the Battle of Megiddo the year is 1458 BCE and the Regent female pharaoh of
egypt hatshepsut has just died leaving the throne of the Egyptian Empire to thutmose
the third hatshepsut rule had been highly successful being one of the most
powerful resourceful and effective rulers in the country's history largely
kept in his Regent shadow the untested pharaoh inherited a well maintained
Empire with a very well-organized military system however with his
ascension to the throne opportunistic vassal kingdoms in the Empire saw a
chance to a bell and claim the independence once more led by the Prince
of Kadesh the Syrian and Canaanite states of the Empire rose up in
rebellion hoping to take advantage of the untested new Pharaoh however the
situation was made even more serious with the addition of the Prince of
Megiddo to the rebellion Megiddo commanded the main trade routes between
Egypt and the kingdoms of Mesopotamia and as a result was a strategically
important city the coalition between the Canaanites of Megiddo and the Syrians of
Kadesh attracted others dissatisfied with the Egyptian rule who gathered
their forces outside of the city of Megiddo in late 1458 or 1457 BC Thutmose
the third wasted no time in mobilizing his forces and marching from phoebs in
egypt towards the rebel stronghold this army numbered around 10,000 to
20,000 strong being made up of infantry and Egyptian chariots this army covered
a hundred and fifty miles in ten days and rested at the loyal city of Gaza
before moving on to the town of Yemen here Thutmoses halted to
discuss with his senior staff a problem problem was that their route was blocked
by a valley with three possible routes through it one was a narrow pass which
would require the army to march in single file where the risk of ambush was
huge there was also two safer options going around the pass but these were
very predictable and were the most logical and sensible route to take
after much conferring the generals were in favor of the passes around the valley
Thutmoses therefore decided the best route to take was the narrow and
dangerous pass saying that you rubaba take the more dangerous option to prove
his bravery now apartment that chariots had to be
disassembled and the horses had to be led in single-file through luck
Thutmose emerged on the other side with no rebel army there to meet him the rebels
had been expecting him to take one of the two safer routes and as such had
moved a majority of their forces to guard these passes leaving the route to
Megiddo open took Moses recognized the opportunity set up camp and during the
night arrayed his forces closer to the enemy rebels were on a high ground next
to the fortress of Megiddo the Egyptian line was arranged in a concave formation
that threatened both rebel flanks with the Pharaoh placed in the center with
his chariots early in the morning the Egyptians attacked the rebel line
the infantry was soon engaged in brutal hand-to-hand combat combination of
position and numbers along with an early bold attack broke the enemy's will to
fight with their line immediately collapsing those near to the city fled
to it closing the gates behind them complete victory was within Thutmose
grasp however his ill-disciplined army soon gave up chasing the rebels began to
plundered the enemy camp and looting their dead in this confusion the
scattered rebel forces including the Kings at Kadesh and Megiddo managed to
rejoin the rebels in the city using ropes made a clothing many rebels were
able to escape into the city by climbing up the walls
the resulting siege would see the rebels take up to seven months to surrender the
city and its citizens were spared with Thutmose the third requiring each of
the defeated Kings to send a son to the Egyptian Court as a hostage to ensure
the Kings loyalties to Egypt and Fuss the rebellion against the new Pharaoh
Thutmose the third was put down thank you for watching and listening comment below
what battles you would like to see next and I'll be sure to get to them be sure
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