Thebes, the name of a celebrated Egyptian city, formerly the capital of Southern or Upper Egypt; called by the Egyptians Tuabu, by the Hebrews No-Amon, by the Greeks Thebæ, and at a later period Diospolis Magna. It lies in the broadest section of the valley of the Nile, in about 26° N. lat., at a spot where the desert on the west sheers away to the girdling range of the Libyan mountains, leaving a broad plain, partly cultivated, on which stand the famous twin statues, one of which is known as the 'vocal Memnon' (q.v.), and behind them the temples grouped about the modern districts of Kurna and Medinet-Habû. The Nile divides this western part or Necropolis of Thebes, anciently called the 'Libyan suburb,' from the extensive ruins now known by the names of the villages Luxor (el-Uksur, 'the palaces') and Karnak which stand on the eastern bank, with the low range of the Arabian hills for a background. The traditional foundation of Thebes goes back to the 1st dynasty, but no buildings have hitherto been found earlier than some slight constructions of the 11th dynasty, 2500 B.C., who appear to have founded the original temple of Amen-Ra, the special god of the city. Its most flourishing period was under the 18th, 19th, and 20th dynasties, or from about 1600 to 1100, when it had supplanted Memphis, the ancient capital of the Pharaohs. The central situation of Thebes secured it from the attacks of the northern enemies of Egypt, and contributed to its prosperity; and here the worship of Amen-Ra arose in all its splendour; magnificent palaces and temples were built in its different quarters by the great monarchs of the Theban dynasties, and were added to by later kings, down to the time of the Ptolemies and Antonines, to the 2d century A.D. It was enriched by the spoils of Asia and the tributes of Ethiopia, and its fame and reputation had reached the early Greeks. Homer describes it by the epithet of Hundred-gated (ἐκατομπύλαι Ἑῖβαι), doubtless in allusion to the gates or pylons of its temples, for Thebes was never a walled or fortified city. In the plenitude of its power it sent forth an army of 20,000 war-chariots; but about 1100 B.C. the Bubastite and Tanite dynasties removed the capital again to the north, to Sais and Memphis, and thenceforth Thebes declined in importance. At the Persian conquest in the 6th century B.C. Cambyses obtained a spoil of nearly £2,000,000 from the city, and destroyed many of its noblest monuments. The foundation of Alexandria still further injured it; and at the time of Strabo Thebes was only a cluster of small villages. Its temples, tombs, and ruins were frequently visited by Greek and Roman travellers, including the Emperor Hadrian. At a later period a considerable Christian population lived there under the empire; but at the Arab invasion the inhabitants fled to Esné. Thebes is now inhabited only by Fellahin, by a few officials, and by the migratory visitors to the three hotels at Luxor.
Of the monuments on the west or Libyan side the principal are the three temples of Seti I. and Rameses II. and III., known respectively as El-Kurna, the Rameseum (or Memnonium), and Medinet-Habû. Close to the Rameseum is the fallen and broken colossus of the founder, the largest statue in Egypt, originally nearly 60 feet high, celebrated in Shelley's sonnet as that of Osmandyas, whose palace the temple was believed to represent. Near by are also some remains of two temples of Amenoph III., whose two colossal statues still survey the green fields in front. Some way behind the Rameseum, on a spur of the hills, is the terraced temple of Queen Hatasu (18th dynasty), known as Deyr-el-Bahri, near which a remarkable series of thirty-nine royal and priestly mummies, papyri, &c. were found by Emil Brugsch in 1881. At Medinet-Habû is a pile of buildings, of which the chief is the great temple of Rameses III. (the Rhapsinitus of Herodotus), with sculptures representing his victories over the Philistines, the life in his harem, the riches of his treasury, and a calendar with inscriptions dated in the twelfth year of his reign. Near here, to the north-west, are the cemeteries of the sacred apes, and further on the valley of the Tombs of the Queens, consisting of seventeen sepulchres, supposed to be the tombs of the Pallacides of Amen, mentioned by Diodorus and Strabo. Near them, among the hills, are the Bibân-el-Mulâk, or Tombs of the Kings of the 19th and 20th dynasties, sixteen in number, the most interesting of which are those of Seti I., called Belzoni's, after its discoverer, and of Rameses III., named by Bruce the 'Harper's tomb.'
On the east bank the chief monuments are at Luxor, the beautiful temple of Amenoph III. (18th dynasty), added to by Rameses II., with its well-known obelisk, the fellow of which was removed to the Place de la Concorde at Paris; and the still more magnificent temple, or rather group of temples, at Karnak, the sanctuary of which, built by Osirtasen I. of the 12th dynasty, was added to by the monarchs of the 18th. The most remarkable part of this wonderful mass of pylons, courts, and obelisks is the great hall, 170 feet by 329 feet, built by Seti I. and Rameses II., with its central avenue of twelve massive columns, 62 feet high and 12 feet in diameter, and its 122 other columns, and two obelisks (originally four), one of which is the tallest in Egypt, 108 feet high. On the walls the sculptures tell the glorious history of those two warrior kings, how they fought against the Hittites and the Ruten, and the Arabs and the Syrians, and the people of Armenia, and took from them their strong cities. Here, too, is the so-called Portico of the Bubastites, built by Shishak I., recording his expedition against Jerusalem, 971 B.C.
The Thebaid, the territory of Thebes, was a term applied to various areas at various times, but generally to one of the three main divisions of Egypt.
It is specially familiar to us as being a favourite place of retreat for Christian hermits.