The Hyksos (Egyptian: heqa khasewet, "foreign rulers"; Greek: Ὑκσώς, Ὑξώς, Arabic: الملوك الرعاة, "shepherd kings") were an Asiatic people who invaded the eastern Nile Delta during the twelfth dynasty of Egypt initiating the Second Intermediate Period. The Hyksos first appeared during the eleventh dynasty of Egypt, began their climb to power in the thirteenth dynasty and came out the other side of the second intermediate period in control of Avaris and the delta. By the fifteenth dynasty they ruled lower Egypt and at the end of the seventeenth dynasty they were expelled.