APPENDIX III. 479 



XIV. Dynasty : Xoite. 



(So named fromXois in Lower Egypt, the native place of the reigning 

 family.) 



M. 2398. 

 No known records. 



The rule of these northern usurpers was followed by the most tremen- 

 dous catastrophe recorded in the Egyptian annals, a catastrophe which for 

 a second time arrested the natural development of civilisation in the Nile 

 Valley. 



Taking advantage of the rivalry between the royal house of Thebes and 

 the Xoite rulers in the Delta, the nomad tribes of Arabia, Syria, and 

 Mesopotamia overran the whole country, and for a time reduced it under 

 their power. This was the so-called invasion of the Hyksos, or ' ' Shep- 

 herds," who overthrew the Middle Empire and set up the three following 

 dynasties. Their capital was fixed at Tanis, near the north-east frontier, 

 where they have left monuments more beautiful and in better taste than 

 those of the contemporaneous dynasties in Thebais. 



XV. Dynasty : Hyksos, or the Shepherds. 

 M. 2214. 

 No known records. 



XVI. Dynasty : Hyksos, or the Shepherds ? 



XVII. Dynasty : Hyksos, or the Shepherds. 

 B. 1750. 



Nub, or Nubti, during whose reign Joseph, son of Jacob, is said to have arrived in 

 Egypt, where he rose to a high position. The seat of empire of these 

 foreign Shepherd Kings was at San, in the extreme north-east. But 

 contemporaneously with their rule in Lower Egypt and the Sinai 

 Peninsula the native Theban kings appear to have continued to govern 

 in Upper Egypt as tributaries or vassals of the Hyksos. In the Sallier 

 papyrus, now in the British Museum, occurs the name of Easekenen, a 

 governor of "the southern town " (probably Thebes). An inscription in 

 a tomb at El Kab also records the capture of Avaris, a chief stronghold of 

 the. Hyksos, by Ahmes (Amosis), successor of Easekenen, and first king of 

 the next dynasty. 



NEW EMPIRE. 



XVIII. Dynasty : Theban. 

 M. 1703, B. 1700. 



Ahmes (Amosts), who overthrew the foreign Hyksos invaders, and again raised Egypt 

 to great power under a native dynasty. M. 1703, B. 1700. 



Amenhotep or Amunoph I. (Amenophis), who continued the victorious career of his 

 predecessor, and extended the limits of the empire beyond the frontiers of 

 Egypt proper. B. 1666. 



Thothmes I. (Thothmosis), a famous conqueror, who overran Syria, and who appears to 

 have first introduced the horse into Egypt. At least no rej)resentations of 

 this animal occur on any monuments before his reign. B. 1633. 



