Ramesses II first campaign seems to have taken place in the fourth year of his reign. Commemorated by the erection of what became the first of the Commemorative stelae of Nahr el-Kalb near what is now Beirut. The inscription is almost totally illegible due to weathering that only the name Ramesses II and the date “year 4” can be read.
Additional records tell he was forced to fight a Canaanite prince who was mortally wounded by an Egyptian archer, and whose army subsequently, was routed. Ramesses II carried off the princes of Canaan as live prisoners to Egypt. Ramesses II then plundered the chiefs of the Asiatics in their own lands, returning every year to his headquarters at Riblah to exact tribute. In the fourth year of his reign, he captured the Hittite vassal state of the Amurru during his campaign in Syria.