222 B.C. 3230— B.C. 1200.

ac. 3230. In the time of the Sixth Dynasty Una, a high official under Pepi I, raised Sudanese levies, natives and negroes, to fight in Eastern Egj-pt and Sinai. He also cleared a canal in the 1st Cataract (of which there are now no traces), ac. 32(X». and Nubian chiefs, whom he had fought and conquered five times, brought wood for him. Mer-en-Ra (of Sixth Dynasty) sent one Her-Khuf three times to Nubia on trading expeditions, and he returned with ivory, ebony, etc., which would seem to show that he had penetrated some distance. He reached Amam, Arerthet, Meskher, Terres, etc., but the locality of these places is unknown. At this period the Nehes — negroids of the Sudan — occupied the country as far north as Aswan ; some of their tribes were termed the Aam, Wauat, etc., the latter living probably near Korosko.

By the end of the Early Empire, b.c. 2530 (First to Tenth Dynasties), Egyptian armies had certainly advanced into the Eastern Sudan.

In the Eleventh Dynasty there was regidar communication between Egypt and the debateable land of Punt, and ac 2500. we are told that one Hennu, in the reign of Seankhka, made a trading expedition thither by sea, via Kosseir, for unguents. This is not the place in which to discuss the position of the land of Punt, but it seems probable that it lay somewhere in the " horn " of Africa, and was not as far south as the Pungwe or Rhodesia, as some have recently tried to prove. ac. 2-J60. The next we hear of Nubia is that Amenemhat I (Twelfth Dynasty) conquered the Wauat and Machaiu Nubians, ac. 24.30. and then raided the Libyans to the west ; and 30 years later his son, Usertsen I, sent an armed caravan under Ameni into Ethiopia and " enlarged the borders of Egypt between the Ist and 3rd Cataracts." ac. 2366. The Nubians attacked the quarries at Aswan in the following reign (Usertsen II), but were repelled, and in the ac. 232.J. . next generation a serious expedition on a large scale was undertaken by the great Usertsen III. This monarch worked through the canal in the 1st Cataract, conquered the " abominable Kash," and at the 2nd Cataract he set a boundary ac. 2317. stone. Eight years later he beat the Kash again, and built the great temples and forts of Semna and Kumna, 40 miles south of Haifa, to guard the defile of the Nile. He also issued edicts for the prevention of any natives from descending the Nile in boats or otherwise, except for the purpose of trade. ac. 2300. A few years later Amenemhat III cut a Nile gauge in the rock near Semna, and this is visible to this day. The height of the Nile flood is curiously enough, marked as being 26 feet higher than it is now. (This was the monarch who also built the Labyrinth in the Fayum.)

The statues of Sebek Hetep III on Argo Island probably prove that the kings of the Thirteenth Dynasty occupied and garrisoned the present province of Dongola ; but for the following 600 years no further records are available (Hyksos period).

During the Eighteenth Dynasty (b.c. 1700 to 1400), Ethiopia was a good deal en evidence. Amssis I invaded Nubia, slaughtered the " Anti of Kenset " somewhere south-east of Haifa, and returned ; Amenophis I sent punitive expeditions to the Eastern Sudan and took many prisoners ; Thothmes I had a river fight with the Nubians, killed their king, and fastened his " vile dead body " to the bows of his boat ; he proceeded as far as Kernia (Tombos) and probably beyond, and set up a Viceroy as Prince of Kush ; and two years later he proceeded again thither via the canal above-mentioned, clearing it out on his way. A few years afterwards, Thothmes II raided Nubia severely, killing all males except " one of the damned sons of the Chief of Kesh," whom he used as a footstool. Under Queen Hatshepset* the Nubians paid tribute to Egypt, but revolted against her successor, the great Thothmes III. This monarch, however, seems to have crushed them in an expedition through the 1st Cataract, and to have consolidated the Egyptian conquests in Ethiopia.

Amenhotep II, son of Thothmes III, again overran Nubia on a large scale, and his successor, Amenhotep III, Bc. 1590. extended the Egyptian frontier to the 4th Cataract and possibly to the Atbara, building a large temple to Ammon at Napata, which lay close to Jebel Barkal (the present Merowe) near the foot of the 4th Cataract.

About this date there was formed a priestly colony at Napata,:|: in close touch with the Egyptian religion, and forming a strong link between the two countries. Civilization appears to have greatly increased in the Napata region, but the Nubians to the north seem to have remained in a barbaric condition, for we find Rameses I making an expedition BC. 133.3. against them, and the great Rameses II forcing them to pay tribute. The father of the latter, however, Seti I, as ac. 1360. well as his son, devoted his chief energies in Nubia to erecting temples and works, f and more particularly to digging for gold, minerals, and precious stones in the Eastern Desert. Starting from Kubban, opposite Dakka, Rameses II dug wells in the Wadi Alagi and other regions and worked gold mines with considerable result. The warlike operations II.C. 130(J. in these regions of himself and his successors, Manephtha and Rameses III, seem to have been chiefly confined to beating ac. 1200. (jjg Libyans in the Western Desert.

Meanwhile the hierarchy of Napata was growing in power. The Ethiopians of this region, a plastic race, adopted * This lady sent a large (five-ship) trading; expedition to Punt, and did raunh bu.siness in gold, incense, and gum, in consequence. + e.(f., Abu Simbl, Gerf Hus'ln, Derr, Wadi SebAa, etc. X riafe Apjjendix L), p. 311.

ac. 1700. ac. 1660. BC. 1630.

ac. 1628.

ac. 1610.

ac. 1600.

ac. 15(iO. ac. 15(X}.

ac. 1400.