Lukka lands

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The Lukka lands are often mentioned in Hittite texts from the second millennium BC. It denotes a region in the southwestern part of Anatolia. The Lukka lands were never put under permanent Hittite control and were viewed as hostile by the Hittites.

The Lukka figure prominently in Bronze Age texts, including a treaty between the Hittite king Tudhaliya IV and his cousin Kurunta. Trevor Bryce notes:^[1]

From these texts we can conclude the Lukka, or Lukka lands, referred to a regions extending from the western end of Pamphylia, through Lycaonia, Pisidia and Lycia.

Soldiers from the Lukka lands fought on the Hittite side in the famous Battle of Kadesh (ca. 1274 BC) against the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II. A century later the Lukka had turned against the Hittites. The Hittite king Suppiluliuma II tried in vain to defeat the Lukka. They contributed to the collapse of the Hittite empire.

The Lukka is also known from ancient Egyptian texts. They were one of the tribes that constituted the Sea Peoples who invaded Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean in the twelfth century BC.^{[citation needed]}