Ramses II, the most famous Egyptian pharaoh, ruled Egypt in the 13th Century BCE.  He fought in several key engagements, the Nubian and Syrian campaigns, as well as the Battle of Kadesh. The Egyptian king Ramesses II reigned on the throne for 67 years, commencing in 1279 BCE. During his long reign, he engaged in a number of campaigns, but his renown is built on a single engagement, the Battle of Kadesh, which took place about 1275 BCE. Having arrived in Syria, he immediately set out to challenge the Hittites, an Anatolian nation, for sovereignty of the country. While marching through the Bekaa Valley with his army, which was structured into four divisions, he was almost completely undone by bad intelligence and the superior generalship of the Hittite king, Mutwallah, who dispatched agents to misinform Ramesses about the Hittite position. Ramesses allowed his forces to spread out on the march, believing that his adversary was far to the north. While the rear of his army was still marching, he set up camp outside the city of Kadesh to wait for them. When the Egyptians were forced to retreat, the Hittites attempted a surprise flanking move, attacking the Egyptian rear with a chariot charge in bulk. Ramesses’ army had dispersed, and the enemies had shifted their attention to the camp, threatening the pharaoh himself in the process. He is said to have launched a counter-offensive against his chariot and driven the host away. His propagandists worked hard to ensure that the battle’s records emphasized his actions in averting calamity rather than his audacity, which had led him into a trap in the first place.