stronger in the north. No one suspected before that a great 

 empire had once existed in Western Asia, and upon equal terms 

 with Assyria and Egypt ; much less was it supposed that this 

 enterprising nation extended its art and its religion far west, and 

 that the early civilisation of Greece and Europe was as much 

 indebted to them as it was to the Phoenicians. Dr. Schliemann's 

 excavations at Mycene brought to light the fact that the early 

 culture of Greece was influenced by that which originated from 

 Asia Minor. A continuous chain of monuments from Lydia in the 

 west to Cappadocia in the east have been found, of which the best 

 known are the rock sculptures of Boghaj, Keul, and Eyuk on the 

 western side of the Halys, and two figures in relief in the pass of 

 Karabel, near Sardes, which Herodotus had seen, and supposed 

 to be memorials of the Egpytian conqueror Sesostris. Pro- 

 fessor Sayce examined the Karabel figures and inscription, and 

 came to the conclusion that the characters were Hittite, and 

 corresponded with those found at Hamah, the site of the ancient 

 Hamath. "We have been led by slow degrees to a clearer view of 

 the Hittite Empire, and the important part once played by the 

 Hittites in the history of the civilised world. 



Egyptian inscriptions show that long before the days of the 

 Exodus the Egyptian kings had been in conflict with this powerful 

 and aggressive nation. Their chief seats were at Kadesh on the 

 Orontes, and Carchemish on the Euphrates. The Egyptian and 

 Chaldee monuments are about 200 years anterior to the oldest 

 known Hittite record, which belongs to the ninth century B.C. 

 The discovery of these records has stimulated the study of hiero- 

 glyphic, cuneiform, and rock inscriptions ; the results of which 

 have been most important in furtherance of the knowledge of the 

 history of this people, and their relations with the rest of the 

 civilised world. For instance, the rock records of Hamath, north 

 of Kadesh and south of Aleppo, which had been seen by Buckhardt 

 in 1812, were only rediscovered in 1870 by the Rev. S. Jessop of 

 the Armenian Syrian Mission and by Consul General Johnson of 

 the United States, and subsequently by the late Mr. Tyrrwhitt, 



