkad"
  1237 BC – Battle of Nihriya, resulting in Assyrian victory over the Hittites for control over remnants of the former empire of Mitanni in Asia Minor and the Levant
  1234 BC – Babylon taken by the Assyrians
  1200 to 1050 BC – Bronze Age collapse
  1200 BC – oldest Phoenician alphabet inscription engraved on the sarcophagus of King Ahiram
  1200 to 884 BC – Sea Peoples, conjectured groups of seafaring raiders, invaded Anatolia, Syria, Canaan, Cyprus, and Egypt
  1200 to 546 BC – Lydian Empire
  1200 to 732 BC – Aramaean Kingdom of Aram-Damascus
  1190 BC – Hattusha, capital of the Hittites, taken by the Sea Peoples
  1184 BC – Fall of Troy
  1180 to 700 BC – Neo-Hittite kingdoms also known as Syro-Hittite states
  1155 BC – Babylon taken by Elamites
  1100 to 539 BC – Neo-Elamite period
  1087 BC – Babylon destroyed by Assyrians
  1070 BC to 350 AD – Cushites, an ancient African Nubian kingdom in Sudan
  1102 to 850 BC – estimated period in which Homer lived
  1069 to 664 BC – Third Intermediate Period of Egypt
  1050 to 930 BC – Kingdom of Israel
  1041 BC – King David captures Jerusalem, designates it the capital of the united Kingdom of Israel
  1004 BC – King Solomon lays the foundation for the First Temple
caption: The Oriental Empires about 600 BC
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