There is also some reason to suspect that the Hyksos did not invade, but had already dwelled in Egypt. One of the dynasties, I think the 13th, was a regional power that governed over foreigners who were settled in the eastern delta, near Avaris, the later Hyksos capital. The foreigners had been settled there intentionally, or at least with the central governments consent, and the cities of the eastern delta served as hubs of trade between Egypt and the Levant. The theory holds that rather than invade, the already present foreigners took advantage of the central government’s collapse to assert their own authority.
