123. Death of
Ikhnaton; partial
restoration of the
Egyptian Empire, last great power
of Age of Bronze;
coming of iron
 
 

124. Foreign
mercenaries in the
Egyptian army;
invasion of the 
Northerners; fall 
of the Empire
 
 
 
 
 
 

125. The bodies 
of the Egyptian
emperors

    In the midst of these troubles at home and abroad the young Ikhnaton died, leaving no son behind him. Although a visionary and an idealist, he was the most remarkable genius of the early oriental world before the Hebrews; but the faith in one god which he attempted to introduce perished with him.  A new line of kings, the greatest of whom were Seti I (Fig. 72) and his son Ramses II (Fig. 123), after desperate efforts were able to restore to some extent the Egyptian Empire. But they were unable to drive the Hittites out of Syria, for these Hittite invaders from Asia Minor possessed iron (§360), which they could use for weapons, while the declining Egyptian Empire was the last great power of the Age of Bronze.

    At Thebes the symptoms of the coming fall may be seen even at the present day. If we examine the great war pictures on the Theban temples which we have been visiting, we find in the battle scenes of the later Empire great numbers of foreigners serving in the Egyptian army. This shows that the Egyptians had finally lost their temporary interest in war and were calling in foreigners to fight their battles. Among these strangers are the peoples of the northern Mediterranean whom we left there in the Late Stone Age (§ 44). Here on the Egyptian monuments we find them after they have got from eastern peoples the art of using metal. With huge bronze swords in their hands we see them serving as hired soldiers in the Egyptian army (tailpiece, p. 319). They and other Mediterranean foreigners (§ 378) finally invaded Egypt in such numbers that the weakened Egyptian Empire fell, in the middle of the twelfth century B. C.

    The great Pharaohs, who maintained themselves for over four hundred years as emperors, were buried here at Thebes.  On the other side of the cliffs behind the huge statues of Amenhotep III (Fig. 69) is a wild and desolate valley formed by a deep depression in the western desert (Fig. 75). Here, in   [NEXT]