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Among the discoveries at this second exploration was a third hall, dating from the reign of Osorkon I., the walls of which were sculptured with bas-reliefs on a large scale, representing the king in the act of worshipping Bast and the other deities of the city. It appears that one great divinity honoured here was Amon; and another was the god Set.

It had not been suspected that Bubastis was the site of an important Hyksos settlement; but from the type of the statues and other things which have been found, that turns out to have been the case.

The chronographers have preserved the names of several of the Hyksos kings, recording them as follows:—Silites (or Salatis), Beon, Apachnas, Tannas (or Tanras), Asseth, and Apophis (in Egyptian, Apepi). Mariette, in his very successful excavations at Tanis, found the name of Apepi written on the arm of a statue, although the statue was of older date. Mr Naville has found, at Tell Basta, a colossal statue which he takes to be the statue of Apepi. It is now in the British Museum. This is particularly interesting, because Syncellus relates that Apepi was the king in whose reign Joseph rose to the high position described in Genesis. One remarkable object found at Tell Basta is part of a seated statue, upon which the royal name reads “Ian-Ra,” or “Ra-Ian.” The name is new to us, but when Mr Naville went over to Boulak, where the Museum of Antiquities then was, and showed a copy to Ahmed Kemal-ed-Deen Effendi, the learned Mohammedan official, he exclaimed at once—“You have found the Pharaoh of Joseph. All our Arab books call him Reiyan, the son of El Welid.” European scholars do not place absolute reliance on Arab chronicles, which are often fanciful; yet it is remarkable that the statue of Ian-Ra, Joseph’s king, according to the Arabs, should be found at Tell Basta, in close proximity to the statue of Apepi, Joseph’s king, according to Syncellus. Mr Naville distinguishes Ian-Ra from Apepi, and thinks he is the same as Ianias or Annas, mentioned by Josephus as the fifth king out of six. Mr Naville has also found at Tell Basta the names of twenty-five Pharaohs who were known already, including Cheops and Chephren, the builders of the pyramids, about 3700 B.C.