Quote Originally Posted by soda
The chariots are really ancient. The Egpytians used them but that was back in the days of the Old Kingdom. I can't remember the name of the battle but there was one enormous battle (for the time) between the Egyptians and I believe the Hittites. That was the largest chariot battle ever (several thousand years ago).
Egypt got the chariots from the Hyksos, a people from the north (middle eastern perhaps, but perhaps even indo-european) who conquered most of Egypt for about 100 years. That was called the Second Intermediary Period. After it came the New Kingdom (the Old Kingdom was the one dating back to almost 4000BC) it ranged from about 1600BC until 600BC.

The battle of Kadesh (Qadesh if you like) was indeed the largest chariot battle we know of, but it also the first battle that we can reconstruct with any certainty. It happened in about 1285BC. It wasn't that big really, but it was a serious struggle.