| Battle of the Nile Delta | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Egyptian–Sea Peoples wars of theLate Bronze Age collapse | |||||||
 Sea Peoples in their ships during the battle with the Egyptians. Relief from the mortuary temple ofRamesses III atMedinet Habu. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| New Kingdom of Egypt | Sea Peoples | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Ramesses III | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Many killed and captured | ||||||
TheBattle of the Delta was a sea battle betweenEgypt and theSea Peoples, circa 1175 BC, when the EgyptianpharaohRamesses III repelled a major sea invasion. The conflict occurred on the shores of the easternNile Delta and on the border of the Egyptian Empire in Syria, although precise locations of the battles are unknown. This major conflict is recorded on the temple walls of themortuary temple of pharaoh Ramesses III atMedinet Habu.
In the 12th century BC, theSea Peoples (which consisted of several groups, such as Tjekker, Peleset, and Sherden) invaded the Middle East from the easternMediterranean Sea. They attackedSyria and theSouthern Levant, where many cities were burned and ruined. (Carchemish was one of the cities which survived the Sea People's attacks.)Cyprus had also been overwhelmed and its capital sacked. Since the Medinet Habu inscriptions depict women and children loaded in ox carts, the attackers are believed to have been migrants looking for a place to settle.[3] Their attacks are reported, for instance, in letters byAmmurapi, the last king ofUgarit, pleading for assistance fromEshuwara, the king ofAlasiya:
My father [Eshuwara], behold, the enemy's ships came (here); my cities(?) were burned, and they did evil things in my country. Does not my father know that all my troops and chariots(?) are in the Land of Hatti, and all my ships are in the Land of Lukka? ...Thus, the country is abandoned to itself. May my father know it: the seven ships of the enemy that came here inflicted much damage upon us.[4]
The Sea People invasions are often listed among the causes or symptoms of theBronze Age collapse. Ramesses had fought the Sea Peoples in southernLebanon at theBattle of Djahy. Ramesses III describes a great movement of peoples in the East from the Mediterranean, which caused massive destruction of the former great powers of the Levant, Cyprus and Anatolia:
the lands were removed and scattered to the fray. No land could stand before their arms, fromHatti,Kode,Carchemish,Arzawa,Alashiya on being cut off. [ie: cut down]"[5]
After defeating the Sea Peoples on land in Syria, Ramesses rushed back to Egypt where preparations for the invaders' assault had already been completed. Ramesses enticed theSea Peoples and their ships into the mouth of theNile, where he had assembled his fleet for an ambush. Ramesses also lined the shores of theNile Delta with ranks of archers who were ready to release volleys of arrows into the enemy ships if they attempted to land. Once within range, Ramesses ordered the archers to fire at the enemy ships, pushing them back towards his fleet, now coming in to cut off the Sea Peoples' escape route. This Egyptian fleet pushed the Sea Peoples' boats towards shore. Then archers and infantrymen both on land and on the ships devastated the enemy. The Sea People's ships were overturned, many were killed and captured and some were even dragged to the shore, where they were killed. In the inscriptions, Ramesses proclaims:
Those who reached my boundary, their seed is not; their hearts and their souls are finished forever and ever. As for those who had assembled before them on the sea, the full flame was their front before the harbour mouths, and a wall of metal upon the shore surrounded them. They were dragged, overturned, and laid low upon the beach; slain and made heaps from stern to bow of their galleys, while all their things were cast upon the water.[6]
The victory at the Delta saved Egypt from the destruction that befell Hatti,Alasiya and other great Near Eastern powers.
There is no documentation for any pursuit of the defeated Sea Peoples. Although defeated in the Delta, some of the Sea Peoples (specifically thePeleset) are believed to have settled in theSouthern Levant some time after Ramesses' death.[citation needed]
