Battle of Djahy The Battle of Djahy was a major land battle between the forces of pharaoh Ramesses III and the Sea Peoples who intended to invade and conquer Egypt . The conflict occurred somewhere on the Ancient Egyptian Empire ' s easternmost frontier in Djahy or modern day southern Lebanon , in the eighth year of pharaoh Ramesses III or about c . 1178 BC . In this battle , the Egyptians , led personally by Ramesses III , defeated the Sea Peoples who were attempting to invade Ancient Egypt by land and sea . Almost all that we know about the battle comes from the mortuary temple of Ramesses III in Medinet Habu . The description of the battle and prisoners is well documented on temple walls where we also find the longest hieroglyphic inscription known to us . Temple reliefs feature many bound prisoners defeated in battle . Historical background . In Egypt , Ramesses III was fighting to save his country and Empire in the midst of the Bronze Age collapse which was caused by the Sea People ' s invasion of various Near Eastern Powers . Ramesses III had already previous defeated an attack by the Libyans on the Egyptian Empire ' s western frontier in his fifth year . But the greatest threat was posed not by the Libyans , but by a group of migrating peoples called the Sea Peoples . These were times of crisis in the Mediterranean as many 12th century B . C . ancient civilizations were destroyed from attacks by the Sea Peoples and other migrating nations . The great Hittite Empire fell together with the Mycenaean civilization and other great cultures including the kingdom of Cyprus and Ugarit . Whatever their origins , the Sea Peoples moved around the eastern Mediterranean , attacking the coasts of Anatolia , Cyprus , Syria and Canaan , before attempting an invasion on Egypt in the 1180s . Although we know that the Sea peoples were great warrior s , some evidence also suggests that the Sea Peoples had a high level of organization and military strategy . Egypt was in particular danger because the invaders did not merely want the spoils and goods of the land , but the land itself , and there was no country with better soils and access to gold than Egypt . The Egyptians state that no other country except Egypt could withstand their attacks , as these inscriptions from the mortuary temple of Ramesses III in Medinet Habu clearly establish : Battle . Prior to the battle , the Sea Peoples had sacked the Hittite vassal state of Amurru which was located close to the border of the Egyptian Empire . This gave the pharaoh time to make preparations for the expected onslaught by the invaders . As Ramesses III notes in an inscription from his mortuary temple at Medinet Habu : " I equipped my frontier in Zahi ( Djahy ) prepared before them . " The Sea Peoples ' " land forces were moving south along the Levantine coast and through Palestine when they were confronted and stopped by Ramesses ' forces at the Egyptian frontier in Djahi in the region of later Phoenicia " writes the Hittitologist Trevor Bryce . Ramesses III refers to his battle with the Sea Peoples in stark , uncompromising terms : Aftermath . While the battle ended with a great Egyptian victory , Egypt ' s war with the Sea Peoples was not yet over . The sea Peoples would next attack Egypt proper with their naval fleet in an unsuccessful assault . The next attack , which came from the sea , occurred around the mouth of the Nile river . The invaders were eventually defeated by Ramesses in a great sea battle in which many of the foreign aggressors were either killed by hails of Egyptian arrows , or dragged from their boats and killed on the banks of the Nile river by Ramesses III ' s well prepared forces . Although the pharaoh defeated them , he could not eventually prevent them from settling in the eastern parts of his empire decades after his death . With this conflict , and a subsequent second battle with invading Libyan tribes in Year 11 of Ramesses III , Egypt ' s treasury became so depleted that she would never fully recover her imperial power . The Egyptian Empire over Asia and Nubia would be permanently lost less than 80 years after Ramesses III ' s reign under Ramesses XI , the last king of Egypt ' s New Kingdom . Reliefs depicting the battle . The reliefs depicting the battle in the mortuary temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu provide much of the information regarding the battle . Featured are Egyptian troops , chariot s and auxiliaries fighting an enemy that also employed chariots , very similar in design to Egyptian ones .