Treaty of Kadesh

The Treaty of Kadesh, concluded around 1259 BC (the twenty-first regnal year of Ramesses II) between the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II and the Hittite king Hattusili III, is the oldest surviving peace treaty whose full text is known, sealing an end to decades of Egyptian-Hittite conflict over control of Syria that had culminated in the inconclusive Battle of Kadesh some sixteen years earlier. Its terms establish mutual non-aggression, a defensive alliance against outside attack or internal rebellion, and reciprocal extradition of political refugees, binding, in its own words, the two kings and "the children of the children" who would succeed them. The treaty survives in two forms: an Egyptian hieroglyphic version carved on temple walls at Karnak and the Ramesseum, and a cuneiform Akkadian version found on clay tablets at the Hittite capital Hattusa, the two versions differing enough in emphasis that each side appears to have cast itself as the party that sued for peace. A replica of the tablet is displayed at the United Nations headquarters as an early symbol of international treaty-making.