Early in his life, Ramesses II embarked on numerous campaigns to restore possession of previously held territories lost to the
Nubians and
Hittites and to secure Egypt's borders. He was also responsible for suppressing some Nubian revolts and carrying out a campaign in
Libya. Though the
Battle of Kadesh often dominates the scholarly view of Ramesses II's military prowess and power, he nevertheless enjoyed more than a few outright victories over Egypt's enemies. During his reign, the Egyptian army is estimated to have totaled some 100,000 men: a formidable force that he used to strengthen Egyptian influence.
Battle against Sherden pirates In his second year, Ramesses II decisively defeated the
Sherden sea pirates who were wreaking havoc along Egypt's Mediterranean coast by attacking cargo-laden vessels travelling the sea routes to
Egypt. The Sherden people probably came from the coast of
Ionia, from southwest
Anatolia or perhaps, also from the island of
Sardinia. Ramesses posted troops and ships at strategic points along the coast and patiently lured the pirates to attack their perceived prey before ambushing them in a sea battle and capturing them all in a single action. A
stele from
Tanis speaks of them coming "in their war-ships from the midst of the sea, and none were able to stand before them". There probably was a naval battle somewhere near the mouth of the Nile, as shortly afterward, many Sherden are seen among the pharaoh's body-guard where they are conspicuous by their horned helmets with a ball projecting from the middle, their round shields, and the great
Naue II swords with which they are depicted in inscriptions of the Battle of Kadesh. In that sea battle, together with the Sherden, the pharaoh also defeated the
Lukka (L'kkw, possibly the people later known as the
Lycians), and the Šqrsšw (
Shekelesh) peoples.
Syrian campaigns First Syrian campaign showing him capturing enemies: a Nubian, a Libyan and a Syrian, .
Cairo Museum. The immediate antecedents to the Battle of Kadesh were the early campaigns of Ramesses II into
Canaan. His first campaign seems to have taken place in the fourth year of his reign and was commemorated by the erection of what became the first of the
Commemorative stelae of Nahr el-Kalb near what is now
Beirut. The inscription is almost totally illegible due to weathering. In the fourth year of his reign, he captured the Hittite vassal state of the Amurru during his campaign in Syria.
Second Syrian campaign The Battle of Kadesh in his fifth regnal year was the climactic engagement in a campaign that Ramesses fought in Syria, against the resurgent Hittite forces of
Muwatalli II. The pharaoh wanted a victory at
Kadesh both to expand Egypt's frontiers into Syria, and to emulate his father Seti I's triumphal entry into the city just a decade or so earlier. He also constructed his new capital,
Pi-Ramesses. There he built factories to manufacture weapons, chariots, and shields, supposedly producing some 1,000 weapons in a week, about 250 chariots in two weeks, and 1,000 shields in a week and a half. After these preparations, Ramesses moved to attack territory in the
Levant, which belonged to a more substantial enemy than any he had ever faced in war: the
Hittite Empire. After advancing through
Canaan for exactly a month, according to the Egyptian sources, Ramesses arrived at Kadesh on 1 May 1274 BC. Here, Ramesses' troops were caught in a Hittite ambush and were initially outnumbered by the enemy, whose chariotry smashed through the second division of Ramesses' forces and attacked his camp. Receiving reinforcements from other Egyptian divisions arriving on the battlefield, the Egyptians counterattacked and routed the Hittites, whose survivors abandoned their chariots and swam the
Orontes River to reach the safe city walls. Although left in possession of the battlefield, Ramesses, logistically unable to sustain a long siege, returned to Egypt. While Ramesses claimed a great victory, and this was technically true in terms of the actual battle, it is generally considered that the Hittites were the ultimate victors as far as the overall campaign was concerned, since the Egyptians retreated after the battle, and Hittite forces invaded and briefly occupied the Egyptian possessions in the region of
Damascus.
Third Syrian campaign Egypt's sphere of influence was now restricted to Canaan while
Syria fell into Hittite hands. Canaanite princes, seemingly encouraged by the Egyptian incapacity to impose their will and goaded on by the Hittites, began revolts against Egypt. Ramesses II was not willing to let this stand, and prepared to contest the Hittite advance with new military campaigns. Because they are recorded on his monuments with few indications of precise dates or the regnal year, the precise chronology of the subsequent campaigns is not clear. Late in the seventh year of his reign (April/May 1272 BC), Ramesses II returned to Syria again. This time he proved more successful against his Hittite foes. During this campaign he split his army into two forces. One force was led by his son,
Amun-her-khepeshef, and it chased warriors of the
Šhasu tribes across the
Negev as far as the
Dead Sea, capturing
Edom-
Seir. It then marched on to capture
Moab. The other force, led by Ramesses himself, attacked
Jerusalem and
Jericho. He, too, then entered Moab, where he rejoined his son. The reunited army then marched on
Hesbon, Damascus, on to
Kumidi, and finally, recaptured Upi (the land around Damascus), reestablishing Egypt's former sphere of influence.
Later Syrian campaigns fortress of
Dapur|330x330px Ramesses extended his military successes in his eighth and ninth years. He crossed the Dog River (
Nahr al-Kalb) and pushed north into
Amurru. His armies managed to march as far north as Dapur, where he had a statue of himself erected. The Egyptian pharaoh thus found himself in northern Amurru, well past Kadesh, in
Tunip, where no Egyptian soldier had been seen since the time of
Thutmose III, almost 120 years earlier. He laid siege to Dapur before capturing it, and returning to Egypt. By November 1272 BC, Ramesses was back in Egypt, at
Heliopolis. The thin strip of territory pinched between Amurru and Kadesh did not make for a stable possession. Within a year, they had returned to the Hittite fold, so that Ramesses had to march against Dapur once more in his tenth year. This time he claimed to have fought the battle without even bothering to put on his
corslet, until two hours after the fighting began. Six of Ramesses's youthful sons, still wearing their
side locks, took part in this conquest. He took towns in
Retjenu, and Tunip in
Naharin, later recorded on the walls of the
Ramesseum. This second success at the location was equally as meaningless as his first, as neither power could decisively defeat the other in battle. In year eighteen, Ramesses erected a stele at
Beth Shean, on 19 January 1261 BC.
Peace treaty with the Hittites between
Ḫattušili III of
Hatti and Ramesses II of
Egypt, at the
İstanbul Archaeology Museums In Year 21 of Ramesses's reign, he concluded a peace treaty with the Hittites known to modern scholars as the
Treaty of Kadesh. Though this treaty settled the disputes over Canaan, its immediate impetus seems to have been a diplomatic crisis that occurred following
Ḫattušili III's accession to the Hittite throne. Ḫattušili had come to power by deposing his nephew
Muršili III in the brief and bitter
Hittite Civil War. Though the deposed king was initially sent into exile in Syria, he subsequently attempted to regain power and fled to Egypt once these attempts were discovered. When Ḫattušili demanded his extradition, Ramesses II denied any knowledge of his whereabouts. When Ḫattušili insisted that Muršili was in Egypt, Ramesses's response suggested that Ḫattušili was being deceived by his subjects.), Ramesses concluded an agreement at Kadesh to end the conflict. The peace treaty was recorded in two versions, one in
Egyptian hieroglyphs, the other in Hittite, using
cuneiform script; both versions survive. Such dual-language recording is common to many subsequent treaties. This treaty differs from others, in that the two language versions are worded differently. While the majority of the text is identical, the Hittite version says the Egyptians came suing for peace and the Egyptian version says the reverse. The treaty was given to the Egyptians in the form of a silver plaque, and this "pocket-book" version was taken back to Egypt and carved into the temple at
Karnak. The Egyptian account records Ramesses II's receipt of the Hittite peace treaty tablets on I Peret 21 of Year 21, corresponding to 10 November 1259 BC, according to the standard "Low Chronology" used by Egyptologists. The treaty was concluded between Ramesses II and Ḫattušili III in year 21 of Ramesses's reign (c. 1259 BC). (which was the subject of epigraphic work by the
Oriental Institute during the Nubian salvage campaign of the 1960s),
Gerf Hussein and
Kalabsha in northern Nubia. On the south wall of the Beit el-Wali temple, Ramesses II is depicted charging into battle against tribes south of Egypt in a war chariot, while his two young sons,
Amun-her-khepsef and Khaemwaset, are shown behind him, also in war chariots. A wall in one of Ramesses's temples says he had to fight one battle with those tribes without help from his soldiers. |center
Libyan campaigns (left) and
Horus (right) blessing Ramesses II in the Small Temple at Abu Simbel During the reign of Ramesses II, the Egyptians were evidently active on a stretch along the
Mediterranean coast, at least as far as
Zawyet Umm El Rakham, where remains of a fortress described by its texts as built on Libyans land have been found. Although the exact events surrounding the foundation of the coastal forts and fortresses is not clear, some degree of political and military control must have been held over the region to allow their construction. There are no detailed accounts of Ramesses II's undertaking large military actions against the
Libyans, only generalised records of his conquering and crushing them, which may or may not refer to specific events that were otherwise unrecorded. It may be that some of the records, such as the
Aswan Stele of his year 2, are harking back to Ramesses's presence on his father's Libyan campaigns. Perhaps it was
Seti I who achieved this supposed control over the region, and who planned to establish the defensive system, in a manner similar to how he rebuilt those to the east, the Ways of Horus across Northern
Sinai. ==Sed festivals==