Ramses II / Battle of Kadesh — The Version Egypt Carved in Stone

Описание: At the Battle of Kadesh, a young pharaoh’s camp is hit at the worst possible moment—before his army is fully assembled, with units scattered across miles of ground and command collapsing in real time.

[00:00] Intro: 2,500 Chariots & The Trap

[00:21] The Context: 1274 BC & Ramses’ Predicament

[02:06] Propaganda vs. Reality: Two Different Victory Claims

[02:43] The Prize: Why they fought for the Levantine Corridor

[03:42] The Hittite Machine: Muwatalli’s 3-Man Chariots

[05:01] The Egyptian System: 4 Divisions & Speed

[06:04] The March Error: Why the Army split up

[07:20] The Intelligence Failure: The Shasu Spies (The Lie)

[09:01] The Truth Revealed: Capturing the real scouts

[10:12] The Ambush: Destruction of the Division of Ra

[11:26] Panic at Camp Amun

[12:24] The Critical Mistake: Why the Hittites stopped to loot

[14:03] The Counterattack: Ramses & The Household Guard

[16:10] The Turning Point: Arrival of the Ne'arin

[17:42] The Mystery: Why Muwatalli held back his infantry

[20:24] The Spin: How Ramses rewrote history (Poem of Pentaur)

[21:57] The Hittite Perspective: A defensive win

[23:43] The Long War: 15 Years of Stalemate

[25:44] The Solution: The Treaty of Kadesh (First Peace Treaty)

[28:05] Analysis: Systems Failure vs. Heroism

[31:36] Conclusion: When the math of war stops working

This episode reconstructs Kadesh as a system: geography, timing, formations, and the chain of errors that turns an army into a crowd. Then we compare that battlefield reality to the version Egypt carved into stone afterward—because Kadesh isn’t just a battle. It’s one of the earliest examples of power shaping a story while the dust is still in the air.
In this video:
Why the ambush worked (and why it almost ended Ramses)
The decisive constraint: terrain, distance, and broken cohesion
What the official Egyptian narrative emphasizes—and what it avoids
Why the outcome matters long after the fighting stops
Question for you: was Kadesh a victory, a draw… or a near-catastrophe that got rewritten?
Extra-long “documentary” description (adds chapters + sources placeholders)
The Battle of Kadesh is often remembered as a heroic victory. The evidence suggests something more complicated: a trap, a command breakdown, and a survival story that later becomes a political weapon.
This episode focuses on mechanics—not hero poses. What can an army do when it’s dispersed? What happens when information fails? And how does a state turn a messy outcome into a clean myth?

📚 Historical sources and research inform all content. Egyptian accounts (Poem/Bulletin tradition; temple relief program)
Hittite diplomatic record / later treaty tradition
Modern reconstructions and debates on the battle’s outcome



🎵 Music & SFX: Licensed from Artlist.io



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