Ramesses’ son and eventual successor Merneptah continues…

King Shattuara of Mitanni, a son or nephew of Wasahatta, rebels against the Assyrian yoke with the help of the Hittites and the nomadic Ahlamu around 1250 BCE in the reign of Shalmaneser I (1270s-1240s).

His army is well prepared; they have occupied all the mountain passes and water holes, so that the Assyrian army suffers from thirst during their advance.

Nevertheless, Shalmaneser wins a crushing victory.

He claims to have slain fourteen thousand four hundred men; the rest are blinded and carried away.

His inscriptions mention the conquest of nine fortified temples; one hundred and eighty Hurrian cities are "turned into rubble mounds", and Shalmaneser "…slaughtered like sheep the armies of the Hittites and the Ahlamu his allies…".

The cities from Taidu to Irridu are captured, as well as all of Mount Kashiar to Eluhat and the fortresses of Sudu and Harranu to Carchemish on the Euphrates.

Another inscription mentions the construction of a temple to Adad in Kahat, a city of Mitanni that must have been occupied as well.

A part of the population is deported and serves as cheap labor.

Administrative documents mention barley allotted to "uprooted men", deportees from Mitanni.

For example, the governor of the city Nahur, Meli-Sah receives barley to be distributed to deported persons from Shuduhu "as seed, food for their oxen and for themselves".

The Assyrians build a line of frontier fortifications against the Hittites on the Balikh River.

Mitanni is now ruled by the Assyrian grand-vizier Ili-ippada, a member of the Royal family, who takes the title of king (sharru) of Hanilgalbat.

He resides in the newly built Assyrian administrative center at Tell Sabi Abyad, governed by the Assyrian steward Tammitte.

Assyrians maintain not only military and political control, but seem to have dominated trade as well, as no Hurrian names appear in private records of Shalmaneser's time.

Ramesses claimed a great victory at Kadesh but the result was probably indecisive, and sixteen years later the Hittites under Hattusilis III conclude with the Egyptians a peace treaty, mutual defense pact, and dynastic marriage.

One of the best-preserved ziggurats, and one of the few existent ziggurats outside of Mesopotamia, is Chogha Zanbil in western Iran, built about 1250 BCE by the Elamite king Untash-Napirisha, mainly to honor the great god Inshushinak.

Millawanda is next mentioned in the "Tawagalawa letter,” written by a Hittite king (generally accepted as Hattusili III) to a king of Ahhiyawa around 1250 BCE, part of a series including the Manapa-Tarhunta letter and the Milawata letter, all of which are less securely dated.

The Tawagalawa letter notes that Milawata has a governor, Atpa, who is under Ahhiyawan (today known as Achaean) jurisdiction; and that the town of Atriya is under Milesian jurisdiction.

The Manapa-Tarhunta letter also mentions Atpa.

Together the two letters tell that the adventurer Piyama-Radu had humiliated Manapa-Tarhunta before Atpa (in addition to other misadventures); a Hittite king then chased Piyama-Radu into Millawanda and, in the Tawagalawa letter, requested Piyama-Radu's extradition to Hatti.

The Milawata letter mentions a joint expedition by the Hittite king and a Luwiyan vassal (probably Kupanta-Kurunta of Mira) against Milawata (apparently its new name), and notes that Milawata (and Atriya) are now under Hittite control.

Tiryns' fortifications are again extended in the middle of the thirteenth century to include the lower part of the hill to the north.

Tudhaliya IV, the younger son of King Hattusili III of the Hittite Empire, was likely born in his father's court in Hattusa, after his brother and crown prince Nerikkaili but still while their father was governing on his brother Muwatalli II's behalf.

He had been a good friend of his cousin Kurunta, who, in the struggle for the throne between Mursili III and Hattusili, had given his loyalty to his uncle, Hattusili, over his father, Mursili, and Hattusili had ordered that they stay on good terms.

After Hattusili as King had drawn up a treaty with "Ulmi-Tessup" that confirmed Kurunta's vassal kingship over Tarhuntassa, his father's former capital, mentioned in the so-called Tawagalawa Letter, Hattusili had elevated Tudhaliya over his older brother to be his crown prince.

However, most of the territory under Tarhuntassa's nominal sway has fallen into the hands of Lukkan warriors acting with support from Ahhiyawa.

Kurunta apparently has spent all of Hattusili's reign slowly reconquering the lost territory.

Tudhaliya, after succeeding to the kingship in 1237 BCE, draws up a treaty, recorded on a bronze tablet, confirming the links between him and Kurunta.

At the time the treaty is sealed, it is clear that Kurunta is still actively reconquering the west, where the city Parha (Classical Perge in Pamphylia) is expected to fall into his hands.

For modern scholarship, this treaty is very important, as it has been used to resolve many of the disputes about west Anatolian geography.

Further, it is in a state of near perfect preservation, making it a rare and valuable artifact.

The so-called Elamite Middle Period, an era of increasing power and prosperity which began around 1500 BCE, sees a surge of spectacular architecture and sculpture at such Elamite centers as Dur-Untash which means 'town of Untash' (present-day Chogha Zanbil, near Susa), built by Untash-Napirisha.

Built mainly to honor the great god Inshushinak, its original name was Dur Untash, but it is unlikely that many people, besides priests and servants, ever live here.

The complex is protected by three concentric walls which define the main areas of the 'town'.

The inner area is wholly taken up with a great ziggurat dedicated to the main god, which was built over an earlier square temple with storage rooms also built by Untash-Napirisha.

The middle area holds eleven temples for lesser gods.

It is believed that twenty-two temples were originally planned, but the king dies before they can be finished, and his successors discontinue the building work.

In the outer area are royal palaces, a funerary palace containing five subterranean royal tombs.

Some scholars speculate, based on the large number of temples and sanctuaries at Chogha Zanbil, that Untash-Napirisha attempted to create a new religious center (possibly intended to replace Susa) which would unite the gods of both highland and lowland Elam at one site.

Petroleum exploration in the region today threatens the very foundations of the site, as various seismic tests have been undertaken to explore for reserves of petroleum.

Digging for oil has been undertaken as close as three hundred meters away from the ziggurat, which is considered to be the best preserved example in the world.

Tikulti-Ninurta I begins construction in 1241 BCE on the temple of Ishtar, an internalized ziggurat that features an off-axis doorway to the cult room and two flights of interior stairs leading to a niche for the cult statue.

Assyrian King Tukulti-Ninurta (known in Greek legends as Ninos), who reigns from 1243, captures and plunders Babylon.

Assyrian forces loot and destroy temples for the the first time in Assyrian history.

Ramesses fortifies the western coast road of Egypt against Libyan invaders and constructs several large temples, most notably that at Abu Simbel in Nubia, where the four colossal statues of Ramesses II that form the facade of his rock-cut temple of Re Harakte, immense and imbued with awesome strength, exemplify the arc of the sculptural representations of Egypt’s kings in this epoch.

The plan of the impressive temple is similar to that of Egyptian freestanding temples except that the structure is carved out of a cliff face and the enormous statues of the king replace the pylons.