Ancient Middle East and Mediterranean cities destroyed by Bronze Age empires

Human civilization suffered a harrowing setback with the near-simultaneous demise or diminishment of several important empires in the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean region, an event called the Bronze Age collapse.

One of the most powerful empires of the world was the Hittite Empire, centered in modern Turkey and spanning parts of Syria and Iraq. Three consecutive years of severe drought that may have caused crop failures, famine and political-societal disintegration, have been examined by the researchers as a result of the Hittite collapse.

The Hittites, with their capital Hattusa in central Anatolia, were one of the great powers of the ancient world over five centuries. During the glittering New Kingdom period, they became the main geopolitical rivals of ancient Egypt.

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