| | | THE NEW EMPIRE. | | | | XVIII. Diospolitan |Thebes | Luxor, &c. | 1700 | 1750 | | XIX. Diospolitan |Thebes | Luxor, &c. | 1400 | 1490 | | XX. Diospolitan |Thebes | Luxor, &c. | 1200 | 1280 | | XXI. Tanite |Tanis | San | 1100 | 1100 | | XXII. Bubastite |Bubastis | Tel Bast | 960 | 975 | | XXIII. Tanite |Tanis | San | 766 | 810 | | XXIV. Saite |Sais | Sa el-Hagar | 753 | 720 | | XXV. Ethiopian |Napata | Mount Barkal| 700 | 715 | | XXVI. Saite |Sais | Sa el-Hagar | 666 | 664 | | XXVII. Persian |Persepolis | ... | 527 | 525 | |XXVIII. Saite |Sais | Sa el-Hagar | ... | 415 | | XXIX. Mendesian |Mendes | Eshmun er- | | | | | | Român | 399 | 408 | | XXX. Sebennyte |Sebennytos | Semenhûd | 378 | 387 | +---------------------+-------------+-------------+---------+---------+ In the time of Moses the Egyptian power had already passed its zenith and begun to decay. There had been an Old Empire, with the City of _This_ for its first capital and Menes as its first king. Dynasty had succeeded dynasty, during perhaps two thousand years, and the capital had been changed several times, when the Middle Empire came in, and the kings ruled from Thebes and afterwards from Xois. There had now been fourteen dynasties altogether; and the power of the kingdom was so far weakened that it was unable to keep out the invader. The Shepherd Kings, coming from Midian, or perhaps from Mesopotamia, established themselves in the Delta, and held possession for several centuries. Their conquest, however, did not extend to Upper Egypt, and so the native dynasties reigned contemporaneously, enthroned at Thebes, while the Hyksos kings were seated at Zoan. It was probably towards the close of the Hyksos period that Joseph was made governor of Egypt, under the latest of the Shepherd Kings. The seventeenth dynasty saw the last of these foreigners, and after their expulsion the New Empire began, near the end of the eighteenth century before Christ. The eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties included several monarchs of great renown; and as the Israelitish sojourn falls chiefly within this period, it will be useful to give here a chronological list. _Monarchs of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties, with approximate dates, according to Brugsch._ Eighteenth Dynasty. B. C.