Egyptian Sites - THEBES

in Ancient Egypt not Greece!

THEBES - WASET or Uast - The city of Dominion, of the WAS sceptre, Iwn Resy, the Southern Heliopolis, was the most important city in Egypt during the period covering the Eleventh to Eighteenth Dynasties. The Greeks called Thebes the City of Hundred Gates and later geographers and records called it Diospolis Magna. The Greek name Thebes seems to have come from the name for the northern quarter or suburb of the city in which foreigners resided. This area seems to have been called APT or T'apt which was pronounced *TAPE in Late Egyptian and Coptic which the Greeks changed to Thebes. N.B. the th sound is an aspirated T not a fricative.

DEITIES

The Theban Ogdoad( 8 ) - 4 pairs of divine creators:Amun and Amaunet, Nu and Naunet, Heh and Hauhet, Kek and Kauket.
Amaunet was the first consort of Amun who was later superseded by MUT protector of Horus. Mut seems to have been seen as an Upper Egypt counter power to Sakhmet and was described as the mother of the moon god Khonsu. Two other goddesses particularly honored in this area were Wosret (=powerful female) and Meretseger (she loves silence) guardian of the Western Peak.

KHONSU was depicted as a young adult or youth with a beard yet also a child's side plait and wore a cloak / wrap like Osiris when depicted as lord of the dead. His cult was most prominent in the New Kingdom period.

MONTU - A warrior god who guarded pharaoh and had a special relationship of the local ruling family. Montu is a popular name element in most periods amongst the Theban elite. Perhaps the family that founded Dynasty 11 had cousins who remained prominent in the area after this dynasty ended since many later nomarchs and high officials in the Late Period had Montu as part of their name? In the Nubian period Dynasty 25 the city mayors were often called Montu-em-hat.

AMUN had several forms and was worshipped as a solar deity, Amun-Re and as Amun-Kamutef who had a serpentine / chthonic form or aspect. Originally a deity of the Thebaid region only he rose to national cult status with the priests of Thebes and was prominent from the 12th Dynasty onwards. Many of their rulers included Amen in their names Amenemhet etc.

Karnak and Luxor are both parts of Thebes. Karnak is a temple complex named after the nearest village which has now become a suburb of Luxor. Luxor is the name of the part of Thebes that covers the southern temple area on the eastern bank and the word Luxor comes from an Arabic word meaning the Palaces.

HISTORY:
The earliest Signs of human ocupation in this area are sites for Palaeolithic stone tool manufacture discovered in the Western Hills. There have been some Neolithic objects found in the El Tarif area and a few OLD Kingdom tombs at El-Khokha which date to the Sixth Dynasty. OLD Kingdom and earlier activities on the East area are probably buried under later buildings. The Middle Kingdom period was a major upsurge in building starting with the Inyotef nomarchs the last of whom became Montuhotep the First founder of the Eleventh Dynasty. Apart from activity at Armant and Tod the ruler called Wahankh Inyotef 2 also built in Thebes. While the 12th Dynasty saw the shift of the capital briefly to Lisht in the Faiyum building continued at Karnak and Luxor peaking from the 17th Dynasty (Seqenenre Tao, Kamose, Ahmose) onwards when the capital was Thebes again, the centre of resistance to the Hyksos rulers in the Delta. Dynasty 18 saw many structures expanded by or created in the whole area by Hatshepsut, Tuthmose (Thmius or Thuthmosis) and Amenhotep (or Amenophis to the Greeks) and the two Great Rameses, the Second of Dynasty 19 and Rameses the Third of Dynasty 20 could almost be described as notorious for their building activities. To be fair to those rulers who have had their interest in architecture described as a possible symptom of megalomania by some it has been suggested that these rulers believed temples were storehouses for divine energies that protected the whole realm? Later dynasties saw a shift to local priest rulers sharing their authority with Kings who ruled from the Delta and the God's Wife and Chantress to Amun, a royal princess adopted by her predecessor, usually her aunt. One of the last of the great builders was Nectanebo. See articles on Karnak , Luxor and the Full List? Or the Introduction section?
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