emony and that of Theban dominion, Herakleopolis was the
capital city of Egypt. The kings of the IXth and Xth Dynasties were
Herakleopolites, though we know little of them. One, Kheti, is said to
have been a great tyrant. Another, Nebkaura, is known only as a figure
in the "Legend of the Eloquent Peasant," a classical story much in vogue
in later days. Another, Merikara, is a more real personage, for we have
contemporary records of his days in the inscriptions of the tombs at
Asyut, from which we see that the princes of Thebes were already wearing
down the Northerners, in spite of the resistance of the adherents of
Herakleopolis, among whom the most valiant were the chiefs of Asyut. The
civil war eventuated in favour of Thebes, and the Theban XIth Dynasty
assumed the double crown. The sceptre passed from Memphis and the North,
and Thebes enters upon the scene of Egyptian history.

With this event the Nile-land also entered upon a new era of
development. The metropolis of the kingdom was once more shifted to the
South, and, although the kings of the XIIth Dynasty actually resided
in the North, their Theban origin was never forgotten, and Thebes
was regarded as the chief city of the country. The XIth Dynasty kings
actually reigned at Thebes, and there the later kings of the XIIIth
Dynasty retired after the conquest of the Hyksos. The fact that with
Thebes were associated all the heroic traditions of the struggle against
the Hyksos ensured the final stability of the capital there when the
hated Semites were finally driven out, and the national kingdom
was re-established in its full extent from north to south. But for
occasional intervals, as when Akhunaten held his court at Tell el-Amarna
and Ramses II at Tanis, Thebes remained the national capital for six
hundred years, till the time of the XXIId Dynasty.

Another great change which differentiates the Middle Kingdom
(XIth-XIIIth Dynasties) from the Old Kingdom was caused by Egypt's
coming into contact with other outside nations at this period. During
the whole history of the Old Kingdom, Egyptian relations with the outer
world had been nil. We have some inkling of occasional connection
with the Mediterranean peoples, the _Ha-nebu_ or Northerners; we have
accounts of wars with the people of Sinai and other Bedawin and negroes;
and expeditions were also sent to the land of Punt (Somaliland) by way
of the Upper Nile. But we have not the slightest hint of any connection
with