King Seti I
Family
The second pharaoh of Egypt’s 19th Dynasty during the New Kingdom was Seti I (or Sethos I in Greek). He was the father of Ramesses II and the son of Ramesses I and Sitre.
Reign of king Seti I
Horemheb, Ramesses I, and Seti I’s top priorities were to restore order to the kingdom. And to reaffirm Egypt’s sovereignty over Canaan and Syria. Which had been threatened by the growing external pressures from the Hittite state. After the enormous social upheavals caused by Akhenaten’s religious reform. Seti engaged the Hittites in combat multiple times with vigour and resolve. Without eliminating the Hittites as a possible threat to Egypt. He won control of the majority of the contentious areas for Egypt, and he typically brought his military battles to a successful conclusion. Large scenes erected on the front of the Amun temple in Karnak preserved the memory of Seti I’s military victories.
On the west bank of the Nile at Thebes, Seti built a burial temple that is today known as Qurna (Mortuary Temple of Seti I), while his son subsequently finished building a beautiful temple at Abydos made of white limestone that features superb relief scenes. Memphis served as his home base. Peers regarded him as a wonderful king, but Ramesses II, his son, has since antiquity eclipsed his repute
Military Achievements of King Seti I
In the first ten years of his rule, Seti I engaged in a number of wars in western Asia, Libya, and Nubia. Seti’s combat scenes on the north external wall of the Karnak Hypostyle Hall and many royal artefacts with inscriptions referring to conflicts in Canaan and Nubia serve as the primary sources for his military exploits.
He marched his soldiers via the “Horus Military Road” in his first year in power, a coastal route that connected the Egyptian city of Tjaru in the northeastern part of the Egyptian Nile Delta with the village of Canaan in the contemporary Gaza Strip. The detailed war scenes painted by the king on the north wall of the Karnak Hypostyle Hall portray a succession of military forts called The Ways of Horus, each with a well. The king’s army engaged in combat with local Bedouins known as the Shasu while crossing the Sinai. He was honoured in Canaan by some of the city states he had travelled through.
Others, like as Yenoam and Beth-Shan, had to be seized but were quickly vanquished. According to Grdsseloff, Rowe, Albrecht, and Albright, Seti conquered Asian nomads in his war with the Apirus, as evidenced by a stele in Beth-Shan (Hebrews). The man from beyond the river),” Dussaud said in response to Albright’s article.
Egypt seemed to reach beyond the river. His military scenes include the assault on Yenoam, but do not depict later engagements, such as the defeat of Beth-Shan, as the monarch sent a division of his army rather than himself. The first campaign extended into Lebanon, where the monarch won the acquiescence of the local leaders after forcing them to harvest priceless cedar wood for tribute.
During an unspecified period of his rule, Seti I overcame tribesmen from Libya who had encroached on Egypt’s western frontier. Even though they were destroy, the Libyans continued to be a menace to Egypt under Merenptah and Ramesses III. In the eighth year of Seti I, the Egyptian army also put down a small “rebellion” in Nubia. Although his crown prince, the future Ramesses II, may have taken part, Seti himself did not.
Capture of Kadesh of King Seti I
The greatest success of Seti I’s foreign policy was the conquest of the Hittite Empire by the Syrian town of Kadesh and the nearby region of Amurru. Kadesh has not been under Egyptian hands since the reign of Akhenaten. An attempt to protect the town by a Hittite army was successful by Seti I. Together with his son Ramesses II. He triumphantly invaded the city and built a victory stela at the location where archaeologists later discovered. However, due to the Egyptians’ inability or unwillingness to maintain a long-term military occupation of Kadesh and Amurru so near to the Hittite homelands. Kadesh quickly returned to Hittite rule. Although it is improbable that Seti I signed a peace treaty with the Hittites or willingly gave up Kadesh and Amurru.
It is possible that he and the Hittite monarch Muwatalli came to an informal agreement regarding the specific borders of their respective empires. However, five years after Seti I’s demise, Ramesses II reopened hostilities and made an unsuccessful attempt to retake Kadesh. Even though Ramesses briefly took control of the city in his eighth year, the Hittites now effectively held Kadesh. According to the conventional wisdom, Seti I’s campaigns restored the Egyptian empire after it had been lost during Akhenaten. The Amarna letters. a collection of diplomatic correspondence from the reign of Akhenaten discovered in Akhenaten’s capital at el-Amarna in Middle Egypt. Were the inspiration for this.
Which was based on the chaotic depiction of an Egypt-controlled Syria and Palestine. Recent research, however, suggests that, except from its northern border provinces of Kadesh. And Amurru in Syria and Lebanon, the empire was not lost at this period. While there is scant or conflicting evidence supporting the military exploits of Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, and Horemheb. Seti I has left us with a striking war monument that celebrates his accomplishments. Avariety of texts that all tend to support his claims to emphasise his might in combat.
Tomb of king Seti I
The tomb of Pharaoh Seti I of the Nineteenth Dynasty is know as Tomb KV17. And is situate in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. It is also referre to as “Belzoni’s tomb,” “the Tomb of Apis,” and “the Tomb of Psammis, son of Nechois.” It is one of the valley’s best-decorat tombs.
