361 
Moeris had not been dead 900 years at the time when I heard 
this from the priests/’ 
f Rawlinson says this would make the date of Moeris about 
1355 B.G., but he cannot make this agree with auy probable 
Pharaoh.* 
There can scarcely be the shadow of a doubt that Herodotus 
refers to Amenemhat III., who excavated an enormous artifi- 
cial lake, to which the Greeks gave the name of Moeris, account- 
ing it one of the wonders of the world, and supposing this to be 
the name of the king, when, in truth, it seems to have been 
only the Egyptian word Meri applied to any construction of the 
kind. This Pharaoh, whose severe and Shepherd-like features, 
are seen in the British Museum, was a diligent observer of the 
height of the inundation of the river, and caused to be recorded 
on the rocks between Semne and Koumme the heights to which 
the river rose; which show, remarkably enough, that the 
greatest height of the inundation was at this era not less than 
8T7m. above that which it can now attain. The average 
height of the Nile under this Pharaoh surpassed that of our 
time by no less than seven metres. 
Now the reign of Amenemhat III. is placed by Brugsch at 
2300 years B.C., by Herodotus, as we have seen, at 1355 B.C.; 
a difference of 945 years ! It is as though our gravest historians 
were 900 years wrong as to the era of the Conquest of England 
by William of Normandy ! 
And yet in this XHth Dynasty we touch close upon historic 
times, when the chronicles of other nations begin to aid our 
research. The Egyptians of this epoch kept up a very active 
commerce with the people of Libya towards the east, and with 
the nations of the Asiatic race. The arrival of representatives 
of these people in Egypt is a fact proved by numerous 
paintings in the funeral chapels. Libyans frequented Egypt 
to show their address in gymnastics, negroes came in to 
serve the great lords, and Asiatics presented themselves at the 
frontier of the Delta to ask permission to enter and to trade on 
the borders of the Nile. The empire then commanded the 
respect of the surrounding nations. The two cities called by 
the Greeks Crocodilopolis, on the borders of the lake Moeris, 
and of ITeracleopolis, were the centres of the busy -movement 
of this bright era,f in the midst of which Abraham is supposed 
to have arrived in Egypt ; and the representation of thirty-seven 
persons of the Shemite race coming to present their homage 
* Rawlinson, Herodotus , ii. 12. 
+ Brugsch, Hist., p. 99. 
