=The One Natural Site in Syria for a Great Empire.= The history of the Hyksos invaders by analogy throws light upon the older Amorite kingdom, of which it was perhaps a later revival, and demonstrates that the broad valley between the Lebanons and the Anti-Lebanons, of which Kadesh was the centre, was practically the only region in Syria fitted to become the seat of a strong civilization and a large empire. Entrenched among these northern plains and protecting mountain ranges, it was possible for an energetic people to extend their sway over practically all the coast lands of the eastern Mediterranean. Naturally, when a favorable opportunity offered for the conquest of Egypt, it would be eagerly improved; for the rich valley of the Nile has always been a tempting prey to outside peoples. The history of the later Hittite kingdom, the southern capital of which was also at Kadesh, illustrates the same principle. A still later and even more familiar analogy is the career of the Seleucidean kingdom, whose capital was at Antioch, a little farther north. Thus the only four kingdoms in the history of the eastern Mediterranean that conquered this entire territory and aspired to wider conquest sprang up, not in Palestine, but amidst the more favorable conditions in central Syria. =Influence of the Land Upon the Early Forms of Worship.= The peculiar physical conditions of Palestine not only shaped to a great extent its early history, but also made a profound impression upon the religion of its inhabitants. The limestone rock of Palestine was especially favorable to the formation of caves. These caverns and passages in the rocks were not only the homes of the earliest inhabitants, but were also closely identified with the oldest forms of religious worship. Beneath the earlier sanctuaries at Gezer and Taanach were caves, clearly connected with the primitive cult which once flourished there. Probably the gods here worshipped were subterranean deities.