For seven years the Egyptians succeeded in holding the Babylonians in check at the Euphrates River. During that time it seemed highly unlikely that the Babylonians would ever be able to defeat the Egyptians, cross the Euphrates, move down the Mediterranean coast, and gain control over Syria and Palestine (including Judah)—at one time all parts of the vaunted Assyrian Empire. All this ended in 605 B.C., however. Nabopolasser’s son Nebuchadnezzar decisively defeated the Egyptians in a battle at Carchemish