Issue 129 - The Bitter Lakes

While iron started to be used for weapons and armour in the northern Mediterranean and Near East at the end of the second millennium BC, the Bronze Age lasted longer in Egypt. Until the arrival of the Persians in the sixth century BC, pharaoh's armies fought with much the same equipment Thutmose and Ramesses II had used in their famous campaigns.

One of these armies was put to the test in the late 10th century BC. Pharaoh Shoshenq I went on campaign against the armies of Israel on behalf of his ally Rehoboam, king of Judah. On the way to Israel, the pharaoh's army ran into a coalition of raiders who had been an irritation in the Sinai for a long time. He confronted them at the Bitter Lakes.

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