THEBES thēbz (LXX, Διὸς πόλις, for Heb. [נֹ֣א]- אָמֹ֔ון, Nō-(’Amon) from Egyp. Nìwt-(’Imn), City, of Amun). Ancient city in Upper Egypt, modern Luxor, 400 m. upriver (S) from Cairo.
On the E bank, the town focused on the two vast temples of the god Amun at Karnak and Luxor, about 1 3/4 m. apart. On the W bank, Thebes of the dead boasted a row of funerary temples of the kings along the desert edge. Behind these, the tomb chapels of their officials were carved in the rocky hills, whereas the tunnel tombs of the pharaohs and their wives were hidden away in the Valleys of the Kings and Queens behind the western cliffs. The temples and tombs on both banks contain a wealth of inscrs., reliefs, and paintings of the utmost value as background to OT life and times.
Topography: E. Otto, Topographie des Thebanischen Gaues (1952), with Nims in JNES, XIV (1955), 110-123; Porter and Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings, 2nd ed., I:1 and 2 (1960/64), and 1st ed., II (1929), for the monuments; C. F. Nims, Thebes of the Pharaohs (1965); M. Noth in D. W. Thomas (ed.), Archaeology andStudy (1967), 21-35 (on name lists only).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)