city state · Anatolia and the Levant

Niya

1500 BCE – 1340 BCE (approx.) · capital Niya

Niya, a small kingdom of the middle Orontes, known for the elephant herds that pharaoh Thutmose III hunted in its marshes.

Origins

Niya lay in the middle Orontes valley, probably near Apamea, in a region of marshes and fertile land. It emerged in the 15th century BCE as a minor kingdom in the orbit of the Mitanni Empire.

Rule and society

Little is known of its government. Thutmose III of the Egyptian Empire New Kingdom recorded hunting about 120 elephants there, and the city appears in the Amarna letters and the archives of Alalakh. According to Hittite sources, its king Takuwa sought peace with Suppiluliuma I, but his brother Aki-Teshub turned the city against the Hittites.

Decline and legacy

Suppiluliuma I of the Hittite Empire took Niya c. 1340 BCE during his conquest of Syria, and it disappears as a kingdom.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

Connections (3)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Niya. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/niya
MLA
“Niya.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/niya. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Niya.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/niya.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Niya’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/niya (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻