The Earliest Recorded Battle in Human History, Which Later Inspired the Biblical Armageddon

The Battle of Megiddo was the first documented conflict

Pharaoh Thutmose punishing Canaanite prisoners, relief from the temple of Amun, Karnak, Egypt. Image source: Wikimedia Commons.

War has always been a part of our evolution. As soon as people learned to write in the Early Bronze Age, they started keeping track of conflicts. The rulers of Egypt and Mesopotamia wrote about their military campaigns and triumphs.

But it wasn’t until 1457 BC that we come across a detailed account of a battle. In the Battle of Meggido fought between the Egyptians and the Canaanites, Pharaoh Thutmose III provides us with specifics of his entire campaign.

We get information about troops, the strength of each side, strategy, logistics, and victor’s spoils from the Egyptian records. The account was the first of its kind in human history, and it set the standard for describing battles in the future.

The battle became immortal, and the conflict was so devastating that it inspired the biblical narrative of Armageddon. Meggido marked a watershed moment in Egyptian history. It gave the Pharaohs control over important Bronze Age trade routes for the next few hundred years and kept the empire’s borders safe.

Why did the rulers of Egypt and Canaan clash? We need to understand the series of events that led to…