The oldest information about these districts which has come down to us is contained in the statements about the campaigns which Kudur-Lagamer and Kudur-Mabuk of Elam are said to have undertaken against Syria (p. 251). If we might regard the kings of Elam, who extended their power over Babylonia, and then forced their way to Syria, as belonging to the fourth dynasty of Berosus, the campaign of Kudur-Lagamer and Kudur-Mabuk could be placed about the year 2000 B.C. When Babylonia under Sarrukin and Hammurabi shook off the supremacy of Elam, Sarrukin is said to have advanced towards Syria as far as the "Western Sea" (p. 260). Three centuries later Syria was attacked from the western or opposite side. As soon as the kings of Upper Egypt had succeeded in expelling the Hyksos from the land, they carried their arms towards Syria, and in these campaigns repeatedly touched the Euphrates. In the times of Tuthmosis I. (1646-1625 B.C.) we are told that he traversed Syria towards the north, advanced as far as the Euphrates, and set up a column there. Tuthmosis III. (1591-1565 B.C.) marched seven times against Syria; in the fourth campaign (1580 B.C.) he reached and crossed the Euphrates; then he appears to have advanced through Mesopotamia as far as the Tigris, and to have collected tribute there.[483] More than one hundred and fifty years later Sethos I. (1439-1388 B.C.) fought against the Schasu, _i.e._ the Shepherds, "who extend as far as Canana," the Cheta (Hittites), and the Retennu, _i.e._ the Syrians. Ramses II. (1388-1322 B.C.) invaded the land of Kaft, and caused memorials of his victories to be engraved upon the rocks at Nahr-el-Kelb, in the neighbourhood of Berytus, fought against the Hittites and their allies from the Euphrates, the prince of Karchemish, and then concluded peace and entered into friendship with the prince of the Cheta (p. 150 ff). The campaigns of Ramses III. (1269-1244 B.C.) were also directed against the Schasu, the Cheta, whose prince he took alive, the Amari (the Amorites) and the Pulista (the Philistines, p. 164). The inscriptions of these Pharaohs prove that the tribes of Syria, even as early as the sixteenth century B.C., had arrived not only at a settled mode of life, but at a vigorous trade and a civilisation far from contemptible. The princes of Syria met Tuthmosis III. with numerous war-chariots, of which in the battle of Megiddo they lost 924 (p. 132). If Tuthmosis can mention 107 cities from Hamath in the north to Gaza in the south which he had subjugated, the population must have been already more numerous and the land more thickly inhabited. The names quoted prove that Gaza (Kazatu), Damascus (Tamesku), Hamath (Hamtu), Joppa (Japu), Berothai (Berytus), Kades (Kadeshu), Ashtaroth Karnaim (Astartu), and many cities frequently mentioned at a later date, were already in existence: several of them are represented to us on the monuments of the Pharaohs, as situated on heights and surrounded by strong walls.