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The Hyksos capital of ancient Avaris has now been fixed at Tell ed-Dab‘a, just north of Goshen, in the eastern Delta. The Hyksos, a Semitic people from Asia, settled in the area as far back as the mid-18th century B.C.E. Hyksos pharaohs even ruled Egypt for a time. Historian Baruch Halpern notes that if the story of Joseph reflects Hyksos dominance in Egypt and if the figure of 400 years for the Israelite sojourn in Egypt as given in the Bible is correct, then the Exodus would have occurred during the Ramesside dynasty (13th century B.C.E.)