Thebes was the capital of Egypt during the period of the New Kingdom (c.1570-c.1069 BCE) and became an important center of worship of the god Amun (also known as Amon or Amen, a combination of the earlier gods Atum and Ra). Its sacred name was P-Amen or Pa-Amen meaning “the abode of Amen”. It was also known to the Egyptians as Wase or Wo’se (the city) and Usast or Waset (the southern city) and was built on either side of the Nile River with the main city on the east bank and the vast necropolis on the west.
This position on the river is famously referenced in the biblical book of Nahum 3:8, when the prophet warns Nineveh of its coming destruction, claiming that not even the great Thebes “situated among rivers, the waters round about it” was safe from the wrath of God. The biblical name for the city is No-Amon or No (Ezekial 30:14,16, Jeremiah 46:25, Nahum 3:8) referencing its fame as a cult center for Amon (though this name is also associated with the city of Xois in Lower Egypt). The Greeks called it Thebai from the Coptic Greek Ta-opet (the name of the great Karnak Temple) which became ‘Thebes’ – the name by which it is remembered.
The city covered 36 square miles (93 square km) and is located approximately 419 miles (675km) south of modern Cairo. In the modern day, Luxor and Karnak occupy the site of ancient Thebes, and its surrounding area features some of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt such as the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, the Ramesseum (temple of Ramesses II), the temple of Ramesses III, and the grand temple complex of Queen Hatshepsut.
Thebes was prominent by c. 3200 BCE owing largely to the rise in popularity of the cult of the god Amun and was known for its wealth and grandeur. In the 8th century BCE, long after Thebes had seen better days, the Greek poet Homer would still write famously of the city in his Iliad, “…in Egyptian Thebes the heaps of precious ingots gleam, the hundred-gated Thebes” and the Greeks would refer to the city as Diospolis Magna (‘The Great City of the Gods’). During the Amarna Period (1353-1336 BCE) Thebes was the world’s largest city with a population at around 80,000 people. At this same time, Akhenaten moved the capital from Thebes to his custom-built city of Akhetaten to dramatically separate his reign from his predecessors; his son, Tutankhamun, returned the capital to Thebes once he took the throne. The powerful priests of Amun consolidated their power to the point where, during the 20th Dynasty (c. 1190-1069 BCE) they were able to reign as pharoahs from the city.
Thebes continued as an important cult center and place of pilgrimage throughout Egypt’s history, even after the capital was moved to Per-Ramesses (near the older city of Avaris) by Ramesses II (1279-1213 BCE). During the Ramessid Period the priests of Amun ruled from Thebes while the pharaoh governed from Per-Ramesses. The city continued to grow in grandeur, especially the Temple of Amun, throughout this time. It was sacked by the Assyrians in 666 BCE, rebuilt, and finally destroyed by Rome in the 1st century CE.
Early Thebes
In the time of the Old Kingdom (c. 2316-2181 BCE) the city was a minor trading post in Upper Egypt, which was controlled by local clans. During the First Intermediate Period (2181-2040 BCE) the kingship was centered in Memphis until the rulers moved the capital to Herakleopolis. They were just as ineffectual there, however, as they had been in the old capital and this encouraged the local magistrates at Thebes to rise against the central government. The city began to grow more powerful under the leadership of powerful governors such as Intef I (c. 2125 BCE), Mentuhotep I (c. 2115 BCE) and Wahankh Intef II (c. 2112-2063 BCE) who established themselves as royalty. Wahankh Intef II even declared himself the true king of Egypt in opposition to the kings at Herakleopolis.
The Theban rulers waged war with the kings of Herakleopolis for supremacy and to unite the land under one rule. Mentuhotep II (2061-2010 BCE), a Theban prince, finally prevailed in c. 2055 BCE defeating the Herakliopolitan kings and uniting Egypt under Theban rule. The victory of Mentuhotep II elevated his gods and, chief among them Amun, above those of Lower Egypt. This deity grew in stature from a local god of fertility to the supreme being and creator of the universe. Thebes itself was thought to have been formed by the hands of Amun, drawn up from the Nile’s waters, just as the primordial mound of the ben-ben rose from the swirling waters of chaos at the creation of the world. In the original creation story, the god Atum or Ra stands upon the ben-ben and begins the work of creation. Amun was a combination of Atum, the creator god, and Ra, the sun god and, as this supreme lord had stood on the first dry earth at the beginning of creation, Thebes was considered his sacred place on earth and, perhaps, the original ben-ben on which he stood at the beginning of time.
The veneration of Amun gave rise to the trinity known as the Theban Triad of Amun, Mut, and Khons (also known as Khonsu) who would be worshiped in the city for centuries. Amun represented the sun and the creative force; Mut was his wife symbolized as the sun’s rays and the all-seeing eye; Khons was the moon, son of Amun and Mut, known as Khons the Merciful, destroyer of evil spirits, and god of healing. These three deities of Upper Egypt were drawn from the earlier gods Ptah, Sekhmet, and Khons of Lower Egypt who continued to be worshiped under their original names in Lower Egypt but whose attributes were transferred to the Amun, Mut, and Khons, deities of Thebes.
The popularity of these gods led directly to Thebes’ development, wealth, and status. Construction of the Temple of Karnak, dedicated to the worship of the triad, was begun around this time (c. 2055 BCE), and the temple would continue to grow in size and grandeur over the next 2,000 years as more and more details were added. It remains the largest religious structure ever built in the world. The priests of Amun, who administered the rites of the temple, would eventually grow so powerful they would threaten the authority of the pharaoh and, by the Third Intermediate Period (1069-525 BCE) the priests of Amun would rule Upper Egypt from Thebes.