Markabata

A lightweight chariot that helps Egyptian commanders observe the Battlefield, dispatch orders and fire arrows at their enemies.

Egyptian craftsmen built a type of chariot that was renowned for its light weight and speed. Constructed using approximately 50 pieces of heated and shaped wood, the chariots were mounted on light spoked wheels up to two meters in diameter. This allowed them to remain stable on very rough terrain. The chariot was pulled by two horses and carried a driver and an archer. The increasing use of war chariots from the second millennium BCE onward needs to be put into context with the cost of this kind of equipment. None of the varieties of wood required to build chariots actually grew in the Nile Valley. Pharaohs often had to import wood from the western Mediterranean. In Egyptian iconography, the chariot and archer were signs that indicated an affiliation to the political elite.