Editing Seti I (section)

===Capture of Kadesh===
{{singlesource|section|date=September 2024}}
[[File:Victory Stela of Seti I, New Kalabsha, Lake Nasser, Egypt.jpg|thumb|Victory Stela of Seti I, New Kalabsha, Lake Nasser, Egypt]]
The greatest achievement of Seti I's foreign policy was the capture of the [[Syria]]n town of [[Kadesh (Syria)|Kadesh]] and neighboring territory of [[Amurru kingdom|Amurru]] from the Hittite Empire. Egypt had not held Kadesh since the time of [[Akhenaten]]. Seti I was successful in defeating a Hittite army that tried to defend the town. He entered the city in triumph together with his son [[Ramesses II]] and erected a victory stela at the site which has been found by archaeologists.<ref>{{Cite book |title= The Monuments of Seti I |last= Brand |first= P.J. |publisher= Brill Academic Pub |year= 2000 |pages=120–122}}</ref> Kadesh, however, soon reverted to Hittite control because the Egyptians did not or could not maintain a permanent military occupation of Kadesh and Amurru so close to the Hittite homelands. It is unlikely that Seti I made a peace treaty with the Hittites or voluntarily returned Kadesh and Amurru, but he may have reached an informal understanding with the Hittite king [[Muwatalli II|Muwatalli]] on the precise boundaries of their empires. Five years after Seti I's death, however, his son [[Ramesses II]] resumed hostilities and made a failed attempt to [[Battle of Kadesh|recapture Kadesh]]. Kadesh was henceforth effectively held by the Hittites even though Ramesses temporarily occupied the city in his 8th year.

The traditional view of Seti I's wars was that he restored the Egyptian empire after it had been lost in the time of Akhenaten. This was based on the chaotic picture of Egyptian-controlled Syria and Palestine seen in the [[Amarna letters]], a cache of diplomatic correspondence from the time of Akhenaten found at Akhenaten's capital at el-Amarna in Middle Egypt. Recent scholarship, however, indicates that the empire was not lost at this time, except for its northern border provinces of Kadesh and Amurru in Syria and Lebanon. While evidence for the military activities of Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Horemheb is fragmentary or ambiguous, Seti I left a war monument that glorifies his achievements, along with a number of texts, all of which tend to magnify his prowess on the battlefield.