Chapter I: Preface

The growing interest that is felt in all that concerns Egypt and its past has led me to hope that there may be many who will be glad of a book containing, in a concise and easily accessible form, the chief results of modern research and discovery in the valley of the Nile.

The Manuscript of this work was submitted to Dr. Lushington, formerly Professor of Greek at Glasgow University, and he has very kindly permitted the publication of the following opinion:—

‘It appears to me very carefully and accurately
written, with diligent consultation of the most
trustworthy sources. The illustrative quotations
interspersed seem well calculated to inspire and
maintain interest in the reader as well as the
descriptive sketches.

The subject well deserves, and is already beginning
to command, more general interest than a few years ago
it would have been possible to anticipate.’

The translations I have given are selected and freely rendered from those that have appeared in _Records of the Past_, after comparison with any others that were available. I am also much indebted throughout to Dr. Brugsch’s valuable _History of Egypt_; and I wish especially to mention my obligation to Mr. Villiers Stuart’s _Nile Gleanings_, with its many interesting illustrations and accompanying descriptions—more particularly those relating to the tombs of the third and fourth dynasties, to the curious episode of Khu-en-aten’s reign, and to the stirring times of Rameses the Great.

My obligations to other authors are acknowledged in the respective places.

The hieroglyphs above the Table of Contents read, _em rek suteniu tepau_, _i.e._ ‘in the time of former kings,’ and the cartouche at the end of the line is that of ‘Pharaoh,’ to be read _Per-aa_, _i.e._ ‘the Great House.’ The hawk is symbolic of divine protection, and the seal it holds is the emblem of renewed and endless life.

E. BERKLEY.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. PAGE
Reign of the gods—Osiris, Isis, and Horus Myth—Ancient
Cities and early Kings, 1

CHAPTER II.
The Pyramid Builders, 17

CHAPTER III.
The Pyramid Builders—_continued_, 29

CHAPTER IV.
Civil War and Break-up of the Kingdom—Reunion and Recovery, 41

CHAPTER V.
Twelfth Dynasty—‘Instructions’ of Amenemhat I.—
Story of Saneha, 49

CHAPTER VI.
Successors of Amenemhat I.—Two Provinces added to Egypt, 64

CHAPTER VII.
Invasion and Rule of the Hyksos—War of Liberation.
(_Circa_ 2100-1600 B.C.), 79

CHAPTER VIII.
The Eighteenth Dynasty—Queen Hatasu and Thothmes III.
(_Circa_ 1600-1400 B.C.), 88

CHAPTER IX.
The Eighteenth Dynasty—_continued_.
(_Circa_ 1600-1400 B.C.), 125

CHAPTER X.
The Nineteenth Dynasty (_circa_ 1400-1200 B.C.)—
Rameses the Great, 142

CHAPTER XI.
Thebes; its People, Temples, and Tombs—Close of the
Nineteenth Dynasty, 175

CHAPTER XII.
Twentieth and Twenty-first Dynasties—The Ramessidæ and the
Priest-Kings. (_Circa_ 1200-970 B.C.), 212

CHAPTER XIII.
Shishak I. and the Twenty-second (Bubastite)
Dynasty—The Ethiopian Kings—The Assyrians in
Egypt—Sack of Thebes. (_Circa_ 970-666 B.C.), 237

CHAPTER XIV.
Psammetichus and the Saite Dynasty—The Persian Conquest—
Last Independent Dynasties. (666-340 B.C.), 263

APPENDIX I.—Table of Dynasties, 288