In the 12th century BCE, the Sea Peoples (also known under several other names, such as Tjekker, Peleset, and Sherden) invaded the Middle East from the eastern Mediterranean. They destroyed and plundered Hattusha, capital of the Hittite Empire, and also attacked Syria and Palestine where many cities were burned and ruined. (Carchemish was one of the cities which survived the Sea People's attacks.) Cyprus had also been overwhelmed and its capital ransacked. Since the Medinet Habu inscriptions depict women and children loaded in ox-carts, the attackers are believed to be migrants looking for a place to settle. Their attacks are reported, for instance, in letters by Ammurapi, the last king of Ugarit, pleading for assistance from Eshuwara, the king of Alasiya: