Next came the turn of Tyre, which the Babylonian king blockaded for no less than thirteen years (585-573 B.C.), but was apparently successful in the end, when the inhabitants acknowledged Babylonian overlordship. That its capture cost him great pains is testified by Ezekiel (xxix. 18), who states that, to take the city, “every head was bald, and every shoulder was peeled” in consequence of the carrying of material for the operations against the city, yet neither he nor his army reaped any material advantage from this conquest, “for the service that he had served against it.” The name of a city Ṣûru, which is probably Tyre, occurs on a tablet dated in Nebuchadnezzar’s thirty-fifth year (569 B.C.—four years after the city was taken). It refers to a transaction in which sesame is sold, an official of the city being a party to the contract. Later on, in the fortieth year of Nebuchadnezzar, a contract was entered into between Milki-idiri, governor of Kidis (Kedesh), with regard to some cattle. This document is dated at Tyre (Ṣurru) on the 22nd of the month Tammuz. Not only Tyre, therefore, but the whole district, owned the dominion of Nebuchadnezzar at this time. Just as successful were Nebuchadnezzar’s operations against Egypt. According to an Egyptian inscription, the Babylonian king attacked Egypt in the year 572 B.C., penetrating as far as Syene and the borders of Ethiopia. Hophra, who still reigned, was defeated and deposed, the general Amasis being raised to the throne in his place to rule the land as a vassal of the Babylonian king. According to the only historical fragment of the reign of this king known, Nebuchadnezzar made an expedition to Egypt in his thirty-seventh year. This was to all appearance against his vassal Amasis, who, like Zedekiah, had revolted against the power which had raised him to the throne. The rebellion was suppressed, but the ultimate fate of Amasis is not stated. According to Megasthenes, who lived in the time of Seleucus Nicator, Nebuchadnezzar conquered North Africa, crossing afterwards into Spain by the Strait of Gibraltar, returning to Babylonia through Europe and Asia Minor. Such an expedition, however, it is hardly likely that he ever undertook, and the account of this exploit may therefore be relegated to the domain of the fables with which the ancient historians sometimes ornamented their work.