18 PAST AGES OF CONQUEST

onwards) pursued with vigour their work of con-

quering and raiding the country, exacting tribute, and paying particular attention to the gold-niines.

Usertsen III. (2333 B.C.), the fifth King of the

Twelfth Dynasty, established his authority as far

south as Semneh, south of AA^ady Haifa, which he

strongly fortified, as may be seen to this day, guard-

ing the north from any incursion of the swarthy

southern race. Indeed, it is probable that his

influence extended farther south than this, and even

to the Red Sea, so that the occupation, though of

a continuously hostile country, was very complete.

The estabUshment of chains of forts, with the

provision of temples, irresistibly reminds one of the

stone ruins of Mashonaland, where the conditions

appear to have been very similar. There, too, were

alien invaders seeking gold in a hostile country,

constructing chains of forts along their route, and

with the great temple of Zimbabwe in their principal

trade centre. But the opinion of some learned

Egyptologists, though disputed by others, never-

theless condemns the Rhodesian ruins to an almost modern epoch, and JMonomotapa is made infantile

to Napata, in spite of the features they possess in common.

After a further blank in its history during the

domination of Egypt by the Shepherd Kings, from

the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Dynasties, further

expeditions took place from 1700 b.c. onwards,

under the Eighteenth Dynasty, of which the records

are more detailed, and speak of the native tribes.