"Almost three thousand years." Qebhet had never thought about it so, but she supposed there was some truth in what Marian said. Kemet had never been static – wars had raged and tyrants had risen and been overthrown, new gods had supplanted old ones and old gods had taken new forms, on and on, for thirty centuries – but it had endured, even as beyond its borders empires rose and fell. After three thousand years, perhaps they had an excuse for being a little stuck in their ways.