Battle of the Delta

The Battle of the Nile River Delta is the first recorded naval battle in history. It was a cruel confrontation between the Sea Peoples and the Egyptian fleet under the command of Ramses III that occurred in the year 1178 BC. C. or 1175 BC. C. These people had already destroyed the Mycenaeans, the Hittite empire and had plunged the entire current Turkish coast into absolute chaos and intended to settle in Egypt.

The conflict occurred somewhere off the coast of the eastern Nile Delta region and partly on the borders of the Egyptian Empire in Syria, although its exact location is unknown. The battle is recorded on the outer walls of the funerary temple of Pharaoh Ramses III at Medinet Habu.

Historical background

The Sea Peoples were an amalgam formed by Tjeker, Peleset, Sherdan and others. In the 12th century BC. C. they invaded the Middle East, devastated the Hittite Empire and destroyed and plundered its capital, Hattusa. They also attacked Syria and Canaan, where many cities were burned, as well as Cyprus and its capital, sacked. Clearly their ultimate goal was to find a rich land, and Egypt seemed like a perfect choice. The attack by the Sea Peoples was probably the greatest threat Ancient Egypt ever faced, they had already destroyed the Hittite empire when they attacked it; The Medinet Habu reliefs depict dozens of Sea People families on the borders of the Egyptian Empire in Syria, where Ramesses III confronted them on land at the Battle of Djahy in year 8 of his reign to end the tide of people who attacked the eastern region of their empire. The fact that the conflict was partly produced by a great migration to conquer and colonize Egypt and its Asian empire is illustrated by the opinion of hititologist Trevor Bryce:

"The Peleset warriors and Tjekker warriors who fought in the terrestrial battle [against Ramses III, in Syria] are accompanied in the reliefs by women and children, who are loaded in ox carts".

The severity of the crisis facing the Near Eastern states is summed up by Ammurapi, the last king of Ugarit, who wrote several letters asking for help from Eshuwara, the king of Alasiya. Amurapi highlights the desperate situation he faces in the letter Ugarit RS 18.147:

"My father [Eshuwara], behold, the ships of the enemy came (here); my cities (?) They were burned, and they did bad things in my country. Does not my father know that all my troops and chariots (?) are in the land of Hati, and all my ships are in the land of Luka?... So the country is abandoned to itself. My father must know: the seven ships of the enemy that came here have caused us much damage.".

Ramesses III describes a great movement of people in the eastern Mediterranean, which caused massive destruction of the ancient powers of the Levant, Cyprus and Anatolia:

"The foreign countries conjured themselves on their islands. All countries were evicted and dispersed in battle at once, and no country could resist their weapons, beginning with Hatti, Kode, Karkemisch and Alasiya (...) A camp was organized at a place in Amurru, and their people were devastated as if they had never existed. They came, the flame prepared before them, to Egypt. Its confederation consisted of Peleset, Tjekker, Schakalesch, Danu and Ueschesch, united countries (...) (KRI V, 39-40)".

"The land was desolated in the cold. No people could stand before their weapons, Hati, Kode, Carchemish, Arzawa, Alasiya, it is time to end it."

All the civilizations of the Mediterranean were destroyed by the attack of the Sea Peoples, and only the Egyptians were able to resist their attack. However, it turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory, because Egypt was so weakened that it was never as powerful as before the invasion. The conflict with the Sea Peoples also depleted their economy, which is why the Egyptians used to say that death comes from the other side of the seas.

The battle

After defeating the Sea People in Syria, Ramses hurried back to Egypt, where preparations for the assault on the invaders had already been completed. The inscriptions of Ramses III in his mortuary temple record this epic event in great detail. When Ramses looked at the sea he saw a formidable force, thousands of enemies, and the end of the Egyptian empire. This was an important moment for the pharaoh, particularly because of the idea of having to face a naval battle: the Egyptians had never had to do this before. Ramses reacted with great tactical brilliance, lining up rows of archers on the shores of the Delta ready to launch waves of arrows if the enemy ships tried to anchor. Knowing that he would be defeated in a sea battle, Ramses lured the enemy fleet to the mouth of the Nile, where he prepared an ambush, as he had assembled a specific fleet for this occasion. In an inspired tactical maneuver, he lured the Sea Peoples' fleet to the shore where Egyptian archers from the land continually fired arrows at them, as did others on the decks of the Egyptian ships. He sank enemy ships and made many dead and prisoners, some even washed ashore to be executed. Thus the invasion was rejected before it set foot on Egyptian land. The battle was reflected in the following terms:

"I brought my border into Dyahi (Syrian-Palestinian landlords controlled by Egypt), prepaid the local princes, garrison commanders and Mariannu (Asian warrs). I made the mouths of the river a strong wall with warships, transports and skies. They were fully equipped, both fore and fore, with brave soldiers and with the most chosen infantry in Egypt (...)".

Ramesses recounts the fate of the Sea People, who dared to attack Egypt:

"For those who advanced together over the sea, the flame burned before them in the mouths of the river and a steep of spears surrounded them on the shore (...) A net was prepared to catch them; those who entered the mouths of the river were locked up and fell into it, nailed into their posts, dead and torn apart. They were dragged, annulled, and lay on the beach; they were slain and piled up by the stern of their ships while all their things were thrown into the water.".

Consequences

While there is no documentation of any possible persecution of the defeated Sea Peoples, who fled to the Levant, Egypt was spared the fate of total destruction that Hatti, Alasiya, and other great states of the Near East had suffered (Carchemish survived to the attacks of the Sea Peoples) in what is called Bronze Age crisis. Ramses considered that he had won a great and decisive victory, but, although he had defeated the Sea Peoples, the pharaoh could not prevent the Peleset, Tjeker and Denyen from settling on the coast of Retenu. Other groups participating in these waves would give their name to Sicily (shekelesh), to Sardinia (sherdan). The Egyptians repelled the attack, but the conflict exhausted their treasury to such an extent that it never recovered enough to be a powerful empire again.: Ramses III is considered the last great pharaoh of the New Kingdom.