The Taking of Joppa is an ancient Egyptian tale describing the conquest of the town of Joppa

Jaffa

Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...

 by Thutmose III

Thutmose III

Thutmose III was the sixth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. During the first twenty-two years of Thutmose's reign he was co-regent with his stepmother, Hatshepsut, who was named the pharaoh...

's general Djehuti

General Djehuty: 18th dynasty

Djehuty was a general under the ancient Egyptian king Thutmosis III in the 18th Dynasty. Djehuty bears the titles king's scribe, overseer of troops and overseer of the northern foreign countries in contemporary Egyptian records.Djehuty is known from two sources...

. The extant copy of the text is on the verso of Papyrus Harris 500

Papyrus Harris 500

The Papyrus Harris 500, alt. pHarris 500 or P. British Museum 10060, contains copies of the ancient Egyptian tales of The Doomed Prince and The Taking of Joppa, of love poems and of the Harper's Song from the tomb of King Intef...

.

This is by no means an historic account of a conquest, but rather a tale whose backdrop is Thutmose III's campaigning in Syria. There was indeed a troop commander named Djehuti who served under Thutmose III.

The tactics used by Djehuti in the story are reminiscent of the episode of the Trojan horse

Trojan Horse

The Trojan Horse is a tale from the Trojan War about the stratagem that allowed the Greeks finally to enter the city of Troy and end the conflict. In the canonical version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of men inside...

 in the Iliad

Iliad

The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...

and the tale of Ali Baba and the forty thieves

Ali Baba

Ali Baba is a fictional character from medieval Arabic literature. He is described in the adventure tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves...

from Arabian Nights.

Synopsis

(The beginning of the tale is lost.) Djehuti invites the prince of Joppa to a party in his camp outside the town. He knocks him out, hides two hundred of his soldiers in sacks which he has loaded onto pack animals, and sends a charioteer to announce to the town that the Egyptians have surrendered and are sending tribute. Introduced into the city the hidden Egyptian soldiers emerge and conquer it.