The disappearance of the Hittites, around 1180 B.C., was a vanishing act with few parallels in history. For at least 450 years, the Hittites controlled much of modern-day Türkiye and beyond—from close to the shores of the Black Sea to the rivers of Mesopotamia and the waters of the Mediterranean. They built sophisticated cities, impressive temples, and an elaborate palace in the rugged countryside of Anatolia. They authored massive archives of cuneiform tablets containing numerous ancient languages and sacred rituals. Their kings benefited from trade routes that reached far beyond the Hittite homeland.Their armies once even penetrated deep into Mesopotamia. Their tangle with Egypt’s Ramses the Great at the Battle of Kadesh resulted in the world’s first peace treaty.