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Ramses’s most impressive undertaking was the battle in Qadesh against the
Ittiti.
Returning from the military campaign, the pharaoh ordered to engrave the
scenes on the walls of the Ramesseo (in western
Tebe), in Abu Simbel, in
Karnak and in Luxor.
Great representations represent the warriors, the Egyptian
encampment, the clash, the enemies enslaved and mostly Ramses, while alone he
defeated the enemy.
Of the battle we have two accounts, the most important of
which, the Pentaur Poem accompanies the scenes in the temples.
The chronicle according to the Egyptian
1275 before Christ, the end of the month of April, the pharaoh marches
toward the volley of the Oronte river to conquer Qadesh city, one of the main
ittite forts in Syria.
 He’s
at the head of 20 thousand men and 200 carts, divided in four armies that have
gods’ names: Amon, Ptah, Ra and
Seth.
The reason contended are the territories of Northern Syria, the opponent, the
sovereign Mwwatallish, at the head of a coalition counts 10 thousand infantry
soldiers and over 3500 war carts.
 Near
the Oronte river, the pharaoh’s guards capture two men who say they are
deserters from the ittita army and that they have useful information for the
Egyptians.
Brought before Ramses the “confess” that Mwwatallish and his soldiers
are very for away, and that the pharaoh wouldn’t take any risk in attacking.
Certain that the conquer of Qadesh
would have been very easy, Ramses leaves without waiting for the rest of the
army, and at the head of only the Amon army he goes toward the plain in front
of Quadesh where he camps. Only when his guard capture two enemies of a scouting
party, he realizes he has fallen in a trap.
But it’s too late.
The ittita army,
hidden behind the fortified city, suddenly attacks. Taken by the surprise, the
pharaoh’s infantry escapes and only Ramses, with his faithful body guards, tries
to block the advancing of the Ittiti. “He was able to do it thanks to two
fortunate “unforeseen events”. “
Above all the ittita fury begins to lessen.
Once the Egyptian encampment was conquered in fact the Ittiti prefer to sack
everything left by the enemies when they escaped instead of concentrating on the
defence.
The “final blow” is the arrival of an
Egyptian contingent that helps the pharaoh and his guards. At this point the
result of the fight is overturned: from an easy victory, the Ittiti find
themselver in difficulties.
At sunset the hostilities are
suspended, but during the night other Egyptian regiments reach the pharaoh. The
morning after, a series of valiant officers of the Egyptian army force the
ittita king to ask an armistice. It’s probable that things went a bit
differently: Muwatallish loses a lot of his carts (more numerous but heavier and
hard to drive than the light Egyptian war carts), but he keeps the infantry
intact that isn’t involved.
To Ramses, instead, the surprise
attack by the ittita troops, cost at least the destruction of at least one oh
his four regiments. The result was so a draw that forces Ramses to renounce to
conquer Qadesh. But his propagandist ability is able to transform a defeat he
barely avoided to an heroic undertaking of a great leader..
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