Megiddo and Kadesh: The First Recorded Battles in Military History

There are not many corners in the world that have seen as many people, civilizations, and armies as Tel Megiddo. Located in the western Jezreel Valley, it once laid upon the Via Maris, an ancient international trade route that connected ancient Egypt to the kingdoms and empires of Israel, Palestine, Syria, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia. It is because of this road that Megiddo saw so much carnage and bloodshed throughout its history. The history of the archaeological site and the Jezreel Valley is filled with many firsts and many lasts. It most certainly was the location of the first recorded chariot battle in history when the Pharaoh of Egypt, Thutmose III of the Eighteenth Dynasty, attacked his former vassals, the Canaanites, after their kings formed a coalition with the Mesopotamian kings during the 15th century B.C. It is perhaps due to the many battles that the ancient scribes bestowed the image of Armageddon upon Megiddo. 

The legendary Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II wanted nothing less than to destroy the Hittite Empire and claim their territory for his own, and it was toward that end that he led his troops into the Levant in 1274 B.C. The main battle of the campaign took place outside the moderately important city of Kadesh, which was located in modern Syria. Although Egyptologists, historians, and archaeologists of the ancient Near East are quite familiar with the battle, outside of a few references in films that concern Exodus, it has failed to capture the popular imagination, despite its critical importance. For one thing, it is the earliest known pitched battle to be documented, and the number of troops deployed by both the Egyptians and Hittites may have made it the largest battle ever fought up until that point in time.

Arguably the most famous aspect of the battle is that it was passed down in ways that barely aligned with reality by Ramesses II, who turned the tactical setback into a propaganda victory.