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The Late Bronze Age (ca. 1500-1200 BC) was a period of great abundance and political stability in the ancient Near East. During the period, some of the greatest peoples of the ancient world, such as the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Assyrians, built magnificent palaces and temples and developed the first true global system of trade and diplomacy. Among the major powers that built this global system was the lesser known, but no less important, Hittite people who ruled over a vast kingdom that included most of the modern day nation-state of Turkey, as well as portions of the Lebanon and Syria.  Although most non-academics know little about the Hittites, there is no doubt that they greatly influenced the course of history in the Late Bronze Age Near East. Through a number of wars and hard fought battles that took place over a several centuries period, the Hittites were able to build a military machine that rivalled anything their Near Eastern contemporaries could field. Eventually, the Hittites used that army to expand their territory, which contributed to the collapse of one of the other great Bronze Age Near Eastern kingdoms – Mitanni. Once the Hittites subdued Mitanni, they turned their attention to the Levant in the south, which is where they eventually came into conflict with the Egyptians. The wars between the Hittites and Egyptians ultimately ended in a peace treaty and alliance between the two kingdoms, but the other great kingdoms were put on notice that the Hittites were a military and diplomatic force that could not be ignored.