By the 15th century BC, Egypt’s Pharaohs conquered a mighty empire whose frontiers stretched from Nubia to Syria. However, In 1457 BC, a coalition of Canaanite states led by the king of Kadesh rebelled against their Egyptian overlords and declared themselves to be independent. The response from Egypt’s pharaoh Thutmose III was swift and culminated in what has become known to us today as the Battle of Megiddo.
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For much of human history, the ancient land known as Canaan was at the crossroads of continents and civilizations. Since the earliest days of a united Egypt around 3000 BC, trade between the kingdom of the Nile and areas of the Levant has been recorded in ancient texts and inscriptions, with plenty of archaeological evidence uncovered in modern times to support this. All sorts of goods, from pottery, tools, wheat, wine and cedarwood were exchanged between the peoples of both lands.
Unlike Egypt, which was a large country and had been politically unified for most of its Bronze Age history, Canaan had always been fractured into a patchwork of petty city-states and small kingdoms. An entrepreneurial people, many Canaanites, or those of Canaanite ancestry, had also settled in Egypt and lived amongst the country’s native inhabitants for centuries, especially between the years 2000 to 1650 BC. Perhaps for these reasons, Egyptian rulers didn’t see their Canaanite neighbors as a threat.
This all changed in the 17th century BC when a people known as the Hyksos came to power in the Nile Delta region. Though many scholars today contend that they may have arrived and settled in the country peacefully over several generations, the inscriptions of later Egyptian pharaohs as well as the chronicles compiled by scribes and historians such as Manetho many centuries later tell a very different story; according to these sources, the Hyksos were invaders from Canaan who burned cities and razed temples to the ground while cruelly oppressing Egypt’s native inhabitants. Regardless of the truth of their arrival, the kings of the Hyksos, who constituted Egypt’s 15th Dynasty, eventually went on to rule a large part of the country for well over a century from their capital at Avaris in the northeastern Delta region.
While their grip on northern Egypt was secure, the Hyksos kings could not effectively control the southern portion of the country, and eventually, rival dynasties arose to challenge them. One of these, which became Egypt’s 17th Dynasty, was from the city of Thebes, and its last two kings, Seqenenre Tao and his son and successor, Kamose, led a war of liberation against the Hyksos. Kamose’s younger brother, Ahmose, decisively defeated and chased the last Hyksos ruler out of Egypt, reunifying the country in the process.
Perhaps due to such significant events, Ahmose is recorded by later chroniclers and historians as the first king of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty and his reign, which began around 1550 BC, as being the start of the era in Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom. Until that time, Egypt’s rulers had been mostly content to simply rule their own country while establishing trade relations with their neighbors, and the few military campaigns that had extended far beyond the Nile’s first cataract in the south or the frontiers of Canaan to the east were more punitive raids than attempts to permanently seize territory. By the mid-16th century BC, this policy had changed.
The Hyksos’ takeover had taught the Egyptians that they were vulnerable to attack, especially from western Asia. What also must have been alarming to them is that unlike in the past, there were now several large expansionist states competing for hegemony of that region, including the Mitanni, the Hittites and the Babylonians, all of whom, should their rulers decide to one day invade Egypt, would almost certainly march their troops through Canaan. Therefore, the pharaohs of the New Kingdom, starting with Ahmose I, launched a policy of eastern expansion and conquest to control the petty states of Canaan and use them as a buffer against the larger empires to the north.
The third pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, the warrior-king Thutmose I who arguably ruled between 1506–1493 BC, expanded Egyptian control into Nubia and deep into Syria up to the Euphrates River, obtaining the allegiance of many Canaanite and Syrian princes along the way. However, once Thutmose left, many of them refused to send tribute to Egypt. Though rebellions in the Levant were put down under the relatively short reign of his successor, Thutmose II, Egypt’s grip on its farthest imperial possessions was quickly slipping away.
It would fall to his son Thutmose III, to reverse the tide and solidify Egyptian control of Canaan and the lands up to the Euphrates in Syria. Most scholars today believe that the pharaoh who would become Thutmose III technically became the ruler of Egypt around 1479 BC at the age of 10. Since he was just a child, his stepmother, Hatshepsut, who was also his aunt, was designated to rule as regent in his stead until the young Thutmose III came of age.
Hatshepsut was an extremely powerful woman, for not only was she the daughter of the great Thutmose I, but also the widow of her half-brother, Thutmose II. By the seventh year of her regency, she had assumed the title of pharaoh of Egypt and although Thutmose III was co-ruler, the true power in Egypt was in the hands of Hatshepsut. Hatshepsut commissioned the construction of many new buildings and expanded others all over Egypt and parts of Nubia, including the great Temple of Karnak and her mortuary temple at the site of Deir el-Bahri.
She also sponsored large trade expeditions to faraway countries, the most well-known being one sent to the land of Punt for the acquisition of myrrh, ivory and gold. By nearly all accounts, Egypt during Hatshepsut’s rule was a very prosperous country. However, her apparent lack of attention to military matters had led to many of Egypt’s vassals, including its client-kings in Canaan, to gradually obtain more autonomy for themselves.
In the far corners of the empire around the Syrian frontier, resentment towards Egypt had been growing amongst the rulers of several of its client-states who saw no reason why they should be forced to swear allegiance and pay tribute to the pharaoh in a faraway land. It’s also likely that many of them had been persuaded into becoming allies of the rising northern Mesopotamian power known as the Kingdom of the Mitanni that at the time had been expanding westward towards the Mediterranean and also sought to control northern Canaan. Upon the death of Hatshepsut in January of 1458 BC, Thutmose III immediately assumed his position as the sole ruler of Egypt.
Believing that the new, young and untested pharaoh would be weak, the king of the city of Kadesh led a coalition of Canaanite kings to revolt against their Egyptian overlords. To make matters even worse, he had also gathered together his allies and assembled a large army at the fortress city of Megiddo, seemingly with the intention of moving further south and closer to Egypt. Megiddo was important because it controlled Egypt’s access to the main trade route between Egypt, Anatolia and Mesopotamia, now known as the Via Maris.
The exact size of the Canaanite army that the king of Kadesh had organized isn’t known, but it’s estimated to have numbered at least ten to fifteen thousand men. The bulk of the forces consisted of infantry armed with swears, short swords and axes, but there also would have been archers and perhaps as many as 1000 chariot units amongst them. They were not just fighting men from Canaan, but also from northern Syria, Mesopotamia, and southern Anatolia.
Though Thutmose III had gained some military experience commanding the armed forces during Hatshepsut’s reign, he had not been tested in such a dangerous and volatile situation, but he welcomed the opportunity to prove himself as the protector of Egypt. During what was probably the Spring of 1457 BC, he assembled a large army at the fortress of Sile in the eastern delta along the Egyptian border. Though estimates vary, most scholars put the number of soldiers at between ten to twenty thousand men.
Most of these would have been infantry armed with swords, axes and carrying shields. There were also chariot units that would have been manned by nobles with archers. Though the specific number of chariots isn’t given, it’s estimated to have been anywhere from one to two thousand units.
Traveling with the army was Thutmose’s personal scribe, Tjaneni, who would keep a journal of events during the actual campaign. Tjaneni’s journal of this and other campaigns would later be the basis of the detailed annals of Thutmose III that were inscribed on the walls of the Temple of Amon at Karnak. It’s these, along with other supplementary inscriptions found on various stelae that have helped scholars to piece together the events of the battle of Megiddo and other military campaigns during the reign of Thutmose III.
From Sile, the Egyptian army quickly marched to Gaza, covering 240 kilometers in just 10 days. Given the size of the army and the logistical challenges of transporting so many men, horses, food and supplies, this was extremely impressive. From there, they marched another 10 days to the town of Yehem, where they rested and waited for reports from scouts for any new and useful information that would aid them in the battle to come.
Thutmose was presented with three possible options for advancing towards Megiddo. One was through a curvy northern route that led to a plain several kilometers north of the city. Another was a windy route through the Valley of Dothan that ended up southeast of Megiddo near the town of Taanach.
Though longer, both of these routes were considered to have been safer because they gave a large army more room to maneuver. Finally, there was the third and most direct route – through the central pass of Aruna, also known as the Musmus Pass, that led to a plain in front of Megiddo itself. The danger here though was that the pass was rather narrow and his soldiers would be more susceptible to an ambush.
Thutmose met with his council of war, most of whom suggested that they take either the northern or southern route, but not the direct and more dangerous one. According to inscriptions on the walls of the Temple of Amon of Karnak, his military advisors told him the following: “How will it be to go on this road which becomes narrow, when it is reported that the enemies are waiting out there and they are numerous? Will not horse go behind horse and soldiers and people too?
Will our vanguard be fighting while our rearguard is waiting here in Aruna, and unable to fight? ” They then pleaded with him not to take this more difficult and dangerous route. Thutmose rejected their recommendation, telling his council, “I…shall proceed on this Aruna road!
” The reason for this wasn’t because he didn’t respect the advice of his advisors or was himself reckless, but Thutmose believed that the King of Kadesh and his Canaanite allies would come to the same conclusion as his war council and expect the Egyptians to take either the northern or southern passes. Two days later, Thutmose and his army left Yehem and marched to the ‘Aruna pass, where they camped for the night. Leaving early the next morning, the Egyptian army marched further along the pass towards the city of Megiddo.
Scholars have estimated the entire convoy to have reached a length of nearly 20 kilometers long as the soldiers, horses and chariots traversed through the narrow Aruna pass. At the head of the army was Thutmose himself. It was a tough journey, with the pass being only thirty feet wide in some areas, but by nightfall, they were able to make it all the way through, reportedly without any Canaanite resistance.
Thutmose had been right and had taken the King of Kadesh by surprise. He had not expected the Egyptians to come through the central pass and instead had concentrated the bulk of its forces around the other two. Only a small detachment of soldiers guarded the mouth of the pass by Megiddo, and these were quickly dealt with.
Setting up camp by the Qina Brook, Thutmose and his men rested for the night. Early the next morning, the Egyptians crossed the Qina Brook and attacked. The precise details of the battle are unclear, though some things are known to us.
The rebel Canaanite army had regrouped and positioned itself on high ground near the city. To the southwest was the Egyptian army, forming a concave formation that was divided into three groups. As they spread out, the left flank extended to the northwest of Megiddo to help cut off the enemy’s escape along one of the roads leading to the city.
With the opposite flank holding back the enemy, Thutmose, who was stationed in the center, personally led an attack that sliced through the Canaanite left flank, routing the enemy. Of the attack, Thutmose III’s inscriptions on the walls of Karnak tell us that the Canaanites “saw his majesty prevailing over them, and they fled headlong to Megiddo with faces of fear. They abandoned their horses and their chariots of gold and silver….
” The surprise attack had not only caught the Canaanite rebels off guard, but also left them in a poor position to face the Egyptian chariots and infantrymen that were racing towards them from the south and west. They may have also been shocked when they learned that it was not a mere general or some other senior officer that was commanding the Egyptian forces, as had generally been the case during Hatshepsut’s reign, but the pharaoh himself! In panic, the Canaanite army fled towards the city of Megiddo, hoping to find safety there behind its towering defensive walls.
The battle would have ended there and then in a decisive victory for the Egyptians had Thutmose’s usually disciplined troops not made a crucial mistake. Instead of pursuing the remnants of the Canaanite army as they fled towards the gates of Megiddo, the bulk of his men seemed to have stopped to plunder the hastily abandoned enemy camp which included horses, chariots, gold, and the grand tent of the King of Kadesh. Unfortunately for the Egyptians, this distraction allowed many of the fleeing Canaanite soldiers and their leaders to pass through Megiddo’s gates and hide behind the safety of the city’s walls; those who couldn’t make it before the gates closed were pulled over the walls by the city’s inhabitants using ropes made of twisted clothes.
And so, what could have been a decisive victory on the plains of Megiddo turned into a long siege, the length which scholars debate could have been between three to seven months. Finally, when the city’s inhabitants had all but run and food, Megiddo surrendered. To their dismay, the Egyptians discovered that the rebel Canaanite kings, including the king of Kadesh, had escaped.
However, with Megiddo’s fall, other Canaanite cities surrendered and those that didn’t were quickly conquered and forced to submit to Egyptian authority once again. Thutmose III’s inscriptions at Karnak also tell that the final spoils obtained from both the enemy camp and later the city itself were significant, including chariots made of gold belonging to the prince of Megiddo, 892 regular chariots, bronze armor and coats of mail, 200 leather coats of mail, 502 bows, over 2000 horses and colts, and over 20,000 cattle. The citizens of Megiddo were spared, but many of the young princes that remained were sent to Egypt to be trained in the Egyptian language and culture so that when they returned to their places of origin to become Egypt’s new client-kings, they would already be predisposed toward Egyptian policies and more accepting of Egyptian hegemony over their land.
Though for the next twenty years Thutmose III would participate in no less than 14 other military campaigns in the Levant all the way up to the Euphrates River, his victory at Megiddo was by far the most significant. It not only crushed the massive rebellion led by the king of Kadesh and secured many of the cities of Canaan and the Levant as Egypt’s imperial possessions, but it also marked the resurgence of Egyptian power in western Asia, putting it on par with the other great empires of the day until the devastating events of the Late Bronze Age collapse, when many of the civilizations of the eastern Mediterranean world came to an end. We’ll talk more about the Bronze Age in future videos, so make sure you are subscribed and have pressed the bell button to see it.
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