The Conquest of Rebu by Tutmose III

Rebu was a city in ancient Egypt and there is evidence that it was conquered by the Egyptians during the reign of Tutmose III. Thousands of years later, a man named G. A. Henty wrote a book about it called The Cat of Bubastes, that was based on historic facts, but it was for the most part a fictional story. According to Henty, the Rebu went to a marsh to fight the Egyptians and though they fought bravely they were defeated and their king was killed by an arrow to the eye. They retreated back to their city and fortified it’s walls. Soon the Egyptians laid a siege on it and tried to climb the walls but it failed because the Rebu threw missiles such as spears and rocks down at them as they climbed. So they started tunneling through the walls, they also set up small huts around the area. Inside the city the people were curious as to how the Egyptians planned to defeat them by going through the walls. When the Egyptians finally penetrated the wall the Rebu rushed out to fight and then many soldiers came out of the small huts, the Rebu fought bravely but were defeated in the end. Once the Egyptians raided it they found that the queen of Rebu had poisoned herself so as not to be around when the walls were penetrated and also to join her husband in the afterlife. Although the Egyptians had had many battles in the past, this was the first time they had won, their army had much variety in it as far as people groups. They began to gather slaves and plunder the city and when they were done they had Egyptian soldiers guard the city and they went back to Egypt to put their slaves to work. G. A. Henty wrote an enjoyable book on this event, and although we don’t know how much of it is exact history, it is fascinating to hear what might have been the case.