the egyptian war chariot on the walls of the temple of abu simbel in southern egypt is a depiction of the war chariot in action for me a chariot is an incredible weapon it allows an armored unit to move around on the battlefield quickly and slay ground soldiers from an elevated position of protection devastating tool against any kind of unit war chariots were all about shock and awe they were fast and mobile for over a thousand years they dominated the battlefield and it was the egyptian war chariot that was best the egyptian chariots were so well
designed they could zoom around the battlefield up to 30 miles an hour putting themselves exactly where they need to be to hand out death to the enemy these are the fastest weapons on the battlefield that appeared out of nowhere can be deployed into any part of the battlefield surrounding the enemy or attacking from any direction there were two men aboard a driver and an archer each free to concentrate fully on their own job a right-handed archer on a horse could only shoot to the left the advantage of a chariot over a horse is that an
archer with a long bow could shoot anywhere this made chariots deadly fast and precise 100 chariots could fly around the battlefield letting off a thousand arrows a minute in any direction that's devastating that's a similar rate of fire to the gun on a modern apache helicopter but what was so special about the design of the egyptian chariot the chart wheel was made of six spokes and a rim made of flexible wood meant the whole thing could travel fast across even the roughest terrain we see those same principles being used in shock absorbency and suspension in
the cars we see out on our roads today chariots gave an advantage to whichever side deployed them but what if both sides had them [Applause] it happened three thousand years ago the egyptians against the hittites in the epic battle of kadesh it's estimated that as many as 6 000 chariots clashed to kaddish this is more vehicles on a battlefield than at any time in history it was the egyptian chariot that proved superior they were better designed and crafted and with just one driver and one archer they were lighter and more mobile than the three-man machine
of the hittites these were effective very effective weapons if you have the ability to put lethal firepower anywhere on the battlefield at a moment's notice your enemies are always looking over the shoulder this can be a deciding factor in warfare thanks to its chariot the egyptian empire expanded to become the mightiest of its time and chariots were so revered the pharaohs demanded to take them with them into the afterlife tutankhamen the most famous pharaoh of all was buried with six incredibly preserved war chariots two of which were clad in gold with shock absorbing suspension systems
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