returned to the Nile Valley with a number of Syrian captives. Pepi I. of
the succeeding dynasty also attacked the coast-cities, and Pepi II. had
considerable intercourse with Asia. Amenemhat I., of Dynasty XII.,
fought in Syria, and appears to have brought it once more under Egyptian
sway. Senusert I. seems to have controlled the country to some extent,
for Egyptians lived there in some numbers. Senusert III. won a great
victory over the Asiatics in Syria; and a stela and statue belonging to
Egyptian officials have been found at Gezer, between Jerusalem and the
sea. After each of the above-mentioned wars it is to be presumed that
the Egyptians held Syria for some years, though little is now known of
the events of these far-off times.

During the Hyksos dynasties in Egypt there lived a Pharaoh named Khyan
who was of Semitic extraction; and there is some reason to suppose that
he ruled from Baghdad to the Sudan, he and his fathers having created a
great Egyptian Empire by the aid of foreign troops. Egypt's connection
with Asia during the Hyksos rule is not clearly defined, but the very
fact that these foreign kings were anxious to call themselves "Pharaohs"
shows that Egypt dominated in the east end of the Mediterranean. The
Hyksos kings of Egypt very probably held Syria in fee, being possessed
of both countries, but preferring to hold their court in Egypt.

We now come to the great Dynasty XVIII., and we learn more fully of the
Egyptian invasions of Syria. Ahmosis I. drove the Hyksos out of the
Delta and pursued them through Judah. His successor, Amenhotep I.,
appears to have seized all the country as far as the Euphrates; and
Thutmosis I., his son, was able to boast that he ruled even unto that
river. Thutmosis III., Egypt's greatest Pharaoh, led invasion after
invasion into Syria, so that his name for generations was a terror to
the inhabitants. From the Euphrates to the fourth cataract of the Nile