The first successors of Thutmosis I.:  Ahmasi and Hatshopsitit, Thutmosis II—­The temple of Deir el-Bahari and the buildings of Karnah—­The Ladders of Incense—­The expedition to Puanit:  bartering with the natives, the return of the fleet.

Thutmosis III.:  his departure for Asia, the battle of Megiddo and the subjection of Southern Syria—­The year 23 to the year 28 of his reign—­Conquest of Lotanu and of Mitanni—­The campaign of the 33rd year of the king’s reign.

[Illustration:  305.jpg Page Image]

CHAPTER III—­THE EIGHTEENTH THEBAN DYNASTY

Thutmosis I. and his army—­Hatshopsitu and Thutmosis III.

The account of the first expedition undertaken by Thutmosis in Asia, a region at that time new to the Egyptians, would be interesting if we could lay our hands upon it.  We should perhaps find in the midst of official documents, or among the short phrases of funerary biographies, some indication of the impression which the country produced upon its conquerors.

With the exception of a few merchants or adventurers, no one from Thebes to Memphis had any other idea of Asia than that which could be gathered from the scattered notices of it in the semi-historical romances of the preceding age.  The actual sight of the country must have been a revelation; everything appearing new and paradoxical to men of whom the majority had never left their fatherland, except on some warlike expedition into Ethiopia or on some rapid raid along the coasts of the Red Sea.  Instead of their own narrow valley, extending between its two mountain ranges, and fertilised by the periodical overflowing of the Nile which recurred regularly almost to a day, they had before them wide irregular plains, owing their fertility not to inundations, but to occasional rains or the influence of insignificant streams; hills of varying heights covered with vines and other products of cultivation; mountains of different altitudes irregularly distributed, clothed with forests, furrowed with torrents, their summits often crowned with snow even in the hottest period of summer:  and in this region of nature, where everything was strange to them, they found nations differing widely from each other in appearance and customs, towns with crenellated walls perched upon heights difficult of access; and finally, a civilization far excelling that which they encountered anywhere in Africa outside their own boundaries.  Thutmosis succeeded in reaching on his first expedition a limit which none of his successors was able to surpass, and the road taken by him in this campaign—­from Gaza to Megiddo, from Megiddo to Qodshu, from Qodshu to Carchemish—­was that which was followed henceforward by the Egyptian troops in all their expeditions to the Euphrates.  Of the difficulties which he encountered on his way we have no information.  On arriving at Naharaim, however, we know that he