THEBES, thtThz (Lat: Theb(r, from Gk. eiji3a(). A celebrated city of ancient Egypt, situ ated on both sides of the Nile in about latitude 25° 50' N. its old Egyptian name was 1-1:e.sct, but in later times it was also called Vu (t) .1 men, 'the city of Ammon,' Nu (t) 'o, 'the great city,' or simply Nu (t). 'the city' (urbs); in the Old Testament it is called No or No Amon, and in the Assyrian inscriptions its name appears as Ni'. By the (4reeks, who identified the god Ammon with Zeus, it was sometimes called `Diospolis, 'the city of Zeus,' and it was specially designated as 'Great Diospolis' to distinguish it from 'Lesser Diospolis.' the modern lion. The origin of the more usual Greek name Dijfiat is obscure. Thebes was the capital of the fourth nome of Upper Egypt, and was a very ancient city, hut did not rise to importance until the time of the Eleventh Dynasty, which was of Theban origin. Under this and the following dynasty the city was the capital of Egypt, and some of its oldest temple buildings (late from this period.
Its real greatness, however, begins with the ex pulsion of the Ilyksos invaders by the Theban who united the whole land under their sway (Eighteenth Dynasty), and adorned their city with temples and palaces of unprecedented magnificence. The kings of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties added to the work of their predecessors. and for centuries Thebes was the chief residence of the Egyptian Pharaohs and far surpassed all other cities of the land in wealth and splendor. The persecution of the worship of Ammon by the heretic King Amenophis 1V. (q.v.), and the temporary removal of the seat of government to Tel el-Amarna, affected Thebes but little. Seti I. and especially Rameses 11. (c.1340-1273 me.) restored the desecrated sanc tuaries and lavished enormous wealth upon the Theban temples. Under the Twenty-first Dynasty, however, Thebes ceased to be the capital of Egypt, and from this time gradu ally declined in importance. In the seventh century B.C. it was again the seat of gov ernment, for a time, under the Twenty-fifth or Ethiopian Dynasty, but when the capital was removed to Sais (q.v.) by the following dynasty (Twenty-sixth) , it began a new period of de cline. Its temples were repaired and new build ings were erected by later monarchs, especially by the Ptolemies, hut, overshadowed by the rise of new cities, it gradually sank to the position of an insignificant provincial town. its great temples sustained serious injuries in the course of various revolts against the Ptolemies, and were further ruined by an earthquake in B.C. 27. In the time of the geographer Strabo (B.C. 24) Thebes was a ruined city as at present, its site being occupied merely by a few scattered villages.
The city proper lay upon the east hank of the river between the great temples now represented by the ruins of Luxor (q.v.) and Karnak (q.v.) ; a little to the north was the suburb Ma'dn, the modern Medamut, with a temple built by Amen ophis 1T. (Eighteenth Dynasty) and dedicated to the Theban war god Mont (q.v.). Additions were made to this temple by Seti Rameses 11.,
and several of the Ptolemies, but it is now al most entirely destroyed. On the west side of the river were suburbs of considerable size, and Rameses 11T, seems to have built his palace in the neighborhood of his memorial temple at Medinet Balm (q.v.), but in general this side of the river was occupied by the Theban necropolis, which extended to the Libyan range. It con• tanned numerous temples, erected as memorials of the Egyptian kings, and to these temples were at tached dwellings for the priests, schools, gran aries, stables, barracks, and other buildings. Nearer the hills were the dwellings of the arti sans whose employment was in the necropolis: stone-masons, builders, painters, sculptors, and especially. the embalmers. There were also inns for the entertainment of visitors, and many shops for the sale of funeral offerings and other ob jects. The necropolis, in fact, formed a great city, and under the New Empire was under the direction of a high official entitled the 'Prince of the Western City.' The principal memorial temples of the Theban necropolis, beginning at the north, were those of Kurnah (q.v.) and Deir el Bahri (q.v.), the Ramesseum (q.v.), and that of Medinet Halm (q.v.). The Temple of Deir el-Medineh, dedicated to the goddess Hathor, lies a little to the west of the Medinet Hahn. It was founded by Ptolemy IV. Philopator, was completed under Ptolemy Philometor and Ptolemy Euergetes IL. and in Christian times was converted into a monastery. Between the line of memorial temples and the hills are the cemeteries of Drah Abu'l Negga, Asasif, AM el Kurnah, and Kurnet MurraI. The rocks' hills bordering on the plain of the necropolis are honeycombed with tombs. In a narrow valley to the north of Kurnah are the tombs of the kings, in which were buried the monarchs of dynasties XVIII—XX. Each of these tombs con tains a number of galleries and chambers whose walls are covered with paintings and religious texts. Strabo states that forty of these tombs were worthy of special attention; twenty five of these are now accessible. The tombs of the queens, to the west of Medinet Halm, are for the most part in an unfinished state. A few of them, however, dating from the Eighteenth Dynasty, are elaborately constructed and are rich ly adorned with sculptures and paintings. Near Kom el-Detail, between Medinet Halm and the Ramesseum, are two colossal statues of King Amenophis 111.; they originally stood before a temple erected by the King. but only (races of the building now remain. The more northerly of these colossi, the famous 'vocal Memnon' (see MEmNos) was in no way distinguished from other colossi. The chief deities worshiped at Thebes were the great god Ammon (q.v.), his spouse Mfg (q.v.). and their child Chons (q.v.). See Luxon and KARNAK.
Consult: Description dc l'Egypte (Paris, 1809 29) Lepsius, nod:miller (Berlin. I849-5S) ; Wil kinson, Topography of Thebes (London, 1835) ; Mariette, 3/ on um cn ts of Upper Egypt (ib., 1877) : Wiedemann, Geschiehte des alien .4egyp tens (Berlin. IS7S).