of princesses of the blood, and possessed, or imagined that they possessed, as good a right to the crown as the family on the throne.  Memphis declined, became impoverished, and dwindled in population.  Its inhabitants ceased to build those immense stone mastabas in which they had proudly displayed their wealth, and erected them merely of brick, in which the decoration was almost entirely confined to one narrow niche near the sarcophagus.  Soon the mastaba itself was given up, and the necropolis of the city was reduced to the meagre proportions of a small provincial cemetery.  The centre of that government, which had weighed so long and so heavily upon Egypt, was removed to the south, and fixed itself at Heracleopolis the Great.

Volume II., Part .

THE FIRST THEBAN EMPIRE

THE TWO HERACLEOPOLITAN DYNASTIES AND THE TWELFTH DYNASTY—­THE CONQUEST OF ETHIOPIA, AND THE MAKING OF GREATER EGYPT BY THE THEBAN KINGS.

The principality of Heracleopolis:  Achthoes-Khiti and the Heracleopolitan dynasties—­Supremacy of the great barons:  the feudal fortresses, El-Kab and Abydos; ceaseless warfare, the army—­Origin of the Theban principality:  the principality of Sidt, and the struggles of its lords against the princes of Thebes—­The kings of the XIth dynasty and their buildings:  the brick pyramids of Abydos and Thebes, and the rude character of early Theban art.

The XIIth dynasty:  Amenemdidit I., his accession, his wars; he shares his throne with his son Usirtasen I., and the practice of a coregnancy prevails among his immediate successors—­The relations of Egypt with Asia:  the Amu in Egypt and the Egyptians among the Bedouin; the Adventures of Sinuhit—­The mining settlements in the Sinaitic peninsula:  Sarbut-el-Khddim and its chapel to Hathor.

Egyptian policy in the Nile Valley—­Nubia becomes part of Egypt:  works of the Pharaohs, the gold-mines and citadel of Kuban—­Defensive measures at the second cataract:  the two fortresses and the Nilometer of Semneh—­The vile Kush and its inhabitants:  the wars against Kush and their consequences; the gold-mines—­Expeditions to Puanit, and navigation along the coasts of the Bed Sea:  the Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor.

Public works and new buildings—­The restoration of the temples of the Delta:  Tanis and the sphinxes of Amenemhait III., Bubastis, Heliopolis, and the temple of Usirtasen I.—­The increasing importance of Thebes and Abydos—­Heracleopolis and the Fayum:  the monuments of Begig and of Biahmil, the fields and water-system of the Fayum; preference shown by the Pharaohs for this province—­The royal pyramids of Dashdr, Lisht, Ulahun, and Haiodra.

The part played by the feudal lords under the XIIth dynasty—­History of the princes of Mondit-Khufui:  Khnumhotpil, Khiti, Amoni-Amenemhait—­The lords of Thebes, and the accession of the XIIIth dynasty:  the Sovkhotpus and the Nfirhotpus—­Completion of the conquest of Nubia; the XIVth dynasty.