Friday, January 16, 2015

Egyptian Fortress

During the Middle Kingdom, the Pharaohs extended their rule beyond their homeland. They crossed the Sinai and entered the Levant where they put all the peoples of that land under their yoke. Their power was unstoppable and the Chariot Kings moved north to the mountains of modern day Turkey and east to the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Their Empire was vast, stopped only by the Hittites to the north.


To protect their Empire the Egyptians created a series of fortress towns, sprawled along the frontiers and along the trade routes. They've just unearthed another one. Read on.

What followed was a series of battles with the Hittites as the two peoples wrestled for control of the rich and prosperous lands between them. After the Middle Kingdom was overthrown and the New Kingdom rose the Egyptians put forward their might and war spread, culminating in the largest chariot battle in the history of the world: Kadesh. At Kadesh some 5000 chariots thundered across the fertile plains as the two empire sought to master on the other. It was a day long battle in which both forces soaked the fields in the blood of their foes and both claimed victory when all was done.

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