Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis
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How it came to be
Thebes, called Waset by the ancient Egyptians, lies beneath and around modern Luxor. People lived there from around 3200 BC, but in the Old Kingdom it was still a small trading post. Around 2050 BC the Theban ruler Mentuhotep II reunited Egypt and began the Middle Kingdom.
After Ahmose I drove out the Hyksos, Thebes became the capital of the New Kingdom. Pharaoh after pharaoh enlarged the Karnak temple of the city god Amun; Amenhotep III built Luxor Temple and Ramesses II his mortuary temple, the Ramesseum. Across the Nile, about 10 square km of desert filled with thousands of tombs, including the Valley of the Kings, and scores of temples.
Assyrian troops sacked Thebes in 663 BC, and it never regained political power. By the 1st century AD Strabo described it as a mere village. UNESCO listed the site in 1979.
Travellers who came here
- 1828-11
1828-11 · Thebes, west bank (Qurna, Ramesseum)He landed at Thebes on the morning of 20 November. On the first day he saw the temple at Qurna, the colossi of Memnon and the so-called tomb of Osymandyas, whose walls gave its ancient name, the Ramesseum.
1828-11 · Luxor and KarnakOn 23 November he crossed to the east bank and saw the two obelisks, nearly 80 feet high, in front of Luxor temple, then went on to Karnak, where, he wrote, all the magnificence of the pharaohs appeared to him.
1829-03 · Valley of the KingsFrom 23 March the whole party lived in the tomb of Ramesses IV, using its first three painted halls as rooms. He later had a painted relief cut from the tomb of Seti I and took it for the Louvre.
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