section_path: Military campaigns/Syrian campaigns/First Syrian campaign
section_name: First Syrian campaign
paragraph_text: First Syrian campaign
  
  The immediate antecedents to the Battle of Kadesh were the early campaigns of Ramesses II into Canaan. His first campaign seems to have taken place in the fourth year of his reign and was commemorated by the erection of what became the first of the Commemorative stelae of Nahr el-Kalb near what is now Beirut. The inscription is almost totally illegible due to weathering.
  
  In the fourth year of his reign, he captured the Hittite vassal state of the Amurru during his campaign in Syria.