Battle of Kadesh Inscriptions

The Battle of Kadesh inscriptions are the Egyptian accounts of Ramses II's battle against the Hittite king and his allies at Kadesh on the Orontes in his fifth year (c. 1274 BCE). Ramses had them carved on the walls of his temples at Abydos, Thebes (Karnak, Luxor and the Ramesseum), Derr and Abu Simbel, and the Poem also survives in hieratic copies on papyrus. They comprise three parts: an official record of the Hittite ruse and the attack, a longer poem on the march and the battle, and captions on the relief sequence. The reliefs show the Egyptian camp as a rectangular enclosure walled with shields, with the royal tent at its center, where the king sits enthroned in council. The English text is based on James Henry Breasted's 1906 translation.