The Oldest Peace Treaty Hangs on a Wall at the UN

Walk the second-floor corridor of the United Nations Conference building in New York, near the Security Council Chamber, and you pass a copper replica of the oldest known peace treaty on Earth.

The original was struck around the 13th century BC between Ramesses II, pharaoh of Egypt, and Hattusili III, king of the Hittites. After their empires clashed at the Battle of Kadesh, the two superpowers eventually agreed to lasting peace, a mutual-defence alliance, and the return of fugitives. Both sides kept their own copies, and remarkably, both survive: Egypt carved its version into temple walls, while the Hittite text endured on clay tablets unearthed at Hattusa in modern Turkey.

It pledges eternal friendship, non-aggression, and mutual help — principles that read like a charter written 3,000 years early.

Turkey presented the UN with the replica in 1970, and its placement is deliberate. The ancient promises of territorial integrity and shared defence echo the founding ideals of the organisation itself, linking Bronze Age diplomacy to the modern world.