Latest / Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History / Ramses the Great's Horse-Drawn Chariotry at Kadesh
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked about Ramses at Kadesh before — his propaganda, the treaty, all of that. But I realised we never actually dug into the thing that made him so dangerous on the battlefield: his chariots. Luna: Oh, I'd love to hear about that. Were Egyptian chariots really that different from everyone else's? Lucas: Massively. The Egyptians didn't invent the chariot — that was the Hyksos, who brought them into Kemet around the Second Intermediate Period. But by the 19th Dynasty, Ramses turned chariotry into a weapon of speed and precision. The standard Egyptian chariot was a light, two-man vehicle: a driver and a warrior. The warrior carried a composite bow made from wood, horn, and sinew — that bow had a draw weight of maybe 100 pounds and could punch through copper scale armour at 150 metres. Luna: That's incredible range for the time. Lucas: It really was. And the chariot itself was designed for that tactic — it had a bentwood frame, a spoked wheel with six spokes, and the whole thing weighed about 35 kilograms. That's lighter than a modern racing bike. So they could outrun Hittite chariots, which were heavier and carried three men — a driver, a shield-bearer, and a spearman. The Hittite tactic was to charge and smash into infantry lines. The Egyptian tactic was to circle at range and shoot you full of arrows before you ever got close. Luna: So at Kadesh, did that work? Lucas: At first it did — but barely. When Ramses charged ahead of his main army and got ambushed by the Hittite chariot force under Muwatalli II, his own chariotry was outnumbered and outflanked. But Ramses himself led a counter-charge with his personal guard, and then the Ne'arin arrived — those were Syrian mercenaries, Naharina they called them in Egyptian. They swung the tide. But here's the thing: the Egyptian chariots couldn't sustain a long fight. They carried only about 30 arrows per man, and once those were gone, they had to retreat to resupply. The Hittites, with their heavier chariots, could keep pressing. So it was actually a near-run thing. Luna: So Ramses' account in the Poem of Pentaur makes him sound invincible, but the reality was more complicated. Lucas: Exactly. The Poem of Pentaur is essentially a propaganda epic — it describes Ramses as a lone warrior who single-handedly defeats the Hittite army, with the god Amun-Re intervening. But the archaeological evidence from Per-Ramesses, Ramses' capital, tells a different story. Manfred Bietak's excavations there found massive chariot workshops and stables that could house hundreds of horses. And the chariots themselves were built to be replaceable — the axles were designed to snap under stress, so you could swap them quickly. That suggests Ramses was thinking in terms of mass production and rapid repair, not just heroic individual combat. Luna: So he was basically running an ancient military-industrial complex. Lucas: Pretty much. And it's not just the hardware — it's the logistics. To field a chariot force of 500 vehicles, you need thousands of horses, and each horse needs about 10 kilograms of fodder per day. Per-Ramesses was built right on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, with access to abundant farmland and the ability to import grain from Nubia. The whole system was designed to keep the chariotry running. And Ramses even had a dedicated unit called the 'Seth-chariotry' — named after the god Seth — that served as his elite shock troops. They were likely the ones who broke the Hittite line at Kadesh. Luna: And after Kadesh, did Ramses keep using chariots in other campaigns? Lucas: Oh, absolutely. He used them in his Libyan and Nubian campaigns as well. In the Libyan war, for example, his chariots swept across the western desert to disperse the Tjehenu and Tjemehu tribes. And in Nubia, chariots were used to secure the gold mines. The chariot became a symbol of Ramses' power — you see it in reliefs at Abu Simbel and Medinet Habu, always with Ramses riding high, bow drawn, enemies trampled under hoof. But there's a darker side too: the Ne'arin mercenaries were essentially chariot for hire, and they didn't always stick around when the pay ran out. Ramses had to manage that relationship carefully. Luna: Wait — so the Ne'arin were charioteers themselves? I thought they were infantry. Lucas: No, they were chariot troops from the region of Naharina, what we'd call northern Syria. They were famous for their skill with the composite bow, and Ramses hired them to supplement his own chariot corps. At Kadesh, their arrival was decisive — they hit the Hittite flank just as the Egyptian army was reforming. But relying on mercenaries always carries risk. Later in his reign, Ramses had to deal with the Sherden, who were sea raiders that he eventually incorporated into his own forces. So the chariot corps was a mix of Egyptian elites, foreign mercenaries, and captured enemy equipment. Luna: It sounds like Ramses was less of a solo hero and more of a brilliant organiser. Lucas: Absolutely. And that organisational skill is what let him rule for 66 years. But let's talk a bit about the chariot's design itself, because it's genuinely clever. The Egyptians used a technique called 'cold bending' to shape the wood — they'd soak the timber in water and then bend it over a form. The frame was made from local woods like acacia, but the spokes were often imported from Lebanon — cedar or pine. The floor was made of woven leather strips, which gave the crew a flexible platform that absorbed shock. And the reins? They were long enough that the driver could wrap them around his waist, leaving his hands free to shoot. That's a trick that Ramses himself is shown doing in the reliefs at Karnak. Luna: I've seen those — he's depicted very large, almost god-like, with the reins around his body. Lucas: Exactly. But here's the thing: the chariot wasn't just for war. It was also a status symbol. Chariots were painted and decorated with gold leaf, and they appeared in religious processions and royal parades. Ramses even had a chariot dedicated to the god Ptah, which he supposedly rode during the Beautiful Feast of the Valley. So the chariot bridged the gap between utility and ideology — it was a weapon, a statement, and a divine instrument all at once. Luna: Before we go on — quick honest thing here. This depth of research takes time, and we keep the show completely ad-free. A small group of listeners makes that possible through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what funds making this many of these episodes. Lucas: Yeah, and if you're one of those people, thank you — you're the reason we can spend hours on chariot wheel spokes. For anyone else, it's a simple way to keep the show going if you find value in it. No pressure, just the truth. Luna: Alright — so back to the chariots. Did the design change much over Ramses' long reign? Lucas: It did. Early in his reign, the chariots were similar to those of his father Seti I — fairly standard, with a single bow-case mounted on the side. But after Kadesh, Ramses introduced modifications: reinforced axles, larger quivers that could hold 40 arrows, and a new type of wheel with eight spokes instead of six, which was stronger. You can see this evolution in the reliefs at the Ramesseum, his mortuary temple. And interestingly, the Hittites also adapted — after the peace treaty, there was a certain amount of technology transfer. Hittite chariots started to lighten up, and Egyptian chariots sometimes incorporated Hittite-style bronze scales on the body. Luna: So the chariot was a living technology, always evolving. Lucas: Exactly. And it didn't die with Ramses either. His son Merenptah used chariots in his Libyan campaign and against the Sea Peoples. In fact, the Sea Peoples — the Sherden, Peleset, and others — were so impressed by Egyptian chariotry that some of them joined the Egyptian army as mercenary charioteers. So the legacy of Ramses' chariot corps lasted well into the 20th Dynasty. But eventually, chariots became less effective as cavalry developed — mounted archers could do the same job with fewer resources. By the Third Intermediate Period, chariotry was mostly ceremonial. Luna: But for Ramses, they were the key to his military success. Lucas: Absolutely. Without the chariot, Ramses couldn't have projected power across Syria, Nubia, and Libya. They gave him speed, mobility, and a psychological edge. And the fact that he personally fought from a chariot — that image of the warrior-pharaoh driving his enemies before him — became the template for Egyptian kingship for centuries. Every pharaoh after him wanted to be seen as a chariot-riding conqueror, even if they never actually went to war. Luna: Fascinating. So next time I see a relief of Ramses in his chariot, I'll know there's a whole world of logistics and innovation behind it. Lucas: Exactly. It's not just a picture — it's a story of technology, strategy, and the endless effort to keep a civilisation moving.