Battle of the Delta
Encyclopedia
The Battle of the Delta was a sea battle between Egypt
and the so-called Sea Peoples, circa 1178 BCE or 1175 BCE when the Egyptian pharaoh
Ramesses III
repulsed a major sea invasion by the 'Peoples of the Sea'. The conflict occurred somewhere at the shores of the eastern Nile Delta
and partly on the borders of the Egyptian Empire in Syria, although their precise location is unknown. This battle has been described as 'the first naval battle in history'. This major conflict is recorded on the temple walls of the mortuary temple of pharaoh Ramesses III
at Medinet Habu
.
were known under such names as the Tjekker, Peleset, Sherden and others. In the 12th century BCE, they invaded the Middle East from the eastern Mediterranean, surging through the Hittite Empire
, which they destroyed and plundered its capital Hattusha. They also attacked Syria
and Palestine
where many cities were burned and ruined. Cyprus
had also been overwhelmed and its capital ransacked. It was clear that their ultimate goal was a huge and wealthy land such as Egypt
, because the invaders did not want the spoils of the foreign land but the land itself. They were almost desperate to find a place for inhabitation and Egypt seemed a perfect choice. So there would have been more of a sense of Egypt being virtually under siege itself and fighting for its existence. The attack of the Sea Peoples
was probably the greatest threat Ancient Egypt ever faced. The Sea Peoples had already destroyed the Hittite empire when they attacked Egypt; contemporary reliefs from Ramesses III's mortuary temple at Medinet Habu
depict scores of families of the Sea Peoples at the borders of Egypt's Syrian empire where Ramesses III fought a successful battle to halt the Sea People's onslaught into her Asiatic Empire. This illustrates the fact that the conflict was partly a vast migration of the Sea Peoples to conquer and colonize both Egypt and her Empire in Asia. As the Hittitologist
Trevor Bryce notes:
The seriousness of the crisis faced by many of the Near Eastern states is aptly summarised by Ammurapi
, the last king of Ugarit
who wrote several letters pleading for assistance from Eshuwara, the king of Alasiya. Amurapi highlights the desperate situation facing Ugarit in letter RS 18.147:
Ramesses III describes a great movement of peoples in the East from the Mediterranean which, caused a massive destruction of the former great powers of the Levant, Cyprus and Anatolia:
Every foreign power on the Mediterranean was destroyed in the face of the Sea Peoples
's onslaught; only the Egyptians were able to withstand their attack. However, this proved to be a pyrrhic victory, because in the end, Egypt were so weakened by it that it was never as powerful as it was prior to the Sea People's invasion. The conflict with the Sea Peoples also drained her treasury. Thus, the Egyptians used to say that death comes from across the seas.
at his Medinet Habu
mortuary temple in Thebes
record the event in great detail. When Ramesses looked at the sea, he stared at a formidable force, thousands of enemies, and possibly the end of the Egyptian empire. This was a turning point for the pharaoh, particularly the idea of having to fight a sea battle, because the Egyptians had never had to do this seriously before. Ramesses
reacted with tactical brilliance; he lined the shores of the Nile Delta
with ranks of archers who were ready to release volleys of arrows into the enemy ships if they attempted to land. Knowing that he would be defeated in the battle at sea, Ramesses enticed the Sea Peoples
and their ships into the mouth of the Nile
, from where he struck his ambush. He had assembled a fleet for this specific occasion. In an inspired tactical maneuver, the Egyptian fleet worked the Sea Peoples' boats towards shore where the Egyptian archers, based on land, devastated the enemy with volley after volley of deadly arrow
s. Meanwhile, the Egyptian marine archers, calmly standing on the decks of their ships, fired in unison. Their ships were overturned, many were killed and captured and some even dragged to the shore where they were executed. Consequently, the Sea Peoples
were defeated even when they were able to set foot on Egypt's land. As Ramesses III states regarding the fate of the Sea Peoples who dared to attack Egypt:
, Egypt was saved from the fate of total destruction which befell Hatti, Alasiya, and other great Near Eastern powers. (Carchemish
in fact survived the Sea People's attacks) Ramesses could certainly content himself with a great and decisive victory. Although he had defeated the Sea Peoples, the Egyptian pharaoh could not ultimately prevent some of them (specifically the Peleset) from eventually settling in Canaan
and Palestine
some time after his death. The Egyptians did repulse the attack of the Sea Peoples
on their homeland, but the conflict exhausted and weakened Egypt's treasury to such an extent that she would never again recover to be a powerful empire. Ramesses III is generally considered to the last great pharaoh of Egypt's New Kingdom
.
Funerary Temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu at Allegheny University.
Medinet Habu and the Sea Peoples at BYU-Idaho.
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
and the so-called Sea Peoples, circa 1178 BCE or 1175 BCE when the Egyptian pharaoh
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
Ramesses III
Ramesses III
Usimare Ramesses III was the second Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty and is considered to be the last great New Kingdom king to wield any substantial authority over Egypt. He was the son of Setnakhte and Queen Tiy-Merenese. Ramesses III is believed to have reigned from March 1186 to April 1155 BCE...
repulsed a major sea invasion by the 'Peoples of the Sea'. The conflict occurred somewhere at the shores of the eastern Nile Delta
Nile Delta
The Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
and partly on the borders of the Egyptian Empire in Syria, although their precise location is unknown. This battle has been described as 'the first naval battle in history'. This major conflict is recorded on the temple walls of the mortuary temple of pharaoh Ramesses III
Ramesses III
Usimare Ramesses III was the second Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty and is considered to be the last great New Kingdom king to wield any substantial authority over Egypt. He was the son of Setnakhte and Queen Tiy-Merenese. Ramesses III is believed to have reigned from March 1186 to April 1155 BCE...
at Medinet Habu
Medinet Habu (temple)
Medinet Habu is the name commonly given to the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III, an important New Kingdom period structure in the location of the same name on the West Bank of Luxor in Egypt...
.
Historical background
The Sea PeoplesSea Peoples
The Sea Peoples were a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty and especially during year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty...
were known under such names as the Tjekker, Peleset, Sherden and others. In the 12th century BCE, they invaded the Middle East from the eastern Mediterranean, surging through the Hittite Empire
Hittites
The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia.They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c...
, which they destroyed and plundered its capital Hattusha. They also attacked Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
where many cities were burned and ruined. Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
had also been overwhelmed and its capital ransacked. It was clear that their ultimate goal was a huge and wealthy land such as Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, because the invaders did not want the spoils of the foreign land but the land itself. They were almost desperate to find a place for inhabitation and Egypt seemed a perfect choice. So there would have been more of a sense of Egypt being virtually under siege itself and fighting for its existence. The attack of the Sea Peoples
Sea Peoples
The Sea Peoples were a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty and especially during year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty...
was probably the greatest threat Ancient Egypt ever faced. The Sea Peoples had already destroyed the Hittite empire when they attacked Egypt; contemporary reliefs from Ramesses III's mortuary temple at Medinet Habu
Medinet Habu (temple)
Medinet Habu is the name commonly given to the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III, an important New Kingdom period structure in the location of the same name on the West Bank of Luxor in Egypt...
depict scores of families of the Sea Peoples at the borders of Egypt's Syrian empire where Ramesses III fought a successful battle to halt the Sea People's onslaught into her Asiatic Empire. This illustrates the fact that the conflict was partly a vast migration of the Sea Peoples to conquer and colonize both Egypt and her Empire in Asia. As the Hittitologist
Hittitologist
A Hittitologist is an archaeologist, historian, linguist, or art historian who specialises in the study of the Ancient Hittites and their Near Eastern Empire which was based in Hattusa in modern day Anatolia.A partial list of notable Hittite scholars includes:...
Trevor Bryce notes:
- "the Peleset and Tjekker warriors who fought in the land battle [against Ramesses III at Syria] are accompanied in the reliefs by women and children loaded in ox-carts."
The seriousness of the crisis faced by many of the Near Eastern states is aptly summarised by Ammurapi
Ammurapi
Ammurapi was the last Bronze Age ruler and king of the Ancient Syrian city of Ugarit, from ca. 1215 to 1180 BC. Ammurapi was a contemporary of the Hittite King Suppiluliuma II. He wrote a vivid letter in response to a plea for assistance from the king of Alashiya which has been preserved...
, the last king of Ugarit
Ugarit
Ugarit was an ancient port city in the eastern Mediterranean at the Ras Shamra headland near Latakia, Syria. It is located near Minet el-Beida in northern Syria. It is some seven miles north of Laodicea ad Mare and approximately fifty miles east of Cyprus...
who wrote several letters pleading for assistance from Eshuwara, the king of Alasiya. Amurapi highlights the desperate situation facing Ugarit in letter RS 18.147:
- "My father [Eshuwara], behold, the enemy's ships came (here); my cities(?) were burned, and they did evil things in my country. Does not my father know that all my troops and chariots(?) are in the Land of Hatti, and all my ships are in the Land of Lukka?...Thus, the country is abandoned to itself. May my father know it: the seven ships of the enemy that came here inflicted much damage upon us".
Ramesses III describes a great movement of peoples in the East from the Mediterranean which, caused a massive destruction of the former great powers of the Levant, Cyprus and Anatolia:
- "the lands were removed and scattered to the fray. No land could stand before their arms, from HattiHittitesThe Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia.They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c...
, KodeKizzuwatnaKizzuwatna , is the name of an ancient Anatolian kingdom in the second millennium BC. It was situated in the highlands of southeastern Anatolia, near the Gulf of İskenderun in modern-day Turkey. It encircled the Taurus Mountains and the Ceyhan river. The center of the kingdom was the city of...
, CarchemishCarchemishCarchemish or Kargamış was an important ancient city of the Mitanni, Hittite and Neo Assyrian Empires, now on the frontier between Turkey and Syria. It was the location of an important battle between the Babylonians and Egyptians, mentioned in the Bible...
, ArzawaArzawaArzawa in the second half of the second millennium BC was the name of a region and a political entity in Western Anatolia, the core area of which was centered on the Hermos and Maeander river valleys, corresponding with the Late Bronze Age kingdoms of the...
, AlashiyaAlashiyaAlashiya or Alasiya was a state which existed in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, and was situated somewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean. It was a major source of goods, especially copper, for Ancient Egypt and other states in the Ancient Near East. It is referred to in a number of the surviving...
on being cut off. [ie: cut down]"
Every foreign power on the Mediterranean was destroyed in the face of the Sea Peoples
Sea Peoples
The Sea Peoples were a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty and especially during year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty...
's onslaught; only the Egyptians were able to withstand their attack. However, this proved to be a pyrrhic victory, because in the end, Egypt were so weakened by it that it was never as powerful as it was prior to the Sea People's invasion. The conflict with the Sea Peoples also drained her treasury. Thus, the Egyptians used to say that death comes from across the seas.
The battle
After defeating the Sea Peoples on land in Syria, Ramesses rushed back to Egypt where preparations for the invaders assault had already been completed. The inscriptions of Ramesses IIIRamesses III
Usimare Ramesses III was the second Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty and is considered to be the last great New Kingdom king to wield any substantial authority over Egypt. He was the son of Setnakhte and Queen Tiy-Merenese. Ramesses III is believed to have reigned from March 1186 to April 1155 BCE...
at his Medinet Habu
Medinet Habu (temple)
Medinet Habu is the name commonly given to the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III, an important New Kingdom period structure in the location of the same name on the West Bank of Luxor in Egypt...
mortuary temple in Thebes
Thebes, Egypt
Thebes is the Greek name for a city in Ancient Egypt located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the river Nile within the modern city of Luxor. The Theban Necropolis is situated nearby on the west bank of the Nile.-History:...
record the event in great detail. When Ramesses looked at the sea, he stared at a formidable force, thousands of enemies, and possibly the end of the Egyptian empire. This was a turning point for the pharaoh, particularly the idea of having to fight a sea battle, because the Egyptians had never had to do this seriously before. Ramesses
Ramesses III
Usimare Ramesses III was the second Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty and is considered to be the last great New Kingdom king to wield any substantial authority over Egypt. He was the son of Setnakhte and Queen Tiy-Merenese. Ramesses III is believed to have reigned from March 1186 to April 1155 BCE...
reacted with tactical brilliance; he lined the shores of the Nile Delta
Nile Delta
The Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
with ranks of archers who were ready to release volleys of arrows into the enemy ships if they attempted to land. Knowing that he would be defeated in the battle at sea, Ramesses enticed the Sea Peoples
Sea Peoples
The Sea Peoples were a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty and especially during year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty...
and their ships into the mouth of the Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
, from where he struck his ambush. He had assembled a fleet for this specific occasion. In an inspired tactical maneuver, the Egyptian fleet worked the Sea Peoples' boats towards shore where the Egyptian archers, based on land, devastated the enemy with volley after volley of deadly arrow
Arrow
An arrow is a shafted projectile that is shot with a bow. It predates recorded history and is common to most cultures.An arrow usually consists of a shaft with an arrowhead attached to the front end, with fletchings and a nock at the other.- History:...
s. Meanwhile, the Egyptian marine archers, calmly standing on the decks of their ships, fired in unison. Their ships were overturned, many were killed and captured and some even dragged to the shore where they were executed. Consequently, the Sea Peoples
Sea Peoples
The Sea Peoples were a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty and especially during year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty...
were defeated even when they were able to set foot on Egypt's land. As Ramesses III states regarding the fate of the Sea Peoples who dared to attack Egypt:
- "Those who reached my boundary, their seed is not; their hearts and their souls are finished forever and ever. As for those who had assembled before them on the sea, the full flame was their front before the harbour mouths, and a wall of metal upon the shore surrounded them. They were dragged, overturned, and laid low upon the beach; slain and made heaps from stern to bow of their galleys, while all their things were cast upon the water."
Aftermath
While there is no documentation for any pursuit of the defeated Sea Peoples, who fled to the LevantLevant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
, Egypt was saved from the fate of total destruction which befell Hatti, Alasiya, and other great Near Eastern powers. (Carchemish
Carchemish
Carchemish or Kargamış was an important ancient city of the Mitanni, Hittite and Neo Assyrian Empires, now on the frontier between Turkey and Syria. It was the location of an important battle between the Babylonians and Egyptians, mentioned in the Bible...
in fact survived the Sea People's attacks) Ramesses could certainly content himself with a great and decisive victory. Although he had defeated the Sea Peoples, the Egyptian pharaoh could not ultimately prevent some of them (specifically the Peleset) from eventually settling in Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
and Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
some time after his death. The Egyptians did repulse the attack of the Sea Peoples
Sea Peoples
The Sea Peoples were a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty and especially during year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty...
on their homeland, but the conflict exhausted and weakened Egypt's treasury to such an extent that she would never again recover to be a powerful empire. Ramesses III is generally considered to the last great pharaoh of Egypt's New Kingdom
New Kingdom
The New Kingdom of Egypt, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt....
.
External links
Battle of the Nile Delta, 1178 BC at Rivers from Eden.Funerary Temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu at Allegheny University.
Medinet Habu and the Sea Peoples at BYU-Idaho.