On the expulsion of the Hyksos we find the history of the Great Pharaohs of the XIXth Dynasty closely connected with Tanis. Its magnificent temple, as we have already mentioned, was built by Rameses the Great. Meneptha, his son, was holding his court here at the time of the Exodus; and it must have been with the militia of the neighbourhood, where a considerable force of the military caste was settled, that he pursued the fugitive Israelites. We are, therefore, prepared to find that at last it became the actual recognized capital of Egypt. This was brought about under the XXIst Dynasty. It had come to be seen that under existing circumstances Thebes was no longer the best position from which the country could be guarded and governed. It was now the opposite extremity of the country that needed all the vigilance that could be exercised, and where should be placed the head quarters of the military power of the Empire. We now come to Bubastis. The great temple of this famous city, of which Herodotus gives a minute account, and which appeared to him more finished and beautiful than any other structure in Egypt, was nearly a furlong in length, and of the same width. It was built throughout of granite. Its sculptures also bear the name of the great Rameses. It was placed on a peninsula, formed in an artificial lake in the middle of the city. The isthmus leading to the sacred enclosure was a strip of land between two parallel canals from the Nile. Each of them was 100 feet wide. They fed the lake which completely surrounded the temple, with the exception of the isthmic entrance. The width of the lake was 1,400 feet. Along the sides of the isthmus were rows of lofty evergreen trees. As the ground on which the city stood had been raised by the earth excavated from the bed of the lake, and by other accumulations, to a considerable height above the temple enclosure, the spectator looked down on the temple of red granite, the green trees, and the water from all sides. We can understand Herodotus’s preference for this temple. Most of the particulars of his description and measurements can still be traced out. Of the temple itself, however, only a few scattered stones remain, but these are sufficient to show of what materials, and by whom, it was built. It was to Bubastis that the XXIInd Dynasty transferred the seat of Government. Almost all the names of this Dynasty are Assyrian. The strange apparition of these names is accounted for by the probable supposition that its founder was a military adventurer, who, while stationed in this city, had become connected by marriage with the Royal Family. This semi-foreign House occupied the throne for a little more than a century and a half, when Tanis again became the capital under the XXIIIrd Dynasty.