18 PAST AGES OF CONQUEST onwards) pursued with vigour their work of conquering 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 AAady Haifa, which he strongly fortified, as may be seen to this day, guarding 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, nevertheless 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.