Thebes (thēbz), city of ancient Egypt. Luxor and Karnak now occupy parts of its site. The city developed at a very early date from a number of small villages, particularly one around modern Luxor (then called Epet), but remained relatively obscure until the rise of the Theban family that established the XI dynasty (c.2134 BC). The city rapidly became prominent as the royal residence and as a seat of the worship of the god Amon. At Thebes, also, was the necropolis in the Valley of the Kings where the kings and nobles were entombed in great splendor in crypts cut into the cliffs on the Nile's west bank. The city's greatest period was that of the empire, when it served as a reservoir for the immense wealth that poured in from the conquered countries. As the empire began to decay and the locus of power to shift to the Nile delta, Thebes went into decline. For a time in the 11th cent. BC, it was a separate political entity under sacerdotal rule. Thebes was sacked by the Assyrians in 661 BC, an event referred to in the Bible (Nah. 3.8–10), where the city is called No Amon [Amon city]. The Romans sacked it in 29 BC, and by 20 BC a Greek visitor to the site reported only a few scattered villages. The temples and tombs that have survived, including the tombs of Tutankhamen and of Ramses II's sons, are among the most splendid in the world, and the site has been the scene of much important archaeological work.

See H. E. Winlock, The Rise and Fall of the Middle Kingdom in Thebes (1947); C. F. Nims, Thebes of the Pharaohs (1965); L. Manniche, City of the Dead: Thebes in Egypt (1987).

Thebes1 the Greek name for an ancient city of Upper Egypt, whose ruins are situated on the Nile about 675 km (420 miles) south of Cairo. It was the capital of ancient Egypt under the 18th dynasty (c.1550–1290 bc) and is the site of the major temples of Luxor and Karnak. Its monuments (on both banks of the Nile) were the richest in the land, with the town on the east bank and the necropolis, with tombs of royalty and nobles, on the west bank. It was already a tourist attraction in the 2nd century ad.
Theban Legion a Roman legion recruited near Thebes in Egypt and composed solely of Christians; with their leader, the soldier saint St Maurice, they are said to have been massacred c.287 when during an expedition against the Gauls, the emperor Maximian commanded his army to sacrifice to the gods for success. When the Theban Legion refused to obey, they were first decimated, and then massacred.

Thebes Greek name for the ancient capital of Upper Egypt, roughly corresponding to the present-day town of Luxor.

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