The great eastern pylon which formed the entrance to the First Court is
now a ruin ; but it was originally 220 feet across the front of its twin towers
.
Some of the reliefs which adorned its west face ( next the court ) are
still in fair preservation, though a field-glass is necessary to make much of
them . They relate to the Syrian campaign which was waged by Ramses in the year
1288 B.C., the fifth year of his reign, and especially to the great feat of
arms which the Pharaoh believed himself to have personally performed in his
encounter with the Hittite army at the battle of Kadesh on the Orontes, major
battle between the Egyptians under Ramses II and the Hittites under Muwatallish,
in Syria, a feat on the memory and reputation of which his vanity subsisted during
the remaining sixty-two years of his reign and life .
On the north pylon, as we look eastwards, we have at the left the list
of the eighteen towns captured by Ramses in a later campaign, and a scene of
prisoners being led into captivity . Next come scenes from the Hittite campaign
of the fifth year, which are continued on the south tower .
Briefly the history of the campaign was as follows
Ramses had as his objective in this campaign the capture of the Hittite stronghold
of Kadesh on the Orontes, a stubborn enemy of the Egyptian power in Syria,
which had cost Tuthmosis III a good deal of effort in his time . Ramses apparently
encountered little resistance until he approached Kadesh, which was strongly
placed on the river Orontes . His intelligence Department brought in prisoners
who declared that Muwatallish, the Hittite king, had retreated to Aleppo in
fear of the advance of the Egyptian army, and Ramses accordingly marched on
Kadesh in headlong haste, neglecting the most elementary precautions .
His army was divided into four brigades, Amûn, Rê,
Ptah and Sûtekh, and may have numbered about 25.000 men . It was all strung out
in four long successive columns in the order named The Brigade of Amûn reached
the north-wast of Kadesh, and pitched camp in a position which enabled it to
cut off any retreat from the city, or any relief from the north . Meanwhile the
Hittite king had arranged a pleasant surprise for Ramses . The report of his
flight had been specially conveyed to the Pharaoh by his own spies, and was
entirely false . He was actually concealed, with his whole army, behind the
town of Kadesh, and kept his forces carefully out of sight of Ramses in his
headlong march northward . As soon as the Egyptian king had fairly settled down
to pitch camp, Muwatallish struck his blow by making a fierce attack on the
flank of the Brigade of Rê, which was taken completely by surprise and
scattered at the first shock . The torrent of fugitives rushed for safety to
the camp of Amûn, and swept that brigade away in helpless rout along with
themselves . Half of the army of Ramses was thus out of action, and the
remaining two brigades were far from the field, and marching slowly up without
the least idea of the muddle which they were approaching .
Fortunately for Ramses, Muwatallish seems to have been
as hesitant on the field as he had been cunning in planning his battle . He did
not push his advantage at once, and Ramses with his household troops succeeded,
by successive headlong chariot charges, in driving back the triumphant Hittite
chariotry, and in holding them back until the Brigade of Ptah reached the field
. Muwatallish never put his strong force of infantry into the fight at all,
though their appearance at the critical moment could scarcely have failed to
make the Egyptian defeat decisive . He paid the penalty by seeing the final
loss of his great opportunity, and the complete repulse of his chariot force,
with severe loss . He ought, by all the rules, to have annihilated the Egyptian
army ; but at the most he managed only to get perhaps rather the worse of a
fairly drawn battle in which neither commander had shone, though the Hittite
preparation for victory had been admirable, had it been followed up by equal
promptitude on the field when once the chance was offered .
Ramses returned home with his sorely reduced army, having entirely
failed to accomplish his object, for Kadesh does not appear to have been
molested . But, once back in Egypt, he conveniently forget all about that, and
remembered nothing but his own personal valour in the emergence which he had
brought about by his own bad generalship . A poem was written about his feat of
arms, pictures of it were standardized, and poems and pictures were repeated on
every possible opportunity, until the Egyptian court, one imagines, must have
been slightly weary of the whole business . Ramses, however, was not weary of
seeing and hearing of his prowess ; and it was Ramses who called the tune,
though the unfortunate soldiers of Amûn and Rê had paid the piper .
Here, at the Ramesseum, we have it all over again, as on the pylon at
Luxor Temple . In the middle of the north pylon, high up, we have the unlucky Egyptian
camp, with its shield-wall, and all sorts of military and unmilitary scenes
taking place . The king holds a council of war to discuss the sudden emergency,
and to scold his officers for what was his own blame ; the second batch of
spies is being persuaded, by the familiar method of the bastinado, to tell the
truth at last ; and the Hittite attack is developing .
On the south tower, we have Ramses charging the
Hittite chariotry, who flee in confusion before his shafts, and fall into the
Orontes . On the opposite bank of the river Muwatallish stands in fear, along
with the massed columns of his spearmen . Fugitives swim for their lives across
the Orontes ; the unlucky king of Aleppo is given rough first-aid by his
friends, who hold him upside down that he may disgorge the water he has
swallowed in his hasty retreat by way of the river . Above the massed Hittite
spearmen is the town of Kadesh within its strong walls and its moat .
On the right half of the southern tower is the familiar scene of the
king grasping his enemies by the hair and clubbing them . The series of scenes
is not without vivacity ; but taken as a whole it is too complicated, and is in
consequence confused .
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