Battle of the Delta
The Battle of the Delta was a sea battle between Egypt and the Sea Peoples, circa 1175 BC when the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses III repulsed a major sea invasion. The conflict occurred somewhere at the shores of the eastern Nile Delta and partly on the borders of the Egyptian Empire in Syria, although their precise locations are unknown. This major conflict is recorded on the temple walls of the mortuary temple of pharaoh Ramesses III at Medinet Habu. Historical background. In the 12th century BC, the Sea Peoples (which consisted of several groups, such as Tjekker , Peleset, and Sherden) invaded the Middle East from the eastern Mediterranean Sea. They destroyed and plundered Hattusha, capital of the Hittite Empire, and also attacked Syria and the Southern Levant where many cities were burned and ruined. (Carchemish was one of the cities which survived the Sea People's attacks.) Cyprus had also been overwhelmed and its capital ransacked. Since the Medinet Habu inscriptions depict women and children loaded in ox-carts, the attackers are believed to have been migrants looking for a place to settle. Their attacks are reported, for instance, in letters by Ammurapi, the last king of  Ugarit, pleading for assistance from Eshuwara, the king of Alasiya: The Sea People invasions are often listed among the causes or symptoms of the Bronze Age collapse. Ramesses had fought the Sea Peoples in southern Lebanon, at the Battle of Djahy. Ramesses III describes a great movement of peoples in the East from the Mediterranean, which caused a massive destruction of the former great powers of the Levant, Cyprus and Anatolia: The battle. After defeating the Sea Peoples on land in Syria, Ramesses rushed back to Egypt where preparations for the invaders' assault had already been completed. Ramesses enticed the  Sea Peoples and their ships into the mouth of the Nile, where he had assembled a fleet in ambush. Ramesses also lined the shores of the Nile Delta with ranks of archers who were ready to release volleys of arrows into the enemy ships if they attempted to land. Once within range, Ramesses ordered the archers fire at the enemy ships, pushing them back towards the fleet of Ramesses now coming in to cut off the Sea Peoples' escape route. This Egyptian fleet pushed the Sea Peoples' boats towards shore. Then archers and infantrymen both on land and on the  ships devastated the enemy. The Sea People's ships were overturned, many were killed and captured and some even dragged to the shore where they were killed. In the inscriptions, Ramesses proclaims: Aftermath. The victory at the Delta saved Egypt from the destruction that befell Hatti, Alasiya and other great Near Eastern powers. There is no documentation for any pursuit of the defeated Sea Peoples. Although defeated in the Delta, some of the Sea Peoples (specifically the Peleset) are believed to have settled in the Southern Levant some time after Ramesses' death.