But for
occasional intervals, as when Akhunaten held his court at Tell el-Amarna
and Ramses II at Tanis, Thebes remained the national capital for six
hundred years, till the time of the XXIId Dynasty.
Another great change which differentiates the Middle Kingdom
(XIth-XIIIth Dynasties) from the Old Kingdom was caused by Egypt's
coming into contact with other outside nations at this period. During
the whole history of the Old Kingdom, Egyptian relations with the outer
world had been nil. We have some inkling of occasional connection
with the Mediterranean peoples, the _Ha-nebu_ or Northerners; we have
accounts of wars with the people of Sinai and other Bedawin and negroes;
and expeditions were also sent to the land of Punt (Somaliland) by way
of the Upper Nile. But we have not the slightest hint of any connection
with, or even knowledge of, the great nations of the Euphrates valley
or the peoples of Palestine. The Babylonian king Naram-Sin invaded the
Sinaitic peninsula (the land of Magan) as early as 3750 b. c, about
the time of the IIId Egyptian Dynasty. The great King Tjeser, of that
dynasty, also invaded Sinai, and so did Snefru, the last king of the
dynasty. But we have no hint of any collision between Babylonians and
Egyptians at that time, nor do either of them betray the slightest
knowledge of one another's existence.
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