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[[File: LibyansAbuSimbal.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left|Relief of Captured Nubian, Libyan, and Canaanite Prisoners from Ramesses II’s Temple at Abu Simbel]]

During ancient Egypt’s New Kingdom, from 1300 to 1170 BC, the Libyans invaded Egypt five times. But before, during, and after those invasions, the Libyans had already begun migrating to Egypt <i>en masse</i> as tribes and family units, usually to the Delta region. The reason, or reasons, for the migration remain unclear, but some modern scholars believe it may have been precipitated by a severe drought in Libya that affected the Libyans ability to live as they had for centuries. <ref> Leahy, p. 53</ref> Whatever the causes, when the Libyans migrated into Egypt they came as both settlers and warriors.

The first significant clashes between the Libyans and Egyptians took place during the reigns of kings Seti I (reigned ca. 1305-1290 BC) and Ramesses II (ruled ca. 1290-1224 BC) in the Nineteenth Dynasty of the New Kingdom. Inscriptions from the Karnak Temple in Thebes relate details of Seti I’s two wars with the Libyans, which took place sometime after his second year on the throne. <ref> Breasted, Henry, ed. and trans. <i>Ancient Records of Egypt.</i> Volume 3, The Nineteenth Dynasty (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2001), p. 58</ref> Seti’s efforts to stem the Libyan tide were only partially successful, though, as his son and successor, Ramesses II, continued to deal with the threat from the west. In response, as noted earlier, Ramesses II erected a series of border forts to deal with the Libyans. The actions of Seti I and Ramesses II only proved to be a band-aid on a hemorrhage because their successors continued to deal with the Libyan threat, which proved to be existential.