Section 127

far outshone them in the grandeur and beauty of the temples with which he adorned Egypt and Nul.ia. His eliief canijiaign, as recorded on his numerous monuments, was against the Kheia or Hittites, and a great confederacy they had formed. He defeated tlieir army, captured Ketesh, and forced them to con- clude a treat}' with him, though this last object does not seem to have been immediately attained. It is he who is generally intended by the Sesostris of classic writers. He l)uilt tlie temple which is erroneously called the Memnonium, but properly the liameseum of El-Kurneh, on the western bank of the Kile, one of the most beautiful of Egyptian monuments, and a great part of that of El-Uksor, on the opposite bank, as well as additions to that of El-Karnak. Through- out Egypt and Nubia are similar memorials of the power of Ranieses II, one of the most remarkal)le of which is the great rock-temple of Abu-Simbel, not far north of the second cataract. The temple of Ptah, at Memphis, was also adorned by this Pharaoh, and its site is chiefly marked hy a very beautiful colossal statue of him, fallen on its face and partly mutilated through modern vandalism. He was succeeded by his son Meneptah, who is sn))posed by the advocates of the Rabbinical date of the Exodus to have been the Pha- raoh in whose time the Israelites went out. The mon- uments tell us little of him or of his successor, which latter was followed by his son Rameses III, perhaps the head of the 20th dynasty (B.C. cir. 1200). With this sovereign the glories of the Theban line revived, and a series of great victories by land and sea raised Egypt to the place which it had held under Rameses II. He built the temple of Medinet-Habu, on the western bank at Thebes, the walls of which are cov- ered with scenes representing his exploits. The most remarkable of the sculptures commemorating them represents a naval victor^' in the Mediterranean, gain- ed by the Egyptian fleet over that of the Tokkari^ probably the Carians, and Shairetana (Khairetana), or Cretans. Other Shairetana, whom Mr. Poole takes to correspond to the Cherethim of Scripture, served in the Egyptian forces. This king also subdued the Pe- lesatu, or Philistines, and the Rthu (Lebu), or Lubim, to the west of Egj'pt. Several kings bearing the name of Rameses succeeded Rameses II, but their tomlis alone remain. Under them the power of Egypt evi- dently declined, and towards the close of the dynastj' the countrj' seems to have fallen into anarchy, the high-priests of Amen having usurped regal power at Thebes, and a Lower Egyptian dynasty, the 21st, arisen at Tanis. Of these, however, but few records i emain. With the succeeding dynastj' occurs the first defi- nite point of connection between the monumental and the scriptural history of Egypt. The ill feelings which the peculiar circumstances connected with the exode from Eg^'jit had occasioned served to keep the Israelites and the Egyptians strangers, if not enemies, one to another during the lapse of centuries, till the days of David and Solomon, when (1 Kings iii, vii, ix, xi) friendly relations again spring up between the two countries. Solomon marries the daughter of Pharaoh, who burns the city of Gezer, and who, in consequence, must have been master of Lower Egypt (B.C. cir. 1010). ''And Solomon had horses lirought out of Egypt, and linen yarn:" six hundred shekels was the price of a chariot, and one hundred and fifty the ])rice of a horse. Probably the Egj'ptian princess who became Solomon's wife was a daughter of a king of tiie Tanite dynasty. It was during the reign of a king of this age that " Hadad, being yet a little child," fled from the slaughter of the Edomites bj' David, and took refuge, together with "certain Edomites of his father's servants," at the court of Pharaoh, who " gave him to wife the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen" (1 Kings xi, 17-19), B.C. cir. 1040-1000. The 22d dynasty was of P.ubastite kings ; the name of one of them has been found among the