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*Includes pictures *Includes ancient accounts and passages about the civilizations *Includes a bibliography for further reading "Whoever after me becomes king resettles Hattusas, let the Stormgod of the Sky strike him!" - A Hittite inscription found at the capital city of Hattusa The pages of world history textbooks contain a litany of "lost" empires and civilizations, but usually, upon further review, it is revealed that these so called lost empires are often just lesser known cultures that had a less apparent impact on history than other more well-known civilizations. When one scours the pages of history for a civilization that was inexplicably lost, but had a great impact during its time, very few candidates can be found, but the Hittites are a notable example. In fact, the Hittites are an ancient people who remain somewhat enigmatic, and perhaps little known to most people, but their influence on the ancient Near East is undeniable. From high on their capital of Hattusa in central Anatolia, the Hittites were able to conquer and control a kingdom that roughly comprised the area of the modern nation-states of Turkey, Syria, and parts of Iraq and Lebanon through a combination of brute military force and shrewd diplomatic machinations. Compared to some of their contemporaries - including the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians - the Hittites were somewhat distant both culturally and geographically. With that said, the influence of the Hittites on the politics, economy, and overall situation of the ancient Near East cannot be understated; the Hittites were a force to be reckoned with while they existed. The sources used to reconstruct Hittite history and chronology are many and varied, and since the Hittites were a literate people who developed a fairly sophisticated corpus of literature, ancient Hittite archives can be used to reconstruct events.The Egyptian sources also provide excellent details on events that either the Hittites refused to mention in their own t