Tanis, his principal
capital, composed of blocks of red granite, and adorned it with obelisks
and sphinxes. The obelisks are said to have been fourteen in number, and
must have been dispersed about the courts, and not, as usual, placed
only at the entrance. The sphinxes, which differed from the ordinary
Egyptian sphinx in having a mane like a lion and also wings, seem to
have formed an avenue or vista leading up to the temple from the town.
They are in diorite, and have the name of Apepi engraved upon them.

The pacific rule of Apepi and his predecessors allowed Thebes to
increase in power, and her monuments now recommence. Three kings who
bore the family name of Taa, and the throne name of Ra-Sekenen, bore
rule in succession at the southern capital. The third of these, Taa-ken,
or "Taa the Victorious," was contemporary with Apepi, and paid his
tribute punctually, year by year, to his lawful suzerain. He does not
seem to have had any desire to provoke war; but Apepi probably thought
that he was becoming too powerful, and would, if unmolested, shortly
make an effort to throw off the Hyksos yoke. He therefore determined to
pick a quarrel with him, and proceeded to send to Thebes a succession of
embassies with continually increasing demands. First of all he required
Taa-ken to relinquish the worship of all the Egyptian gods except
Amen-Ra, the chief god of Thebes, whom he probably identified with his
own Sutekh. It is not quite clear whether Taa-ken consented to this
demand, or politely evaded it. At any rate, a second embassy soon
followed the first, with a fresh requirement; and a third followed the
second. The policy was successful, and at last Taa-ken took up arms. It
would seem that he was successful, or was at any rate able to hold his
own; for he maintained the war till his death, and left it to his
successor, Aahmes.

There was an ancient tradition, that the king who made Joseph his prime
minister, and committed into his hands the entire administration of
Egypt, was Apepi. George the Syncellus says that the synchronism was
accepted by all. It is clear that Joseph's arrival did not fall, like
Abraham's, into the period of the Old Empire, since under Joseph horses
and chariots are in use, as well as wagons or carts, all of which were
unknown till after the Hyksos invasion. It is also more natural that
Joseph, a foreigner, should have been advanced by a foreign king than by
a native one, and the favour shown to his