Thebes (Egypt)
The great southern capital of Egypt at Luxor, where the Turin King List was acquired and Ramesses III recorded the Sea Peoples.
- Egyptian name
- Waset
- Modern city
- Luxor
- Modern country
- Egypt
- Monuments
- Karnak and Luxor temples; Valley of the Kings; Medinet Habu
- Role
- Religious capital of Amun; royal capital in the Middle and New Kingdoms
- Status
- UNESCO 'Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis' (1979)
What is Thebes known for?
Thebes, Egyptian Waset, lies on both banks of the Nile at modern Luxor in Upper Egypt. It rose to power in the Middle Kingdom and was the religious capital of the god Amun and often the royal capital of the New Kingdom, from about 1550 to 1070 BCE. The east bank holds the vast temple complexes of Karnak and Luxor; the west bank holds the Valley of the Kings and the mortuary temples of the pharaohs.
Several sources discussed on this site come from Thebes. The Turin King List, a papyrus listing Egypt's kings with reign lengths, was acquired there by Bernardino Drovetti around 1820 before it broke into fragments. On the west bank, Ramesses III's temple at Medinet Habu carries the inscriptions on the invasions of the Sea Peoples.
Note that Greek myth has its own Thebes, in Boeotia, unrelated to the Egyptian city; the Greeks gave the Egyptian city the same name.
Source of the Turin King List and home of the Medinet Habu Sea Peoples reliefs.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeHesiod's five races of men
- Rabbit holeTurin King List
- PersonAhmose I
- PersonAkhenaten
- PersonBernardino Drovetti
- PlaceMedinet Habu
- PlaceMuseo Egizio (Turin)
- PlaceTroy
Sources
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis'Reference
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Thebes (ancient Egypt)'Reference
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