gyptian
point of view the decoration of the sacred edifice should have been
theological only. The only subjects represented on it, so custom and
belief had ruled, ought to be the gods, and the stereotyped phrases
describing their attributes, their deeds, and their festivals. To
substitute for this the records of secular history was Assyrian and not
Egyptian. Indeed the very conception of annalistic chronicling, in which
the history of a reign was given briefly year by year and campaign by
campaign, belonged to the kingdoms of the Tigris and Euphrates, not to
that of the Nile. It was a new thing in Egypt, and flourished there only
during the short period of Asiatic influence. The Egyptian cared
comparatively little for history, and made use of papyrus when he wished
to record it. Unfortunately for us the annals of Thothmes III. remain
the solitary monument of Egyptian chronicling on stone.

The twenty-second year of his reign (B.C. 1481) was that in which the
Egyptian Pharaoh made his first determined effort to subdue Canaan. Gaza
was occupied without much difficulty, and in the following year, on the
fifth day of the month Pakhons, he set out from it, and eleven days
later encamped at Ihem. There he learned that the confederated
Canaanitish army, under the command of the king of Kadesh on the
Orontes, was awaiting his attack at Megiddo. Not only were the various
nations of Palestine represented in it, but contingents had come from
Naharaim on the banks of the Euphrates, as well as from the Gulf of
Antioch. For a while Thothmes hesitated whether to march against them by
the road which led through 'Aluna to Taanach or by way of Zaft (perhaps
Safed), whence he would have descended southward upon Megiddo. The
arrival of his spies, however, determined him to take the first, and
accordingly, after the officers had sworn that they would not leave
their appointed posts in battle even to defend the person of the king,
he started on his march, and on the nineteenth of the month pitched his
tent at 'Aluna. The way had been rough and impassable for chariots, so
that the king had been forced to march on foot.

'Aluna must have been close to Megiddo, since the rear of the Egyptian
forces was stationed there during the battle that followed, while the
southern wing extended to Taanach and the northern wing to Megiddo. The
advanced guard pushed into the plain below, and the royal tent was set
up on the bank of the brook of Qana, an aff