Millennia:	2nd millennium BC
Centuries:	14th century BC - 13th century BC - 12th century BC
Decades:	1300s BC 1290s BC 1280s BC - 1270s BC - 1260s BC 1250s BC 1240s BC
Years:	1279 BC 1278 BC 1277 BC 1276 BC 1275 BC 1274 BC 1273 BC 1272 BC 1271 BC 1270 BC
Categories:	Births - Deaths - State leaders - Sovereign states Establishments - Disestablishments

Events and trends

• 1279 BC — Pharaoh Seti I dies.
• c. 1279 BC (May 31) — Ramesses II (19th dynasty) becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.
• c. 1279 BC–1213 BC — Temple of Ramesses II in Abu Simbel, Nubia (19th dynasty) was built. Wall painting of Queen Nefertari making an offering to the god Isis in the tomb of Nefertari was made. The tomb is located in the Valley of the Queens in Egypt.
• c. 1279 BC – 1213 BC — Temple of Amun, Mut and Khons, Luxor, Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt, is built.
• 1278 BC — Ramesses II defeats the Shardana sea pirates.
• 1274 BC
  • The Battle of Kadesh (or Battle of Qadesh) in Syria, regarded as the largest (5–6,000) chariot vs. chariot battle in antiquity. The end of the Battle of Kadesh was followed by some 15 years of border warfare ended by the signing of the earliest known peace treaty between the Hittites and Egyptians, the Treaty of Qadesh. The treaty also formed an alliance— the Hittite and Egyptian Empires against the Assyrian Empire to the East.^[1]
  • Shalmaneser I becomes King of the Assyrian Empire.

Significant people