The Battle of Kadesh (approximately 1274 BCE), between Ramesses II and the Hittite King Muwatalli II, was one of the largest chariot battles in ancient history and ended in a famous treaty between the two powers — the earliest surviving peace treaty, preserved in both Egyptian and Hittite versions.

The Hittites were a major military and political power, their capital at Hattusa (modern Boğazkale in central Turkey) a substantial city with impressive architecture and archives containing thousands of clay tablets.

The destruction of Hattusa around 1200 BCE is one of the archaeological signatures of the Bronze Age Collapse.

The city was burned and abandoned, and the Hittite Empire effectively ceased to exist as a political entity.

Successor states calling themselves “Neo-Hittite” continued to exist in northern Syria and southeastern Anatolia for several centuries, but they were shadows of the great empire.