details of it are known. He possessed two tombs, one at Aakhutenåten and another at Thebes; he was buried in the latter, and his fine granite sarcophagus is still in it.

After Acherres, or Ancheres, who is presumably Amenḥetep IV, Manetho gives as kings Rathos, Khebres, and Akherres, and next Armesses, or Armais; in this last-named we probably have Ḥeremheb, the successor of Ai. This wise and astute man was a native of

Alabastronpolis,, in Upper Egypt, and a member of a family whose god was Amen. According to an inscription at Turin1 he was begotten by Amen (like Hatshepsut and Amenḥetep III), who clothed him with the "skin of the god." He was nominally a follower of Åten, and held command in the Delta under Amenḥetep IV, with whom he was a favourite. He performed successfully some important business in Syria for this king, and was advanced from office to office until he became the "chief mouth " in Egypt and the deputy, or Wazîr, of the king. Under Tutankhåmen he became the de facto ruler of Egypt. The priests of Amen made him marry Princess Mutnetchemet, a kinswoman of Nefertiti and Amenḥetep IV, and as they had determined to make him king the marriage gave him a legal claim to the throne. When Ai died Ḥeremḥeb was taken to Thebes and crowned king, and he at once re-established the worship of Åmen on the old lines. He repaired the temples, filled the shrines with the sacred figures and objects of worship, endowed the temples and priests, and provided for the cleaning and maintenance of the sacred buildings. Heremḥeb undertook no great wars of conquest, but at some time in his life he must have taken prisoner a number of chiefs of the Mediterranean or Syrian peoples, whose names are found at Karnak. He also directed a raid or campaign in Nubia to collect tribute, and he offered to Amen gifts from Punt, to which country he sent an expedition. He was a wise and a just ruler, and spent the whole of his reign in righting wrongs, dispensing justice, removing fraud and corruption from the public services, and in bettering the condition of the people. This is proved by the Code of Laws which he had cut upon a huge stele about 16 feet 6 inches high and 10 feet wide. and set up at Karnak, where it was discovered by Maspero in 1882.2 When Ḥeremḥeb was an official over the Delta he had a tomb made for himself at Şakkârah, and from it came the doorposts and stele in the British Museum. But when he was king he had the usual rock-hewn tomb made for him in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, and this was opened and cleared out by Mr. Ayrton in

1 See Birch, Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch., Vol. III, p. 486.

2 For the text see Bouriant, Recueil, tom. VI, p. 41 ff.; Davis and Maspero, The Tombs of Harmhabi and Touatankhamanou, London, 1912, p. 45 ff.; and Müller's translation in Aeg. Zeit., 1888, p. 70 ff.

• Northern Egyptian Gallery, Nos. 461–463.

1908.1 According to an inscription published by Birch2 the actual reign of Heremḥeb was 21 years, but in later times it seems to have been the custom to reckon the years of his reign from the death of Amenḥetep IV, and the inscription of Mes, an official of Rameses II, actually speaks of the 59th year of the reign of Heremheb.

In Manetho's list of the kings of the XVIIIth dynasty he makes a Rameses to be the successor of Ḥeremḥeb, but as this king was no other than the Rameses I of the monuments and the founder of a new dynasty, he is here made the first king of the XIXth dynasty.

The Nineteenth Dynasty.

From Thebes [Memphis (?)].

The circumstances under which Rameses I ascended the throne are not known. He seems not to have been a kinsman of Ḥeremḥeb, but though there is no evidence that royal blood ran in his veins, it is probable that he had some legal claim to the throne. His devotion to Amen is proved by the great Hall of Columns which he began to build at Karnak, and he may have owed his throne to the influence of the priesthood of Amen, who supported his claim, whatever it was. He was well advanced in years when he began to reign, and too old to conduct campaigns personally, but he sent his son Seti to raid Nubia and collect tribute in the usual way, and, in the second year of the reign of Rameses, Seti set up a stele at Buhen (Wâdî Ḥalfah) to record his father's conquest of the country and his endowment of the temple at Buhen. That year Rameses died, and he was succeeded by Seti, the first king of this name on the throne of Egypt. The giving of this name "Seti" to his son suggests that Rameses I was a native of Lower Egypt, where Set was king of the gods, as Amen-Rā was at Thebes. According to ancient mythological tradition Horus ruled Upper Egypt and Set the Delta, the former being the god of Good and the latter the god of Evil. In later times Set, or Setesh, became a Warrior-god, and as Sutekh was well known to Hittites and other peoples of Western Asia. Seti I, the follower of Set, calls himself Merenptaḥ, or "beloved of Ptaḥ," the great god of Memphis, which also suggests that the Delta was the home of the family of Rameses I. In the first year of his reign he marched against the Shasu people, and when they were defeated he attacked Northern Syria and captured a city called Kadesh, and conquered the Hittites, whose king was called Mursil (II), and the Amorites, and collected great spoil from all the chiefs throughout

the country. He fought like the god Bal, IN, i.e.,

Baal, and his onset was like a flame of fire (lightning ?). Amen of

1 For a full description of it see the publication of T. Davis mentioned on p. 61, note 2.

Inscriptions in the Hieratic and Demotic Character, pl. 14.

Thebes was not forgotten, and cedar wood for a new barge for him was brought back from Lebanon. Seti carried a great quantity of spoil to Thebes for presentation to Amen, and during the celebration of the great festival he slaughtered a number of prisoners before the god. But Seti went no more into Western Asia, and he made a treaty with Mursil II, king of the Hittites, just as one of the kings of the XVIIIth dynasty had done with Shubbiluliuma (Sapalul), Mursil's predecessor. Either before or immediately after his Asiatic campaign, Seti I defeated the Libyans in Western Egypt and took from them much spoil, of which Amen at Thebes received his share.

Having finished his wars Seti devoted his attention to the temples throughout Egypt. The great mines were opened and supplied material for their rebuilding or repair, and Seti, by sinking wells on the desert routes, succeeded in working the gold mines in the Eastern Desert and those near the Red Sea. He built the famous temple, which Strabo calls the "Memnonium," at Abydos, and placed in it the great King-List containing the names of the 76 kings whom he wished to commemorate. The bas-reliefs in this temple are masterpieces of Egyptian sculpture. He set up 79 columns in the Hall of Columns at Karnak, and built his funerary temple in Western Thebes, and made a wonderful rockhewn tomb for himself in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings. The series of bas-reliefs at Karnak which illustrate his campaigns in Western Asia and Libya form a magnificent record of his reign and are of great value. He died after a reign of about 19 years and was buried at Thebes, and his mummy was found at Dêr al-Baḥarî ; his splendid alabaster sarcophagus is in Sir John Soane's Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields.

, and when his

Rameses II, the Rapsakes or Rampsês of Manetho, was the son of Seti I by Queen Tuȧa' father died he succeeded in removing his elder brother from his path and seizing the throne. He was over 30 years of age when he succeeded; he reigned about 67 years, and was a centenarian when he died. He married many wives, and reckoned his children by scores. He consolidated his position by going to Thebes and securing the support of the priests of Amen and by continuing the building of the temple of Seti I at Abydos, and by restoring the tombs of the earlier kings at Abydos. Realizing that much gold would be necessary for carrying out his plans, he had wells dug in the desert between the Nile and the gold mines in the Wâdî al-'Alâķi, and as water was found we may assume that the mines were regularly worked for some years at least. At the same time the Egyptians raided the Egyptian Sûdân and obtained much spoil; his two sons, Amenḥerunamif and Khāmuast, assisted him in this work. Some of the painted bas-reliefs in the little rock temple at Bêt al-Walî,

near Kalâbshah in Nubia, illustrate his raids in Nubia. In the fourth year of his reign he conducted a campaign in Palestine and Phoenicia, and so began his great attempt to win back for Egypt the countries which Thothmes III had conquered and added to her possessions. Memorials of this campaign are the three stelae which Rameses II had cut on the rocks near the mouth of the Dog River (Nahr alKalb) near Bêrût. In the fifth year of his reign Rameses II broke the treaty which his father had made with Mursil II, king of the Hittites, and collecting his forces-Egyptians, Sûdânî soldiers, and dwellers on the sea coast-marched into Phoenicia. Mursil II collected troops from his allies in the east, north and west, and his mighty host marched down the Valley of the Orontes to meet the Egyptians.

The Egyptian troops were divided into four regiments, which were named after the gods Amen, Rā, Ptaḥ and Sutekh, respectively. When the two armies were near Kadesh on the Orontes, Rameses II, deceived by two Hittite spies who had been sent by Mursil II to tell him that the Hittite army was concentrated near Aleppo, marched on to Kadesh. Suddenly the Hittites, who were drawn up on the north of Kadesh, fell upon the Egyptians, who were unprepared, and succeeded in driving a wedge into the regiment of Rā and breaking it into two parts, and the Egyptian camp was captured by them. When Rameses, who was himself engaging the Hittites elsewhere, heard of this, he changed front, drove back in hot haste, retook the camp, and then fought his way through the enemy's formations, and in a most wonderful way succeeded in rejoining his army. A general attack on the enemy by the Egyptians followed, and the Hittites were beaten and put to flight. Many of them fled to the river and were drowned, and Mursil II, collecting his scattered forces, retreated; but the Egyptians were unable to follow up the advantage they had gained, and Rameses II returned to Egypt, apparently having failed to capture Kadesh. The narrative by Rameses II of the battle sounds somewhat bombastic, but it is quite clear that it was the personal bravery of the king that gave the Egyptians the victory. On the death of Mursil II his son Mutallu reopened hostilities, and for 10 or 12 years Rameses II was actively engaged in battle with him, neither the Hittites nor the Egyptians gaining a decisive advantage. Khattusil (III), the Khetasar of the Egyptian texts, a son and successor of Mutallu, realizing that he could not drive the Egyptians out of Palestine, proposed a peace, and a Treaty of peace and alliance was drawn up as between equals,

1 The hieroglyphic text that gives the Egyptian account of the battle will be found in Maspero's Recueil, tom. VIII, p. 126 ff., and the hieratic text of Pentaurt's account in Birch, Select Papyri, Vol. I, pll. XXIV-XXXIV; see also de Rougé, Le Poème de Pentaour, Paris, 1856. Good summaries will be found in Breasted's Battle of Kadesh, where a reconstruction of the battle is given, and in Hall, History of the Near East, p. 360.