occupation of southern
Palestine was one of its results.

As in the time of Meneptah, the Libyans took part with the northern
tribes in the assault upon Egypt, and Sardinians and Sicilians followed
behind them. But the main bulk of the invaders came from the Greek seas.
The Danaans take the place of the Achaeans, and the Philistines are among
their allies. The invaders had swept through western Asia, plundering
and destroying as they marched, and bringing in their train contingents
from the countries through which they passed. Hittites, Mitannians, and
Amorites all followed with them, and the motley host of men and ships
finally reached the Egyptian frontier. Here, however, they were met by
the Pharaoh. The battle raged by sea and land, and ended in a triumph of
the Egyptians. The invaders were utterly overthrown, their ships burned,
their kings and leaders made captive. Egypt was once more saved from
destruction, and Ramses III. was free to develop its resources and
repair the damage that had been done.

First came a campaign in Canaan and Syria, the object of which was not
to acquire territory, but to teach the Asiatic that there was once more
an army in Egypt. The Egyptian forces seem to have gone as far as
Hamath; at all events, they occupied southern Palestine, capturing Gaza,
Hebron, and Jerusalem, and made their way across the Jordan into Moab.
Another campaign carried the Egyptian troops into Edom, where they
burned the "tents" of the Bedawin, and for the first and last time in
history planted the Egyptian standard on the slopes of Mount Seir.
Ramses now turned to the internal administration of his country, and the
copper-mines of Sinai, like the gold-mines of the eastern desert, were
worked with fresh vigour. The spoil won from the northern invaders made
the Pharaoh the richest monarch of the age. Temples were built, and
endowed with lavish generosity, and the priesthood must have grieved
when he died at last after a reign of thirty-three years.

He was followed by a line of feeble princes. The high-priests of Amon at
Thebes usurped their power, and finally dispossessed the last of them of
the throne. A new dynasty arose in the Delta. In the south the
government was practically in the hands of the Theban high-priests. With
a divided kingdom the strength of Egypt passed away.

It was restored by a foreigner, Shishak I., the captain of the Libyan
mercenaries. The Pharaoh whose daughter was married by Solomon