he Egyptians of Rameside times inscribed in the
royal lists as that of the founder and most illustrious representative
of the Eleventh dynasty.

The leader of the Twelfth dynasty, Amenemhait I., was of another stamp,
showing himself to be a Pharaoh conscious of his own divinity and
determined to assert it. He inspected the whole land, restored what he
found in ruins, crushed crime, settled the bounds of towns, and
established for each its frontiers. Recognising that Thebes lay too far
south to be a suitable place of residence for the lord of all Egypt,
Amenemhait proceeded to establish himself in the heart of the country in
imitation of the glorious Pharaohs from whom he claimed descent. He took
up his abode a little to the south of Dashur, in the palace of Titoui.
Having restored peace to his country, the king in the twentieth year of
his reign, when he was growing old, raised his son Usirtasen, then very
young, to the co-regency with himself.

When, ten years later, the old king died, his son was engaged in a war
against the Libyans. He reigned alone for thirty-two years. The Twelfth
dynasty lasted 213 years; and its history can be ascertained with
greater certainty and completeness than that of any other dynasty which
ruled Egypt, although we are far from having any adequate idea of its
great achievements, for unfortunately the biographies of its eight
sovereigns and the details of their interminable wars are very
imperfectly known.

Uncertainty again shrouds the history of the country after the reign of
Sovkhoptu I. The Twentieth dynasty contained, so it is said, sixty
kings, who reigned for a period of over 453 years. The Nofirhoptus and
Sovkhoptus continued to all appearances both at home and abroad the work
so ably begun by the Amenemhaits and the Usirtasens.

During the Thirteenth dynasty art and everything else in Egypt were
fairly prosperous, but wealth exercised an injurious effect on artistic
taste. During this dynasty we hear nothing of the inhabitants of the
Sinaitic Peninsula to the east, or of the Libyans to the west; it was in
the south, in Ethiopia, that the Pharaohs expended all their superfluous
energy. The middle basin of the Nile as far as Gebel-Barkal was soon
incorporated with Egypt, and the population became quickly assimilated.
Sovkhoptu III., who erected colossal statues of himself at Tanis,
Bubastis and Thebes, was undisputed master of the whole Nile valley,
from near the spot where it re