NO-ABION (no-Vmon), (Heb. no, the home of Amon, place or portion of Amon).
A populous and celebrated city of Egypt, and the capital of Upper Egypt, named after the god Amon, and called by the Greeks Diospolis, or "city of Zeus," but better known by the name of "Thebes." It was situated on both sides of the Nile, from 400 to 5oo miles from its mouth. The only mention of the city in the Bible occurs in the prophecies. It is called No (Ezek. xxx :14 '6 ; Jer. xlvi :25), and, margin, No-amon, ren dered 'populous No" (Nah. iii :8).
The Nile valley at Thebes resembles a vast amphitheater, enclosed by the grand forms of the Arabian and Libyan mountains, the river running through nearly the center of this space. The area surrounded by these mountain-bulwarks is filled with ruins—avenues of sphinxes and statues, miles in length, at the end of which were massive col umnal structures, the entrances to immense tem ples and palaces, and colossal images of the an cient Pharaohs, relics of regal magnificence so extensive and stupendous that the beholder might well imagine all the grandest ruins of the Old World had been brought together on this Theban plain. The extent of the city has been variously given by historians. According to Strabo, it cov ered an area five miles in length and three miles in breadth, and Diodorus makes its circuit about the same. Wilkinson also infcrs from its ruins that its length must have been about five and a fourth miles and its breadth three miles. Others suppose that the ancient city of Thebes, or No amon, included the thrce sites of Luxor, Karnak, and Thebes, and that in the days of its glory, from B. C. 1600 to B. C. 800, it stretched thirty three miles on both banks of the Nile. Its ruins are the most notable on the banks of that historic river. It became celebrated in the eleventh dynasty, and suffered in the thirteenth because of the invasion of the Hyksos. In the seventeenth
century B. C. Amosis liberated the country and it reached its height of magnificence. The splendor of the city departed with the removal of the resi dence of the Pharaohs to the Delta. In its ruins it is great. Its temple of Karnak is a marvel. Its architecture is a problem of mechanical skill. Its great hall contains 134 columns, the loftiest 75 feet in height and 12 fect in diameter; the hall itself is 175 feet wide by 329 fcct long. Every stone a book and every column a library in itself. The R V. corrects some terms of reference to this place. In Jer. xlvi :25, the "multitude of No" is rendered "Amon of No ;" in Nah. :8, the "pop ulous No" is changed to "No-Amon." (Sec TnEBES.) NOB (nob), (Heb. :lobe; Sept. Nop,i3a, nomba), a city of Benjamin, in the vicinity of Jerusalem, belonging to the priests, and where the tabernacle was stationed in the time of Saul (I Sam. xxi:2; xxii:o, io; Nell. xi:32; Is. x:32).
From the last of these texts it would appear that Jerusalem was visible from Nob, which, therefore, must have been situated somewhere upon the ridge of the Mount of Olives, northeast of the city. Dr. Robinson states that he diligently sought along the ridge for some traces of an ancient site which might be regarded as that of Nob, but with out the slightest success (Bibl. Researches, ii: 15o). Kiepert's Map places Nob at El-Isd-wich, not far from Andtd, about a mile northwest of Jerusalem. Lieutenant Conder argues (Quar. Statement of the "Palestine Exploration Fund," January, 1875, p. 34, sq.) that Nob is identical with MizPEti, and both with the modern Neby Samwil.