Thebes
The great city of Upper Egypt on the Nile, seat of the god Amun, with the temples of Karnak and Luxor and the royal mortuary temples on the west bank. The Merneptah Stele was found there in 1896. The Hebrew prophets call it No.
Thebes stood on both banks of the Nile in Upper Egypt, where the town of Luxor is now. It was the city of the god Amun and a capital of Egypt under the New Kingdom. The temples of Karnak and Luxor are on the east bank; across the river, at the edge of the desert, the kings built their tombs and mortuary temples. In the first court of the temple of Merneptah there, Flinders Petrie found the stele that names Israel (Petrie, Six Temples at Thebes p. 13), and part of a second copy of its text survives at Karnak (Petrie, Six Temples at Thebes p. 30). See Israel Named on the Merneptah Stele.
The Old Testament calls the city No, or No-amon, after its god. Nahum holds up its fall as a warning to Nineveh (Nahum 3:7–10), and Jeremiah and Ezekiel announce judgment on “Amon of No” and on the city (Jeremiah 46:25) (Ezekiel 30:14–16).
What happened here
- about 1208 BC, estimated dateIsrael Named on the Merneptah Stele
A granite stele set up at Thebes for Pharaoh Merneptah celebrates his victory over Libya. Its closing lines name Israel, beside Ashkelon, Gezer and Yanoam, among the defeated. It is the earliest known mention of Israel outside the Bible.
- about 925 BC, estimated dateShishak Invades Judah
In Rehoboam’s fifth year the Egyptian king Shishak marches on Jerusalem and carries off the treasures of the temple and the palace. Shoshenq I’s relief at Karnak lists towns he claimed in Judah, Israel and the Negev.