Brugsch, Heinrich: Egypt under the pharaohs: a history derived entirely from the monuments (London, 1891)

.238 RISE OF THE KHETA ch. xi.

these people the Hittites of the Bible. When Tehuti-mes
III. fought with them and conquered their towns, they
were an important people in the north of Syria. At
the commencement of the Nineteenth Dynasty their
power extended over the whole of the surrounding
nations. These predecessors of the Assyrian Empire
held the first place in the league of the cities and kings
of Western Asia. The Egyptian inscriptions do not
hesitate to refer to their sovereigns in a conspicuous
manner, and to speak of their gods with reverence.
When Eamses I. ascended the throne Sa-pa-li-li, Saplel,
or Saprer, ruled as their king, and was followed by his
■son and heir Mauro-sar. At his death he left two sons,
of whom the elder was Mauthanar, who appears as a
contemporary of Seti I. and an enemy of Egypt, while
the younger Kheta-sar was the friend, ally, and father-
in-law of Eamses II. At the head of their divinities
stood Sutekh—the Kheta counterpart of Amen—and
his wife the steed-driving queen of heaven, Astartha-
Anatha.

Among the towns of the Kheta, Tunep (Daphnae)
and Khilibu (Haleb) are two points certainly fixed by
their definite position, and both had temples of the
great Baal-Sutekh. On the other hand, the name of
the country of Qazauatana points with certainty to
the region of Gozan (Gauzanitis) to the east of the
Euphrates, between the towns of Circesium in the south
and Thapsacus in the north. The situation of the
countries of the Kheta—Zaranda, Pirqa or Pilqa (Peleg,
Paliga ?), Khissap, Sarsu, Sarpina, Zaiath-khirra (hinder
Zaiath)—must be determined by future enquiries.
Perhaps we may find an answer to these questions in
the Assyrian inscriptions.

If it is allowable to form a judgment on the origin
of this cultivated and powerful people from its outward