The Hittite Empire — Bronze Age Power of Anatolia (c. 1650–1200 BC)
The Indo-European empire centered on Hattusa in central Anatolia, a peer rival of Egypt and Babylon that produced the earliest surviving peace treaty and vanished in the Bronze Age Collapse, remaining lost to history for three thousand years.
Events
Founding of the Old Kingdom at Hattusa
Labarna I and his successor Hattusili I consolidated the Hittite state from its base at Kussara, making Hattusa the capital and campaigning to the Euphrates. The dynasty adopted the land's existing Hattian culture and language into its administration.
Location: Hattusa, Anatolia
Mursili I Sacks Babylon
King Mursili I marched nearly 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) down the Euphrates and sacked Babylon, ending the dynasty of Hammurabi. The Hittites did not occupy the city, returning to Anatolia; the power vacuum elevated the Kassites and later the Mitanni.
Location: Babylon, Mesopotamia
Recovery From the Wars of Survival
After decades in which enemies burned Hattusa and the court ruled from exile at Samuha, Suppiluliuma I restored the capital and rebuilt the army. He then destroyed the Mitanni kingdom in a series of Syrian campaigns, making the Hittites the dominant power of the northern Near East.
Location: Samuha and Hattusa, Anatolia
The Battle of Kadesh Against Egypt
The armies of Muwatalli II and the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II fought the largest chariot battle known from antiquity on the Orontes River. Both sides later claimed victory; the battle ended Egyptian ambitions in northern Syria and set the two empires on a path to settlement.
Location: Near Kadesh, Syria
The Egyptian–Hittite Treaty
Hattusili III and the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II concluded a parity treaty of alliance and mutual non-aggression, recorded in Hittite cuneiform at Hattusa and in hieroglyphs on Egyptian temple walls. It is the earliest surviving international peace treaty.
Location: Hattusa and Memphis
The Fall of Hattusa in the Bronze Age Collapse
Hattusa was burned and abandoned around 1200 BC as part of the wider Bronze Age Collapse that ended palace civilization across the eastern Mediterranean. Suppiluliuma II, the last attested king, disappears from the record; successor Neo-Hittite states survived in Syria.
Location: Hattusa, Anatolia
Rediscovery of Hattusa
German excavations led by Hugo Winckler at Bogazkoy uncovered the royal archive of thousands of cuneiform tablets. Bedrich Hrozny's decipherment by 1915 established Hittite as an Indo-European language, returning the empire to the historical record after three millennia.
Location: Bogazkoy, Ottoman Empire
Hattusa Becomes a World Heritage Site
UNESCO inscribed Hattusa on the World Heritage List, recognizing its temples, royal archives, and rock reliefs of Yazilikaya as the premier monumental record of Bronze Age Anatolia.
Location: Bogazkale, Turkey