Latest / Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History / Ramses the Great's Naval Battle of the Delta
Transcript
- Lucas: You know, when we talk about Ramses the Great, everyone immediately goes to the Battle of Kadesh — that massive chariot clash against the Hittites. But there's another battle he fought that was just as decisive, maybe more so for Egypt's long-term survival, and it happened not on a dusty plain but on the water. Luna: A naval battle? I don't think we've touched on that yet. Lucas: Exactly. This is the Naval Battle of the Delta, around 1175 BCE, late in Ramses's reign. The enemy was the Sea Peoples — that loose coalition of raiders and migrants who were tearing across the eastern Mediterranean. By that point, they'd already destroyed the Hittite empire, sacked cities along the coast of what's now Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and they were bearing down on Egypt. Luna: So this is the same Sea Peoples we talked about in the context of the land invasion, right? The ones Merenptah fought? Luna: What do the reliefs actually show? Lucas: They show a chaotic melee. Egyptian ships — fairly sleek, with a single mast and oars — are locked in combat with enemy ships that look different, maybe more like the round-hulled ships of the Sea Peoples. The Egyptians are using bows and arrows, spears, and boarding actions. Some of the Sea Peoples are shown as Sherden — you can tell by their horned helmets and round shields. And here's the ironic part: the Sherden had once been pirates raiding Egypt's coast, but Ramses had recruited many of them as mercenaries. So in this battle, you have Sherden fighting on both sides. Luna: That's wild. Former pirates now fighting for the Pharaoh against their own kin. Lucas: Exactly. The Sherden who served Ramses were given land and privileges — they became a kind of elite guard. But the ones who came with the Sea Peoples were still raiders. The battle seems to have taken place at the mouth of one of the Nile's branches, probably the Pelusiac, near the Delta's eastern edge. The Egyptians had the advantage of knowing the shallow waters and the channels. The Sea Peoples' ships, being heavier and designed for open sea, might have gotten stuck in the mud or been more vulnerable to archers on the banks. Luna: Did Ramses himself command the battle? Lucas: The reliefs show him as a giant figure shooting arrows from his ship, but that's standard propaganda. He was probably in his sixties by then, so he may have been at the capital, Per-Ramesses, directing things from a distance. But the real hero might have been his navy commander — we don't have his name, but the reliefs show Egyptian ships with lion-headed prows, and the crews are very disciplined. They used grappling hooks to pull enemy ships close, then boarded them. The battle was a decisive Egyptian victory. The Sea Peoples never managed to establish a foothold in Egypt, unlike in other parts of the Near East. Luna: So what happened to the Sea Peoples after that? Lucas: They scattered. Some groups, like the Peleset — that's the biblical Philistines — settled along the coast of Canaan, where they became a major presence. Others, like the Tjekker and Denyen, also found homes in the Levant. The ones who weren't killed or captured probably merged into the local populations. But Egypt was spared the kind of destruction that befell the Hittites and the Mycenaean Greeks. Luna: It's interesting that this battle isn't as famous as Kadesh, even though it might have been more consequential. Lucas: Absolutely. Kadesh was a showpiece — Ramses turned a near-disaster into a propaganda victory. But the Naval Battle of the Delta was a real defensive triumph. It protected the heartland of Egypt at a time when the entire Bronze Age world was collapsing. Without that victory, we might be talking about a very different Egypt. Luna: And we only know about it because of the Medinet Habu reliefs, right? Lucas: Primarily, yes. There are also some inscriptions at Karnak and a few papyri that mention grain shipments to support the navy, but the Medinet Habu scenes are the most detailed. They show the battle in stages: the approach, the clash, the boarding, and the aftermath with prisoners being led away. It's one of the earliest detailed depictions of naval warfare in history. Luna: That's amazing. I'm surprised it doesn't come up more often in documentaries. Lucas: It's one of those things that's well-known among Egyptologists but hasn't really penetrated the popular imagination. Partly because the reliefs are crowded and complex — not as easy to read as the Kadesh battle scenes. But once you know what you're looking at, it's breathtaking. Lucas: And you know, this connects to something we've talked about before — the idea that Ramses was not just a builder and a diplomat, but also a military innovator. The navy was a crucial part of Egypt's defense, and he invested heavily in it. Luna: Speaking of investment, it occurs to me that shows like this — where we go deep into topics like a single naval battle — they take a lot of research and time. And we keep them ad-free because that's the kind of experience we want to offer. Lucas: Yeah, that's really important to us. We don't run ads. If you want to support that choice and help us keep doing episodes like this, there's a link: buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small way to keep the show independent. Luna: Every little bit helps, and it means we can keep diving into these specific stories. Lucas: Anyway, back to the battle. One of the most interesting details in the reliefs is the way the Egyptians used archers on the banks to rain arrows on the Sea Peoples' ships, while the navy engaged at close quarters. That coordination between land and river forces was sophisticated. Luna: So they had a combined arms approach, even on the water. Lucas: Exactly. And they also used fire arrows — the reliefs show flames on some of the enemy ships. The Egyptians were not afraid to burn the enemy fleet. It was brutal, efficient warfare. Luna: Were there any prisoners taken? Lucas: Yes, the reliefs show captives being led away, some with their hands tied. And inscriptions mention that many Sea Peoples were incorporated into the Egyptian army as mercenaries, just like the Sherden before them. So the cycle continued. Lucas: This battle also had a psychological impact. It showed that Egypt, under Ramses's leadership, could still project power and defend its borders, even as other empires fell. It bolstered the idea of the pharaoh as the guarantor of order against chaos — ma'at against isfet. Luna: It's a fitting capstone to his military career, then. Lucas: Absolutely. Ramses reigned for 67 years, and this battle came in his later years. It proved that even an aging pharaoh could rally his forces and protect the Two Lands. It's a testament to the resilience of the Egyptian state.