have given way before the priestly twenty-first dynasty of San the military
prowess of the Ramesides has been replaced by the priestly craft of the Tanis
hierarchy. How did the change come about? Here, on the walls of the
temple of Khons, we discover something of the history of the increasing usurpa-
tion of the priests of Ammon. In the hall of eight columns we see the high
priest Her Hor, not yet indeed arrogating to him-

self the regal titles, but from the place reserved for
kings alone addressing the god in the joint name
of himself and the weak king by his side. And in
another hall we see the next step: all disguise is
thrown aside, and Her Hor appears with the uræus,
or sacred asp, on his brow, his name enclosed in
the royal double cartouche. On the pylon we see
his priestly successor, Pinotem, soon also to be-
come king. From this point the sun of Thebes
began to decline. Unable to rule, the priest-kings
attempted to conciliate, and had to give way to
Sheshonk, the Shishak of Scripture, who founded
the twenty-second or Bubastite dynasty, who built
the outer court of Karnac, where we find the record
of a victory gained by Shishak. The gods bring
him the towns which he has conquered. The twenty-ninth cartouche was read
by Champollion as Joudah Melek (king of Judah), and until recently was recog-
nised as a portrait of Jeroboam, though Brugsch has since maintained that
there is nothing to justify this supposition.

During the twenty-third and twenty-fourth dynasties Egypt was hard pressed B. c. 810-715. by the Assyrians from the north and the Ethiopians from the south. Seven hundred and fifteen years before Christ, the Ethiopians under Piankhi, who had previously taken Memphis and returned south, effected the conquest of Egypt, and established the twenty-fifth dynasty.

For only fifty years, however, were they able to hold their throne, and during B.C. 715-665. that period the valley of the Nile was the bone of contention between Ethiopia and Assyria, the former continually trying to effect a coalition of its neighbours against the latter. Marching to the aid of Hezekiah, the Pharaoh Shubataka was defeated by Sennacherib; a few years later, in Egypt itself, his successor, Tirhakah, was defeated by Esarhaddon. An unsuccessful revolt was followed Assyria, and Thebes, the glory of

by the complete annexation of Egypt to
Egypt, was pillaged. "Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity: her

B.C. 665-527.

B.C. 527-406.

young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets and they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains" (Nahum iii. 9, 10).

But Egypt was not destined to remain to Assyria longer than to Ethiopia. The conqueror had divided the county into twelve provinces. Psammetik, one of the twelve governors, allied himself by marriage with the family of Shabako, the legitimate heir of the Ethiopian dynasty, and, assisted by Ionian and Carian mercenaries, assumed the crown of Egypt, and founded the twenty-sixth or Saite dynasty.

Under the Saite dynasty, the star of Egypt seemed for a moment to rise again from obscurity. Greek mercenaries were established near Bubastis; and encouraged by the decline of Assyria, Psammetik attacked the wealthy seaports. Necho, his successor, also attacked Assyria, defeated Josiah, king of Judah, the ally of Assyria, at Megiddo, but was himself defeated by Nebuchadnezzar at Karkemish. Necho is perhaps still better known by his attempt to join the Red Sea, not with the Mediterranean, but the Nile. Warned by an oracle that it would only benefit strangers, he desisted. Perhaps if his successors of some 2500 years later had also obeyed the oracle, it would have been better for Egypt, if not for the world. Hophrah, of the same dynasty, felt strong enough to attack the growing power of the Babylonians, tried to raise the siege of Jerusalem for Zedekiah, and when his efforts failed, accorded hospitality to the exiles. Defeated by the king of Cyrene, his mercenaries revolted and proclaimed as king Amasis, who further encouraged Greek colonisation, gave to the adventurous colonists the port of Naukratis, and died, to be succeeded by his son, whose defeat placed Egypt under the domination of Persia.

The Persian rule of over a hundred years, under Cambyses, Darius, Xerxes, and his successor, is known as the twenty-seventh dynasty-a history of conB.C. 406-340. tinual revolt, finally successful, followed by a rapid succession of various conquerors and pretenders, who alternately displaced each other. This period B.C. 340-332. is mainly remarkable for the visits of Herodotus and Plato. In B.C. 340 the

Persians again recovered their authority, and eight years later Egypt fell, with the rest of the Persian Empire, under the authority of the great Macedonian.

Although the temple of Deir el Medinah and the two grand portals of Karnac mark the care of the Ptolemies for the old capital, the glory of Thebes, "the princely No of the waters," had long departed. Thebes was, above all, the city of Ammon and his triad-Ammon, the visible, tangible form of the creative force in nature, the symbol of that hidden force which presses all things

forward towards life and light, aptly symbolised by the sun; and with him were associated, first, Mout, the eternal mother, the recipient in which is accomplished the mystery of creation; and then, to complete the triad, Khons, who is Ammon himself in another form-Ammon Khons, the son of Ammon the father and Mout the mother, God of the rising life, representing the operation of divine intelligence in the outer world-his own father, his own son, without beginning or end, uncreate and eternal.