ruling population in the country, but also that they must have extended
far to the south. The "land of the Amorites" formed the basis and
starting-point for the expedition of Naram-Sin into Magan; it must,
therefore, have reached to the southern border of Palestine, if not even
farther. The road trodden by his forces would have been the same as that
which was afterwards traversed by Chedor-laomer, and would have led him
through Kadesh-barnea. Is it possible that the Amorites were already in
possession of the mountain-block within which Kadesh stood, and that
this was their extreme limit to the south?

There were other names by which Palestine and Syria were known to the
early Babylonians, besides the general title of "the land of the
Amorites." One of these was Tidanum or Tidnum; another was Sanir or
Shenir. There was yet another, the reading of which is uncertain, though
it may be Khidhi or Titi.

Mr. Boscawen has pointed out a coincidence that is at least worthy of
attention. The first Babylonian monarch who penetrated into the
peninsula of Sinai bore a name compounded with that of the Moon-god,
which thus bears witness to a special veneration for that deity. Now the
name of Mount Sinai is similarly derived from that of the Babylonian
Moon-god Sin. It was the high place where the god must have been adored
from early times under his Babylonian name. It thus points to Babylonian
influence, if not to the presence of Babylonians on the spot. Can it
have been that the mountain whereon the God of Israel afterwards
revealed Himself to Moses was dedicated to the Moon-god of Babylon by
Naram-Sin the Chaldæn conqueror?

If such indeed were the case, it would have been more than two thousand
years before the Israelitish exodus. Nabonidos, the last king of the