At one time it was the Hittites who poured down the slopes of Mount Taurus and occupied the fertile plains and cities of northern Syria.

At another time a kindred people from the highlands of Armenia established a kingdom in Mesopotamia known as that of Mitanni to its own subjects, as that of Aram-Naharaim to the Hebrews.
The northern invaders sundered the Semites of the West from those of the East.

The kings of Mitanni held guard over the fords of the Euphrates, and intrigued in Palestine against the Egyptian Pharaohs.

But this did not prevent them from marrying into the Pharaoh's family, while their daughters were sent to the harem of the Egyptian king.

Towards the end of the Eighteenth dynasty the sacred blood of the Pharaohs became contaminated by these foreign alliances.