The author of the acclaimed "Gods, Graves, and Scholars" tells the dramatic tale of the Hittites, an Indo-European people who became a dominant power in the Middle East. Their struggle in Egypt with Ramses II for control of Syria led to one of the greatest battles of the ancient world. The fall of the Hittite empire was sudden, and historical records were scarce - until the discovery of cuneiform tablets yielded a rich store of information on which this work is based.