Historical first records his lion hunts; the second the coming of Thi, the scarabs of Ameno

daughter of an Asiatic father, to Egypt, accompanied by 317 phis III. of her women ; the third the marriage of Amenophis and Thi,

and the fourth the building of a large lake 3,600 cubits long by 600 cubits wide for his queen near the town of T'ārucha, which the king opened on the 16th of Choiak in the eleventh year of his reign, by sailing across it in his barge called Åten

neferu. The tablets inscribed in cuneiform recently found at The Tell Tell el-Amarna prove that Amenophis III. married a sister el-Amarna and daughter of Kallimma-Sin, king of Karaduniyash, a tablets.

country probably lying to the north-east of Syria; Gilukhîpa

the sister of Tushratta, king of Mitani, and Sâtumkhîpa Marriage daughter of Tushratta; and Thi the daughter of parents who with Thi.

were not royal. The country of Mitani also lay to the northeast of Syria, and we know that like Tiglath-Pileser I., king of Assyria, about B.C. 1120, Amenophis III. went thither frequently to hunt lions. The kings and governors of places as remote as Babylon promptly claimed the friendship of their new kinsman, and their letters expressing their willingness to make alliances offensive and defensive, are some of the most

interesting objects of the "find” at Tell el-Amarna. 1466 Of Amen-ḥetep IV., or Chu-en-åten, the son of Åmen

þetep III. and the Mesopotamian lady Thi, very little is known ; he built a temple at Heliopolis, another at Memphis,

one at Thebes, and some in Nubia. He is famous, however, Heresy of as the leader of the heresy of the “ disk worshippers,” that is the disk worship

to say of those people who worshipped the disk of the sun, pers.

Åten Aman, in preference to Amen-Rā, the national god of Egypt. He showed how much he detested the god Àmen, by setting aside his name Amen-ḥetep and adopting that of Chu-en-åten, “the brilliance of the disk.” The worship of the disk was of some antiquity, and seems to have been a monotheistic worship of Rā which originated in Heliopolis. Amenophis III. seems to have encouraged this form of religion somewhat, and it is certain that he named his barge Aten-neseru, “the most beautiful disk.” The native Egyptian

B.C.

i See The Tell el-Amarna tablets in the British Museum, by Bezold and Budge, p. xviii.

Tell el.

priesthood disliked the foreign queen, and the sight of her Amenoson with his protruding chin, thick lips, and other charac

phis IV.

quarrels teristics of a foreign race, found no favour in their eyes ; that with the

priests. such a man should openly despise the worship of Amen-Rā was a thing intolerable to them. In answer to their angry words and acts, the king ordered the name of Amen-Rā to be chiselled out of all the monuments, even from his father's name. Rebellion then broke out, and Chu-en-åten left Thebes and founded a new city for himself at a place between Memphis and Thebes, now called Tell el-Amarna. After a few Founding years the queen Thi came to live there, and there Chu-en-åten

of city at passed the rest of his life with his wife and seven daughters. Amarna. In the twelfth year of his reign he celebrated his victories over the Syrians and Ethiopians, but it is doubtful if they were of any importance.

After the death of Amenophis IV. there is some confusion in Egyptian history; the immediate successors of the “heretic The king” were Se-aa-ka-Rā, Tut-anch-Amen, Ai, of whom but Heretic”

kings. little is known. The last king of the XVIIIth dynasty was Heru-em-heb, the Horus of Manetho, who seems to have been a native of Het-suten, the Alabastronpolis of the Greeks, or Tell el-Amarna. He made an expedition into Nubia and the lands to the south of that country, and he carried on buildings at various places, and restored temples at Heliopolis, Memphis, Thebes and elsewhere.

B.C. 1400

THE NINETEENTH DYNASTY. Of the events which led to Rameses I. becoming sole king of Egypt nothing whatever is known. Some suppose that he was connected with Horus, the last king of the XVIIIth dynasty, but there are no proofs which can be brought forward in support of this theory. He seems to have carried on some small war with the people of Nubia, and to have been concerned in a treaty with the Cheta; he also built War with a little at Thebes. He is famous, however, as the father of Cheta. Seti I., and grandfather of Rameses II. ; the former was probably associated with him in the rule of the kingdom, but how long it is not possible to say.

While Amenophis IV. was quarrelling with the priests of

Seti 1. in battie.

From a bas-relief at Thebes.

Amen about the worship of the disk, and during the rule of
his feeble successors, the peoples of Nubia and the Shaasu
and the nations of Syria and Mesopotamia became more and
more independent, and as a result ceased to fear the arms of
Egypt, and consequently declined to pay the tribute imposed
upon them by the mighty Thothmes III. and Amenophis III.
Under the rule of Rameses I. the Egyptians were forced to
sign a treaty which fixed the limits of their country and those
of the Cheta ; hence when Seti I. ascended the throne he
found it necessary to make war against nearly every nation
that had formerly been subject to the Egyptians. From the
reliefs sculptured on the walls of the temple of Amen-Ră at
Karnak we see that he attacked the people who lived north
of Palestine, the Retennu or Syrians, the Shaasu, the Cheta,
and in returning to Egypt passed through the land of
Limanen. At the city of Chetam, on the frontier of Egypt,
he was received by the priests and nobles of Egypt, who said
to him : “Thou hast returned from the lands which thou hast
conquered, and thou hast triumphed over thy enemies. May
thy life be as long as that of the sun in heaven Thou hast
washed thy heart on the barbarians, Rä has defined thy
boundaries.” Seti then sailed up to Thebes, where he
presented his captives and booty to the gods in the temples
there. From the lists of vanquished peoples inscribed by
Seti it is found that his rule extended over Mesopotamia,
Punt or Somali land, Nubia, and the lands on the west bank
of the Nile. Cities like Kadesh on the Orontes, Tyre, Reseph,
Migdol, etc., he not only conquered, but also built fortresses in
them. During the reign of Seti the Cheta who, without,
in my opinion, the slightest evidence for the theory, have been
identified with the Hittites of the Bible, reappear in history.
Seti set up an obelisk at Kantarah, “the bridge” uniting Asia
and Africa, he built at Heliopolis, Memphis and Abydos, and
at Karnak he began several buildings, some of which were
finished by Rameses II. His name is often found in Nubia
on rocks and stelae, and he worked the gold mines there, and
sank wells in the rock to obtain water for his workmen. Seti
associated his son Rameses II. with him in the rule of the
kingdom when he was but twelve years old. According to the

monuments Seti reigned about twenty-seven years. The
name Seti is connected with the god Set, who though at one
time worshipped by the Egyptians, was subsequently consi-
dered to be the father of all evil; in several places it is seen
that his name has been carefully chiselled out.
Rameses II., the Sesostris of the Greeks, was perhaps the
greatest king that ever ruled over Egypt. He was a man of
commanding stature, of great physical strength and personal
bravery, a great builder and a liberal patron of the science
and art of his days. Around his name has gathered a
multitude of legends, and the exploits of other warriors and
heroes who reigned hundreds of years after him have been
attributed to him. Before he came to the throne he led an
expedition into Nubia and defeated the peoples there; and
he brought back to Egypt much spoil, consisting of lions,
gazelles, panthers, ebony, ivory, gold, etc., etc. In the fifth
year of his reign he set out on a campaign against the Cheta,
which was the most important event in his life; his victory
over this foe was considered so great a triumph that an
account of it illustrated by sculptures was inscribed upon the
temples of Thebes, Kalābshi and Abu Simbel, and a poetic
description of the battle with a vivid outline of the king's
own prowess was written down by Pen-ta-urt, a temple
scribe. The Cheta were a confederation of peoples, nomad
and stationary, who first appear in the time of Thothmes III.,
to whom they paid tribute. In the time of Rameses I. they
made a treaty of friendship with the Egyptians, but in the
time of Seti I. they fought with them. The kings of the
Cheta at this period were Sapalel and his son Maru-sar;
the latter had two sons Mautenure and Cheta-sar. Mău-
tenure was king of the Cheta when Rameses II. marched
against them in his fifth year, and Cheta-sar was king when
the Cheta and the Egyptians made a new treaty in the
twenty-first year of the reign of Rameses, at which time they
seem to have reached the summit of their power. According
to an inscription which appears to be the official statement
concerning this memorable battle, Rameses II. was in the
fifth year of his reign in the land of T'ah, not far from
Kadesh on the Orontes. The outposts kept a sharp look-out,