Thebes, however, had never forgotten that it had been the birthplace and
capital of the powerful Pharaohs of the twelfth and thirteenth
dynasties, of the mighty princes who had conquered the Soudan, and ruled
with an iron hand over the feudal lords. The heirs of the Theban
Pharaohs still survived as princes of Thebes, and behind the strong
walls of El-Kab they began to think of independence. Apophis II. in his
court at Zoan perceived the rising storm, and endeavoured to check it at
its beginning. According to the story of a later day, he sent insulting
messages to the prince of Thebes, and ordered him to worship Sutekh the
Hyksos god. The prince defied his suzerain, and the war of independence
began. It lasted for several generations, during which the Theban
princes made themselves masters of Upper Egypt, and established a native
dynasty of Pharaohs which reigned simultaneously with the Hyksos dynasty
in the North.

Step by step the Hyksos stranger was pushed back to the north-eastern
corner of the delta. At length Zoan itself fell into the hands of the
Egyptians, and the Hyksos took refuge in the great fortress of Avaris on
the extreme border of the kingdom. Here they were besieged by the Theban
prince Ahmes, and eventually driven back to the Asia from which they had
come. The eighteenth dynasty was founded, and Ahmes entered on that
career of Asiatic conquest which converted Canaan into an Egyptian
province. At first the war was one of revenge; but it soon became one of
conquest, and the war of independence was followed by the rise of the
Egyptian empire. Thothmes II., the grandson of Ahmes, led his forces as
far as the Euphrates and the land of Aram-Naharaim. The territories thus
overrun in a sort of military reconnaissance were conquered and annexed
by his son Thothmes III., during his long reign of fifty-four years
(March 20, B.C. 1503 to February 14, B.C. 1449). Canaan on both sides of