Thebes, Egypt

Coordinates: 25°43′14″N 32°36′37″E / 25.72056°N 32.61028°E / 25.72056; 32.61028
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Egyptian Thebes
)
Thebes
Waset
طيبة
Θῆβαι
Arabic: طيبة
LocationLuxor, Luxor Governorate, Egypt
RegionUpper Egypt
Coordinates25°43′14″N 32°36′37″E / 25.72056°N 32.61028°E / 25.72056; 32.61028
TypeSettlement
Arab States

Thebes (

city of Luxor. Thebes was the main city of the fourth Upper Egyptian nome (Sceptre nome) and was the capital of Egypt for long periods during the Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom eras. It was close to Nubia and the Eastern Desert, with its valuable mineral resources and trade routes. It was a religious center and the most venerated city during many periods of ancient Egyptian history. The site of Thebes includes areas on both the eastern bank of the Nile, where the temples of Karnak and Luxor stand and where the city was situated; and the western bank, where a necropolis of large private and royal cemeteries and funerary complexes can be found. In 1979, the ruins of ancient Thebes were classified by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.[2]

Toponymy

R19t
niwt
wꜣs.t
"City of the Scepter"
in hieroglyphs
niwt
t Z1
M24t
niw.t rs.t
"Southern City"[3]
in hieroglyphs
iwnnw
niwt
Sma
iwnw-sm’
"Heliopolis of the South"[4]
in hieroglyphs

The

Tanakh as the "Nōʼ ʼĀmôn" (נא אמון) in the Book of Nahum[5] and also as "No" (נא) mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel[6] and Jeremiah.[7][8]

"Thebes" is sometimes claimed to be the

Ancient Greek: Θῆβαι, the hellenized form of Demotic Egyptian tꜣ jpt ("the temple"), referring to jpt-swt; the temple is now known by its Arabic name, Karnak ("fortified village"), on the northeast bank of the city. Since Homer refers to the metropolis by this name, and since Demotic script did not appear until a later date, the etymology is doubtful. As early as Homer's Iliad,[9] the Greeks distinguished the Egyptian Thebes as "Thebes of the Hundred Gates" (Θῆβαι ἑκατόμπυλοι, Thēbai hekatómpyloi) or "Hundred-Gated Thebes", as opposed to the "Thebes of the Seven Gates" (Θῆβαι ἑπτάπυλοι, Thēbai heptápyloi) in Boeotia, Greece.[n 1]

In the

.

Characteristics

Geography

Thebes was located along the banks of the

Wadi el-Hol is also located near Thebes; this valley connected Thebes to an oasis on the Western Desert. It is notable for the first Proto-Sinatic alphabet
inscription, which appeared shortly after Thebes became the capital of Egypt.

Nearby towns in the fourth Upper Egyptian

]

Demographics

Population of Thebes 2000–900 BC

According to George Modelski, Thebes had about 40,000 inhabitants in 2000 BC (compared to 60,000 in Memphis, the largest city in the world at the time). By 1800 BC, the population of Memphis was down to about 30,000, making Thebes the largest city in Egypt at the time.[13] Historian Ian Morris has estimated that by 1500 BC, Thebes may have grown to be the largest city in the world, with a population of about 75,000, a position it held until about 900 BC, when it was surpassed by Nimrud (among others).[14]

A 2005 study on Theban nobles had found that the mummified remains had a histology which "indicated notably dark skin".[15]

Economy

The archaeological remains of Thebes offer a striking testimony to Egyptian civilization at its height. The Greek poet Homer extolled the wealth of Thebes in the Iliad, Book 9 (c. 8th Century BC): "... in Egyptian Thebes the heaps of precious ingots gleam, the hundred-gated Thebes."[16][17]

Culture

More than sixty annual festivals were celebrated in Thebes. The major festivals among these, according to the Edfu Geographical Text, were: the

Shemu, and Festival of II Shemu. Another popular festivity was the halloween-like Beautiful Festival of the Valley.[18]

History

Old Kingdom

The Theban Necropolis

Thebes was inhabited from around 3200 BC.

12th Dynasty king Senusret may have been usurped and re-used, since the statue bears a cartouche of Nyuserre on its belt. Since seven rulers of the 4th to 6th
Dynasties appear on the Karnak king list, perhaps at the least there was a temple in the Theban area that dated to the Old Kingdom.

First Intermediate Period

By 2160 BC, a new line of pharaohs (the

Herakleopolis Magna. A rival line (the Eleventh Dynasty), based at Thebes, ruled the remaining part of Upper Egypt. The Theban rulers were apparently descendants of the prince of Thebes, Intef the Elder. His probable grandson Intef I was the first of the family to claim in life a partial pharaonic titulary
, though his power did not extend much further than the general Theban region.

Middle Kingdom

Serekh of Intef I inscribed posthumously for him by Mentuhotep II

Finally by c. 2050 BC,

Deir el-Bahri, which most likely served as the inspiration for the later and larger temple built next to it by Hatshepsut in the 18th Dynasty. After these events, the 11th Dynasty was short-lived, as less than twenty years had elapsed between the death of Mentuhotep II and that of Mentuhotep IV
, in mysterious circumstances.

During the

12th Dynasty, Amenemhat I moved the seat of power North to Itjtawy. Thebes continued to thrive as a religious center as the local god Amun was becoming increasingly prominent throughout Egypt. The oldest remains of a temple dedicated to Amun date to the reign of Senusret I.[citation needed] Thebes was already, in the Middle Kingdom, a town of considerable size. Excavations around the Karnak temple show that the Middle Kingdom town had a layout with a grid pattern. The city was at least one kilometre long and 50 hectares in area. Remains of two palatial buildings were also detected.[20]

Starting in the later part of the 12th Dynasty, a group of

13th Dynasty that had meanwhile succeeded the 12th.[21]

Second Intermediate Period

Depiction of Asiatic (left) and Egyptian people (right). The Asiatic leader is labeled as "Ruler of foreign lands", Ibsha.

A second wave of

Second Intermediate Period (1657–1549 BC).[22] When the Hyksos took Memphis during or shortly after Merneferre Ay's reign (c. 1700 BC), the rulers of the 13th Dynasty fled south to Thebes, which was restored as capital.[23]

Theban princes (now known as the

Apophis (15th Dynasty) insulted Seqenenre Tao (17th Dynasty) of Thebes. Soon the armies of Thebes marched on the Hyksos-ruled lands. Tao died in battle and his son Kamose took charge of the campaign. After Kamose's death, his brother Ahmose I continued until he captured Avaris, the Hyksos capital. Ahmose I drove the Hyksos out of Egypt and the Levant and reclaimed the lands formerly ruled by them.[24]

New Kingdom and the height of Thebes

Statues of Memnon at Thebes during the flood, after David Roberts, c. 1845

18th Dynasty (New Kingdom). It also became the center for a newly established professional civil service, where there was a greater demand for scribes and the literate as the royal archives began to fill with accounts and reports.[25]
At the city the favored few of Nubia were reeducated with Egyptian culture, to serve as administrators of the colony.[26]

Overhead illustration of the Karnak temple

With Egypt stabilized again, religion and religious centers flourished and none more so than Thebes. For instance, Amenhotep III poured much of his vast wealth from foreign tribute into the temples of Amun.[27] The Theban god Amun became a principal state deity and every building project sought to outdo the last in proclaiming the glory of Amun and the pharaohs themselves.[28] Thutmose I (reigned 1506–1493 BC) began the first great expansion of the Karnak temple. After this, colossal enlargements of the temple became the norm throughout the New Kingdom.

Queen

Mittani. The 18th Dynasty reached its peak during his great-grandson Amenhotep III's reign (1388–1350 BC). Aside from embellishing the temples of Amun, Amenhotep increased construction in Thebes to unprecedented levels. On the west bank, he built the enormous mortuary temple and the equally massive Malkata palace-city, which fronted a 364-hectare artificial lake. In the city proper he built the Luxor temple
and the Avenue of the Sphinxes leading to Karnak.

For a brief period in the reign of Amenhotep III's son Akhenaten (1351–1334 BC), Thebes fell on hard times; the city was abandoned by the court, and the worship of Amun was proscribed. The capital was moved to the new city of Akhetaten (Amarna in modern Egypt), midway between Thebes and Memphis. After his death, his son Tutankhamun returned the capital to Memphis,[29] but renewed building projects at Thebes produced even more glorious temples and shrines.[27]

New Haven
)

With the

19th Dynasty the seat of government moved to the Delta. Thebes maintained its revenues and prestige through the reigns of Seti I (1290–1279 BC) and Ramesses II (1279–1213 BC), who still resided for part of every year in Thebes.[27] Ramesses II carried out extensive building projects in the city, such as statues and obelisks, the third enclosure wall of Karnak temple, additions to the Luxor temple, and the Ramesseum, his grand mortuary temple. The constructions were bankrolled by the large granaries (built around the Ramesseum) that concentrated the taxes collected from Upper Egypt;[30][page needed] and by the gold from expeditions[12][page needed] to Nubia and the Eastern Desert. During Ramesses' long 66-year reign, Egypt and Thebes reached an overwhelming state of prosperity that equaled or even surpassed the earlier peak under Amenhotep III.[31]

Medinet Habu
, dedicated to Rameses III

The city continued to be well kept in the early

20th Dynasty. The Great Harris Papyrus states that Ramesses III (reigned 1187–56) donated 86,486 slaves and vast estates to the temples of Amun. Ramesses III received tributes from all subject peoples including the Sea Peoples and Meshwesh Libyans. The whole of Egypt was experiencing financial problems, however, exemplified in the events at Thebes' village of Deir el-Medina. In the 25th year of his reign, workers in Deir el-Medina began striking for pay and there arose a general unrest of all social classes. Subsequently, an unsuccessful Harem conspiracy led to the executions of many conspirators, including Theban officials and women.[32]

Under the later Ramessids, Thebes began to decline as the government fell into grave economic difficulties. During the reign of

Deir el-Bahri and in the tomb of Amenhotep II. (The finding of these two hiding places in 1881 and 1898, respectively, was one of the great events of modern archaeological discovery.) Such maladministration in Thebes led to unrest.[27]

Third Intermediate Period

Control of local affairs tended to come more and more into the hands of the

22nd Dynasty kings who ruled from the Delta. Intermarriage and adoption strengthened the ties between them, daughters of the Tanite kings being installed as God's Wife of Amun at Thebes, where they wielded greater power. Theban political influence receded only in the Late Period.[33]

By around 750 BC, the

23rd Dynasty) Bakenranef (24th Dynasty) and reunified Egypt yet again. His reign saw a significant amount of building work undertaken throughout Egypt, especially at the city of Thebes, which he made the capital of his kingdom. In Karnak he erected a pink granite statue of himself wearing the Pschent (the double crown of Egypt). Taharqa
accomplished many notable projects at Thebes (i.e. the Kiosk in Karnak) and Nubia before the Assyrians started to wage war against Egypt.

Late Period

A column of Taharqa at the precinct of Amun-Re at Karnak Temple restored to full height

In 667 BC, attacked by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal's army, Taharqa abandoned Lower Egypt and fled to Thebes. After his death three years later his nephew (or cousin) Tantamani seized Thebes, invaded Lower Egypt and laid siege to Memphis, but abandoned his attempts to conquer the country in 663 BC and retreated southwards.[34] The Assyrians pursued him and took Thebes, whose name was added to a long list of cities plundered and destroyed by the Assyrians, as Ashurbanipal wrote:

This city, the whole of it, I conquered it with the help of Ashur and Ishtar. Silver, gold, precious stones, all the wealth of the palace, rich cloth, precious linen, great horses, supervising men and women, two obelisks of splendid electrum, weighing 2,500 talents, the doors of temples I tore from their bases and carried them off to Assyria. With this weighty booty I left Thebes. Against Egypt and Kush I have lifted my spear and shown my power. With full hands I have returned to Nineveh, in good health.[35]

Thebes never regained its former political significance, but it remained an important religious centre. Assyrians installed

satrapy to the greater Achaemenid Empire.[36]

Graeco-Roman Period

Relief in Hathor temple, Deir el-Medina (built during the Ptolemaic Dynasty)

The good relationship of the Thebans with the central power in the North ended when the native Egyptian pharaohs were finally replaced by Greeks, led by

Ptolemy V
, in need of the support of the priesthood, pardoned them.

Half a century later the Thebans rose again, elevating a certain Harsiesi to the throne in 132 BC. Harsiesi, having helped himself to the funds of the royal bank at Thebes, fled the following year. In 91 BC, another revolt broke out. In the following years, Thebes was subdued, and the city turned into rubble.[37]

During the

Thebais, which later split into Thebais Superior, centered at the city, and Thebais Inferior, centered at Ptolemais Hermiou. A Roman legion was headquartered in Luxor temple at the time of Roman campaigns in Nubia.[38] Building did not come to an abrupt stop, but the city continued to decline. In the first century AD, Strabo described Thebes as having been relegated to a mere village.[27]

Major sites

Eastern Thebes:

The main entrance to Karnak flanked by ram-headed sphinxes
Obelisk, Ramesside colossi and great pylon of Luxor Temple with subtle orange glow
  • Ancient built-up area
  • history
    .
  • Luxor Temple (Ipet resyt). Unlike the other temples in Thebes, it is not dedicated to a cult god or a deified version of the king in death. Instead, it is dedicated to the rejuvenation of kingship; it may have been where many of the pharaohs of Egypt were crowned. It is a centerpiece of the "Opet Festival", where the sacred barque of the Theban Triad travels from Karnak to Luxor temple highlighting the godly significance of the pharaoh's re-coronation .
  • Temple of Khonsu
  • Precinct of Mut
  • Precinct of Montu
  • Avenue of Sphinxes

Western Thebes:

Sunshine illuminates Hatshepsut's mortuary temple in Deir al-Bahri
The entrance to KV19, tomb of Mentuherkhepeshef in the Valley of the Kings

Cultural heritage

The two great templesLuxor Temple and Karnak—and the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens are among the greatest achievements of ancient Egypt.

From 25 October 2018 to 27 January 2019, the Museum of Grenoble organized with the support of the Louvre and the British Museum, a three-month exhibition on the city of Thebes and the role of women in the city at that time.[39]

In popular culture

In popular culture, Thebes is a setting in the films The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001). It is said to be the "Land of the Living". (In real history, there was no such name given to it.) The films feature scenes taking place in ancient Egypt in its prime, which affect the story in the modern setting some 3000 years later. In "The Egyptian" by the author Mika Waltari, there are ellaborate descriptions on how Thebes looked during the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Pausanias records that owing to its "connection" with the Egyptian city, the Boeotian Thebes also had an idol and temple of Amun from the 5th century BC.[10]

References

  1. .
  2. ^ "Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  3. ^ Erman/Grapow: Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache, p. 211.
  4. ^ Erman/Grapow: Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache, pp. 54,479.
  5. Nahum 3:8
    .
  6. ^ Ezekiel 30:14–16.
  7. ^ Jeremiah 46:25.
  8. ^ Huddlestun, John R. “Nahum, Nineveh, and the Nile: The Description of Thebes in Nahum 3:8–9.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 62, no. 2, 2003, pp. 97–98.
  9. ^ Iliad, IV.406 and IX.383.
  10. ^ Description of Greece, IX.16 §1.
  11. ^ Boundless. "Ancient Egyptian Trade". Boundless World History. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
  12. ^ a b Wilkinson, T. (2013). "The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt".
  13. ^ George Modelski, "Cities of the Ancient World: An Inventory (−3500 to −1200) Archived 2014-05-19 at the Wayback Machine"; see also list of largest cities throughout history.
  14. ^ Ian Morris, "Social Development Archived 2011-07-26 at the Wayback Machine"; see also list of largest cities throughout history.
  15. ISBN 978-0367434632.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  16. OCLC 933433562.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link
    )
  17. OCLC 1030993159.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link
    )
  18. ^ "Opet | Egyptian festival | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-05-25.
  19. ^ Karnak (Thebes), Egypt. Ancient-wisdom.co.uk. Retrieved on 2013-07-29.
  20. , pp. 225-229
  21. ., pp. 183-187
  22. ^ Wilkinson (2011), pp. 188 ff.
  23. ^ Daphna Ben Tor: Sequences and chronology of Second Intermediate Period royal-name scarabs, based on excavated series from Egypt and the Levant, in: The Second Intermediate Period (Thirteenth-Seventeenth Dynasties), Current Research, Future Prospects edited by Marcel Maree, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, 192, 2010, p. 91
  24. ^ Margaret Bunson, "Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt"
  25. ^ Tyldesley, Joyce. Egypt's Golden Empire: The Age of the New Kingdom, pp. 18–19. Headline Book Publishing Ltd., 2001.
  26. ^ Draper, R. (2008). "The Black Pharaohs". National Geographic Magazine. Retrieved 2016-02-24, from [1]
  27. ^ a b c d e Dorman, P. (2015). "Thebes|Ancient city, Egypt". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2016-02-07, from http://www.britannica.com/place/Thebes-ancient-Egypt
  28. ^ Mark, J. (2009). "Thebes". Ancient History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2016-02-06, from https://www.worldhistory.org/Thebes_(Egypt)/
  29. , p. 290
  30. ^ Wilkinson, T. (2013). "The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt"
  31. ^ "Ramses II | Biography, Accomplishments, Tomb, Mummy, Death, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-05-25.
  32. ^ RAMESSES III: THE LAST GREAT PHARAOH. http://www.greatdreams.com/. Retrieved on 2016-02-06.
  33. ^ Egypt: Thebes, A Feature Tour Egypt Story. http://www.touregypt.net/. Retrieved on 2016-02-06.
  34. and books.google.com/books?id=7VeoAwAAQBAJ&pg=PP153
  35. .
  36. ^ The fall of Thebes to the Assyrians and its decline thereafter. http://www.reshafim.org.il/. Retrieved on 2016-02-06.
  37. ^ Dorman, P. (2015). "Luxor". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2016-02-27, from http://www.britannica.com/place/Luxor
  38. ^ "museedegrenoble.fr, Servir les dieux d'Égypte (Serving the Gods of Egypt, Adoratrices, Songstresses, and Priests of Amun at Thebes)".

External links


Preceded by
Capital of Egypt

2060 BC – c. 1980 BC
Succeeded by
Preceded by Capital of Upper Egypt
c. 1700 BC – c. 1550 BC
Succeeded by
Thebes as capital of united Egypt
Preceded by
Thebes
Capital of Egypt

c. 1550 BC – c. 1353 BC
Succeeded by
Akhetaten
Preceded by
Akhetaten
Capital of Egypt

c. 1332 BC – 1085 BC
Succeeded by
Tanis