Kadesh

Kadesh (also Qadesh or Qadesh-on-the-Orontes; Hittite: Kadeš) was an ancient city of the Levant, located on or near the headwaters or ford of the Orontes River. It is surmised by Kenneth Kitchen to be the ruins at Tell Nebi Mend, about 24 kilometers (15 mi) southwest of Homs near Al Qusayr in what is now western Syria but is located in the text of the inscriptions at the Battle of Kadesh as near Tunip in the land of the Amurru. Kadesh was the target of military campaigns by most of the pharaohs of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt and one of many outlying vassals won by the southerly encroachments of the Hittite Empire between 1500 and 1285 BC. Between 1504 and 1492 BC Thutmosis I campaigned north into Syria against the Mitanni a vassal of the Hittites and along with Aram an ally of Kadesh. In 1479 BC Thutmoses III fought against the king of Kadesh in the Battle of Megiddo. In the time of Hatshepsut there were no campaigns against Kadesh as she was focused on developing trade across the Red Sea and southward. Although Amenophis II campaigned in the djadi from then on until the reign of Haremhab 1319-1307 for a century and a half Canaan was in virtual rebellion and the Egyptians could do little about it. In 1306 BC Seti I succeeded in taking the city. In 1274 BC, the fifth year of Ramesses' reign, he led a large force of chariots and infantry 1,000 miles (1,600 km) to retake the walled city. In the Battle of Kadesh, the two forces clashed, in what is widely regarded as the largest chariot v. chariot battle (5,000—6,000 between both sides) in history, on the plain south of the city and west of the Orontes River.