Ramesses II describes his situation in the Poem of Pentaur which, along with the Bulletin, gives the Egyptian account of the battle: He hastily sent messengers to the other three divisions just before the Hittite chariots crashed into his camp. In his zeal to capture Kadesh and conquer the Hittite king, Ramesses II had cut himself off from the rest of his army. Ramesses rode in his chariot at the head of 20,000 men, completely confident of victory.Īccording to some reports of the battle, Ramesses II captured some other spies who revealed the unpleasant truth of his situation but the intelligence came too late. The Treaty of Kadesh of 1258 BCE, then, holds the distinction as the world's first peace treaty. Further, as the Treaty of Mesilim is actually a written agreement between the gods of Umma and Lagash, and not between the rulers of the city or those rulers' representatives, it cannot be considered an actual peace treaty. While there does exist an earlier treaty, known as the Treaty of Mesilim, between the Mesopotamian cities of Umma and Lagash, dated to 2550 BCE, scholarly consensus rejects this as an actual peace treaty and defines it as a Treaty of Delimitation (meaning a treaty which sets borders or boundaries).
Among his greatest moments as pharaoh, however, is not an act of war but one of peace: the signing of the first peace treaty in history.
There is virtually no ancient site in Egypt which does not mention the name of Ramesses II and his account of his victory at The Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BCE is legendary.
Ramesses II (The Great, 1279-1213 BCE) ruled Egypt for 67 years and, today, the Egyptian landscape still bears testimony to the prosperity of his reign in the many temples and monuments he had built in honor of his conquests and accomplishments.
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