Ramses III. the amount of minerals produced by the
mines was enormous. They existed for the most part on the western side
of the peninsula, opposite the Egyptian coast; but Ramses III. also
opened copper mines in the land of 'Ataka further east, and the name of
the goddess Hathor in hieroglyphics has been found by Dr. Friedmann on
the shores of Midian.

Vanquished Syria was made to contribute to the endowments of the
Egyptian temples. Thus the temple of Amon at Thebes was endowed by
Thothmes III. with the revenues of the three cities Anugas, Inu'am, and
Harankal; while Seti I., the father of Ramses II., bestowed upon it "all
the silver, gold, lapis-lazuli, malachite, and precious stones which he
carried off from the humbled land of Syria." Temples of the Egyptian
gods, as well as towns, were built in Syria itself; Meneptah founded a
city in the land of the Amorites; Ramses III. erected a temple to Amon
in "the land of Canaan, great as the horizon of heaven above, to which
the people of Syria come with their gifts"; and hieroglyphic
inscriptions lately discovered at Gaza show that another temple had been
built there by Amenophis II. to the goddess Mut.

Amenophis had suppressed the rebellion in Northern Syria with little
trouble. Seven Amorite kings were carried prisoners to Egypt from the
land of Takhis, and taken up the river as far as Thebes. There six of
them were hung outside the walls of the city, as the body of Saul was
hung by the Philistines outside the walls of Beth-shan, while the
seventh was conveyed to Napata in Ethiopia, and there punished in the
same way in order to impress a lesson of obedience upon the negroes of
the Soudan.

Amenophis II. was succeeded by Thothmes IV., who was called upon to face
a new enemy, the Hittites. It was at the commencement of his reign that
they first began to descend from their mountain homes, and the frontier
city of Tunip had to bear the brunt of the attack. It was probably in
order to strengthen himself against these formidable foes that the
Pharaoh married the daughter of the king of Mitanni, who changed her
name to Mut-em-ua. It was the beginning of those inter-marriages with
the princes of Asia which led to the Asiatized court and religion of
Amenophis IV., and finally to the overthrow of the eighteenth dynasty.

The son of Mut-em-ua was Amenophis III., whose long reign of
thirty-seven years was as brilliant and successful as that of
Thothmes III. At Soleb between t