page_title: Hittites
section_title: Battle of Kadesh
hierarchical_section_title: Hittites / History / New Kingdom / Battle of Kadesh
caption_attribution_description: Svenska: Ramses II:s seger över Chetafolket och stormningen av Dapur. (Efter väggmålning i Ramses II:s tempel i Thebe.) English: Ramesses II's victory over the Cheta people and the Siege of Dapur. Made after a mural in Ramesses II's temple in Tebes
context_page_description: The Hittites were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing an empire centered on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia around 1600 BCE. This empire reached its height during the mid-14th century BCE under Šuppiluliuma I, when it encompassed an area that included most of Anatolia as well as parts of the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia.
  Between the 15th and 13th centuries BCE, the Empire of Hattusa, conventionally called the Hittite Empire, came into conflict with the New Kingdom of Egypt, the Middle Assyrian Empire and the empire of the Mitanni for control of the Near East. The Middle Assyrian Empire eventually emerged as the dominant power and annexed much of the Hittite Empire, while the remainder was sacked by Phrygian newcomers to the region. After c. 1180 BCE, during the Late Bronze Age collapse, the Hittites splintered into several independent Syro-Hittite states, some of which survived until the eighth century BCE before succumbing to the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
context_section_description: Hittite prosperity was mostly dependent on control of the trade routes and metal sources. Because of the importance of Northern Syria to the vital routes linking the Cilician gates with Mesopotamia, defense of this area was crucial, and was soon put to the test by Egyptian expansion under Pharaoh Ramesses II. The outcome of the battle is uncertain, though it seems that the timely arrival of Egyptian reinforcements prevented total Hittite victory. The Egyptians forced the Hittites to take refuge in the fortress of Kadesh, but their own losses prevented them from sustaining a siege. This battle took place in the 5th year of Ramesses (c. 1274 BC by the most commonly used chronology).
caption: Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II storming the Hittite fortress of Dapur.
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