Thebes - Ancient city of Egypt. City of the Living and City of the Dead. City of priests and pharaohs - Behind the multitude - Unity - History of Russia. World, world history. Ancient Greek city of Thebes

Greeks introduced Europeans to Egypt. ancient greece younger than Egypt: when it was at an early stage of its development (I millennium BC), the state of the Nile Valley entered the last period of its centuries-old culture. The interest of the ancient world in Egypt manifested itself long before it became part of history. Even then, this country was covered with legends. Egypt embodied wisdom, the key to the knowledge of which people have lost over time. It was believed that the great scientist, mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras drew his knowledge from Egypt. The father of history Herodotus, who visited this country in the middle of the 5th century BC, left an interesting description of it.

The city on the east bank of the Nile, which became the capital of the state during the Middle and New Kingdoms, is known as Thebes. Under this name, it is mentioned in the Iliad by Homer, who sings of it as "Thebes Hundred Gates", referring to the numerous tower-shaped pylons that served as the entrance to the temple.

To the question why the Greeks transferred the name of their city in Boeotia to the Egyptian capital, there is no definite answer. The Polish archaeologist K. Michalowski suggested that this could happen as a result of the similarity in the sound of the Greek name of the city with the Egyptian name of one of the sanctuaries of Amon in Karnak. The Egyptians also called their capital and the surrounding district Waset. The palace of the pharaoh was also located here, so another designation was assigned to the capital Thebes - “nut” - “the residence of the ruler”, or “the city of Amon”. Later, the Greeks began to call it Diospolis Magna - "The Great City of Zeus", identifying their supreme god with the ancient Egyptian Amun.

The main place of worship of the Theban sun god was the temple at Karnak.(modern name for a nearby Arab village). In ancient Egypt, this temple was called Ipet-Sut and was part of Thebes. The Theban district (nom) was already known in the era of the Old Kingdom. However, at that time Thebes did not play any significant role in the political life of the country. From the end of the Old Kingdom, the importance of Amon began to increase: the first temple dedicated to this god was being built on the territory of Thebes (it has not been preserved and its existence is known from inscriptions).

With the onset of the Middle Kingdom, the cult of Amun began to dominate Egyptian religion. Already then, in addition to construction on the eastern bank of the Nile, from the western side in rocky mountains Deir el-Bahri is laid the funeral ensemble of the pharaohs of the XI dynasty. This was the beginning of the planning of Thebes, divided by the Nile into the administrative and political center of the city of the living on the east bank and the necropolis - the city of the dead on the west.

In the era of the New Kingdom, both parts of Thebes were conceived as a single ensemble. On the eastern side, the construction of temple complexes dedicated to Amun flourished - this is the already mentioned Karnak and the second, called by the ancient Egyptian name Ipetreset-Imen ("Amon's southern harem"), but better known as Luxor. The latter name arose in the period of Roman antiquity, when the Romans founded the fortified camp of Kostra here, which the Arabs began to call al-Kusur, which means "castles". This word, modified by the Europeans, began to sound like Luxor.

If Karnak, in addition to the temple of Amun, included in its ensemble the temples of the gods of the Theban triad - the goddess Mut - the wife of Amun and their son Khonsu, then on the territory of Luxor there is only one temple that was built in two eras - during the reign of the pharaohs Amenhotep III and Ramses II.

Both temples - Karnak and Luxor - were connected by the veneration of Amun. This was reflected in the festive rituals dedicated to the main Theban deity. The most significant among them was Opet - the feast of the transfer of the sacred boat of Amun from the northern sanctuary to the southern one.

The ceremony began at Karnak, from where the priests carried the barque with the statue of Amon on their shoulders along the procession road to the pier. There she was loaded onto a boat and transported along the Nile to Luxor. The people accompanied the ritual festival along the shore. The main axis of the Karnak temple is perpendicular to the Nile, the temple in Luxor is parallel. From the pier, the boat was carried along the colonnades and open courtyards to a room specially designed for it - the Hall of the boat, not reaching which was the so-called Birth Hall of Amenhotep Sh. The reliefs on the walls tell of the miraculous conception of the pharaoh from the marriage of his mother with Amon Ra himself.

Alley of rams-sphinxes. Eastern Thebes.

The temples of Karnak are connected to Luxor by an avenue of ram-headed sphinxes., for the ram was considered a sacred animal of the god Amun. The panorama of Luxor with high slender colonnades looks majestic from the side of the Nile. Crossing the river, we will find ourselves on the western bank, at the pier, from which in ancient times the alley of sphinxes began, leading to the mortuary temples. It served, as it were, as a continuation of the alley of the eastern side - thus, the architectural structures located on both banks formed a single ensemble.

The great pharaohs of Egypt, starting from the Middle Kingdom, built mortuary temples on the western shore. Not all of them survived, many came in ruins. Excavations are still ongoing in this area.

Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. Deir el-Bahri.

One of the significant monuments of the funeral cult is the temple of Queen Hatshepsut, which is a three-tiered structure with inclined aisles - ramps leading to the upper terraces. An alley of sphinxes went to the temple, combining in their appearance the body of a lion with the portrait head of the queen. Nearby was the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III, now completely destroyed. It was also connected by the road of sphinxes to the pier (two sphinxes from this alley now stand on the Neva embankment near the Academy of Arts). In front of the entrance towers-pylons of this temple, there are two giant throne statues of the pharaoh, carved from blocks of sandstone. Their height from the base exceeds 17 meters.

It is believed that the temple was destroyed by a strong earthquake in 27 BC. At the same time, a crack formed on the northern colossus. Due to sharp jumps in temperature and air humidity, a vibration arose in the layers of stone - this usually happened when the rays of the rising sun heated the surface: then the colossus began to make faint plaintive sounds. The Greeks, who identified the statue of the Egyptian pharaoh with the hero of the Trojan War Memnon, the son of the goddess dawn Eo, it was believed that in this way he complains to his mother about his death at the hands of Achilles. This phenomenon is described by the Greek geographer Strabo, who lived at the turn of a new era. The statues of Amenhotep III are now known as the Colossi of Memnon.

Colossi of Memnon. Mortuary temple of Amenhotep III. Western Thebes

Not far from the mortuary temples under high rocks are the burial places of the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. This necropolis is called the "Valley of the Kings". It is dominated by the top of the Rog - the habitat of the goddess Meretsegeret - the patroness of the necropolis (the name in translation means "Loving silence"). She was considered the "Mistress of the West" - the kingdom of the dead, and was usually depicted in the form of a snake: according to the Egyptians, she guarded the peace of the dead. The tombs, dug in the rocky ground, consisted of several rooms, stairways and corridors created a real feeling of a descent, which corresponded to the idea of ​​​​the path to the underworld of the kingdom of the underworld. Transitions and burial chambers went deep into the rock up to 100 meters. Some of the tombs are real palaces: the walls were painted, the brightness of colors has been preserved to this day. The plot of the murals were works of funeral literature. Among the scenes - the image of the way of wandering through the afterlife, the appearance of the king before the gods.

Ramessium. Temple of Pharaoh Rases II. Western Thebes

In the Hellenistic era, when Egypt was conquered by Greece, contacts between countries become especially close. The pharaohs of the Ptolemaic dynasty, who occupied the Egyptian throne, are doing a lot of restoration work in Thebes - construction is underway on both the eastern and western banks of the Nile.

If the Egyptian Thebes was the capital of the state, the largest political, religious and cultural center, then their "namesakes" in Greece are not so well known. There were several Thebes in this country: the most interesting in its history is a city in Boeotia. According to mythological sources, it received its name from Thebe, the priestess of the goddess Athena. According to one of the legends, Thebe was considered the daughter of the river Asop and founded the city, which began to bear her name. This is mentioned by the Roman historian Pausanias.

Thebes is located on a low hill: the city had a circular layout, surrounded by a wall with seven gates - hence its epithet "seven-gate". In the center was the acropolis of Cadmeus. The city itself and the acropolis date back to the Mycenaean era (XIV - XIII centuries BC). The myth calls the founder of Cadmeia the son of the Phoenician king Cadmus, whom his father sent to search for stolen Europe. Pursued by failures, Cadmus turned to the Delphic soothsayer and was instructed to stop searching and follow the cow after leaving the sanctuary. On the spot where she lies down to rest, he must found a city. This is what Cadmus did. But first he had to fight the dragon that tore apart his companions. After killing the monster, he, on the advice of Athena, sowed the field with the teeth of the dragon, and the armed people of Sparta grew out of these seedlings. Five of them became the founders of noble families in the fortress founded by Cadmus, around which Thebes grew.

Although much of the legends is mythopoetic fiction, some historical facts can also be found in them. Thus, Cadmus, a native of Phoenicia, is credited with the invention of the Greek alphabet, which, as is known, arose at the turn of the 9th - 6th centuries BC from the Phoenician script.

The fairy-tale motif of the myth speaks of the wanderings of the hero and his victory over the monster, which could be a reflection of those ancient contacts that existed between Thebes and the states of Asia Minor. Thus, the names of cities, the names of their founders and rulers reveal the panorama of the historical fate of states and peoples that have gone into the past, but come to us from time immemorial.

N. Pomerantseva, Candidate of Art History

THEBES the most famous archaeological site in the Upper Nile Valley, located on both banks of the river, about 480 km south of Cairo. Thebes, first mentioned in Iliad, were named so by the Greeks, probably because, like the Greek Thebes, this city was famous for its gates. The Egyptian name of the city is Waset. Part of the territory of ancient Thebes is now occupied by the cities of Luxor and Karnak - both on the east bank of the Nile; but in ancient times Thebes occupied a large area of ​​the plain and on the western bank of the river down to the foot of the mountains, where there were tombs and funerary temples, among which was the Ramesseum, the temple of Amun.

During the era of the Old Kingdom (c. 2800 - c. 2250 BC), Thebes was an insignificant provincial center ruled by semi-independent kings, from whom only a few rock-cut graves have come down to us. After a turbulent transition period, their successors began the struggle for the unification of Egypt, the result of which was the subordination of the country to the Theban dynasty in the era of the Middle Kingdom (c. 2050 - c. 1700 BC), which marks the beginning of the prosperity of Thebes. Although most of the original structures of this period on the east bank of the Nile have not come down to us due to the active temple construction in the era of the New Kingdom, the tombs of some rulers are still visible on the west bank, primarily Mentuhotep II, pharaoh of the XI dynasty (c. 2052 - ca 1991 BC) at Deir el-Bahri. For some time, the capital of the Middle Kingdom was moved north to Memphis for ease of administration, but even at that time the kings were of Theban origin. By the end of the era of the Middle Kingdom, when the internecine struggle undermined the integrity of the state, the kings of the XIII dynasty again moved their residence to Thebes. Several modest rock-cut tombs were built for them, and offerings to the Temple of Amun at Karnak are inscribed.

During the reign of the foreign dynasty of the Hyksos (c. 1700 - c. 1580 BC), a people of unclear origin from Western Asia, the city experienced a period of decline, but it was Thebes who began the war that ended in victory for the expulsion of the Hyksos. Ahmose, the first king of the 18th Dynasty (c. 1570 - ca. 1345 BC), eventually defeated the conquerors, but the prerequisites for success were laid by Ahmose's older brother Kamos, the last ruler of the 17th dynasty, who succeeded in uniting Upper Egypt. The royal burials of the 17th dynasty were plundered in antiquity, but some of the magnificent burial utensils have been preserved; finds of inlaid weapons are characteristic of the tombs of this period.

From the 18th dynasty, the era of the New Kingdom began (c. 1580 - c. 1070 BC), the heyday of the ancient city and the cult of its supreme god Amun - a golden age not only for Thebes, but for all of Egypt. For many centuries, the city remained a favorite residence of the pharaohs and a treasury, which accumulated wealth collected as a tribute from the conquered lands. The treasures of Amon constantly increased, and with them the power and influence of his priests, to which number some of the most noble Egyptians belonged, grew.

Huge temple structures, towering on the east bank of the Nile, are, along with the pyramids, the most impressive monuments of Egyptian civilization. The Temple of Amun at Luxor, like its larger counterpart at Karnak, was built in stages, as can be seen from its plan, which included complex and repetitive rows of pylons, colonnaded outer courts, and hypostyle halls. This temple began to be built under Amenhotep III (c. 1455 - c. 1419 BC) on the site of the former sanctuary and was significantly modified and expanded in subsequent years, especially under Ramesses II (c. 1301 - c. 1234 BC). e.). Ramesses II erected a new large courtyard with colonnades and attached huge pylons to the entrance, placing their own colossal statues in front of each. One of the well-preserved statues is approximately 18 m high, which gives an idea of ​​the gigantic size of the temple.

The temples of Amon's wife Mut, his son Khons and Monta, the god of war, at Karnak make a strong impression in themselves, but are lost next to the Great Temple of Amun, which even now has a length of more than 3 km. The core of the temple dates back to at least the 12th dynasty of the Middle Kingdom; since the era of Thutmose I at the beginning of the New Kingdom, it has been constantly reconstructed and expanded through the continuous addition of courtyards, halls with colonnades and countless pylons. Among the noteworthy parts of the temple, the most notable is the Great Hypostyle Hall of Ramesses II. All these temples, both inside and outside, are completely decorated with reliefs and inscriptions, most of which contain praises of various pharaohs.

The tombs of the pharaohs, with some exceptions, are located in the Valley of the Kings - a place less accessible than earlier burials, which were constantly looted. Since there was no longer room in the valley for the construction of grandiose mortuary temples, majestic funerary structures began to be erected along the western bank of the Nile. The exception was the large terraced temple of Queen Hatshepsut (c. 1595 - c. 1503 BC) at Deir el-Bahri, adjacent to the temple of Mentuhotep, Hatshepsut's predecessor in the Middle Kingdom.

The court of Amenhotep III (c. 1455 - c. 1419 BC) in the second half of the reign of the XVIII dynasty surpassed in its luxury everything previously seen in Egypt; its funerary temple still stands out today thanks to the two figures standing in front of the facade of the building - the colossi of Memnon, which admired Roman travelers, many of whom left inscriptions about their visit on the statues themselves. Among other funerary temples on the western shore, the so-called. Ramesseum of Ramesses II.

Under Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton), the capital was temporarily moved to Amarna. She was returned to Thebes by his son-in-law Tutankhamun, whose unlooted tomb was discovered in 1922 in the Valley of the Kings. Everything was preserved in the tomb of Tutankhamun, including the royal mummy in a golden sarcophagus. The richness of this burial helps to represent the magnificence of the lost treasures from the nearby larger and more significant royal tombs.

With the accession of the XXVI dynasty (Sais period, 663-525 BC), the political center of Egypt again moved to the north, and the ancient capital lost its political significance. Nevertheless, Thebes remained an important religious center, and after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, they briefly regained their independence. The early Ptolemies continued to expand and embellish temples and even build new ones, but the last Theban rebellion culminated in the destruction of Thebes around 30 BC. Strabo (24 BC) found only a few separate settlements on the site of the former city; over time, as Christianity spread, temples and tombs turned into churches and monasteries and were used for Christian worship.

The ancient Egyptians called their luxurious capital Uast, which means “ruling” or “ruling city”, and the Greeks called it Thebes, or Thebes (not to be confused with Greek Thebes), Homer mentions “one hundred gates Thebes”, the Arabs said - el- Uksur - "palaces". The ancient Thebans themselves often called their homeland simply Niut ("city") in the texts.

The history of Egyptian Thebes goes back centuries: the first mention of the city is preserved in texts dating back to 3 thousand BC. e. They are first mentioned under Pharaoh Mikerin (Menkaura) (IV dynasty; c. 26 century BC). However, a long history preceded the magnificent flourishing of the city. In the 21st century BC e. it becomes the center of the unification of the country and for the first time for a short time becomes the capital of Egypt under the pharaohs of the XI dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. It was during this era in Thebes that the active construction of monumental sanctuaries to the gods and the deceased kings began. The local god Amon acquired the status of the state god.

With the beginning of the New Kingdom in the era of the XVIII dynasty (16-14 centuries BC), the period of the highest prosperity begins for the city. Thebes became the political and religious center of a great power, whose borders in the south went deep into the territory of modern Sudan, and in the west reached Libya. Most of the pharaohs directed a significant part of the resources of Egypt and its vast external possessions to the construction in this city. Thebes was the center of the cult of the god Amun, the largest temples were built here in his honor.

After the revival of Memphis, which became in the 14th century. BC e. The capital of Egypt, Thebes retained its role as the largest cultural and religious center of Egypt even centuries later, right up to the Greco-Roman period. At the beginning of 1 thousand BC. e. Thebes is the center of a theocratic state created by the priests of Amon in southern Egypt after the collapse of the New Kingdom. This is the region of two uprisings (205-199 and 199-186 BC) against the Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynasty. With the spread in the first centuries AD. e. Christianity area of ​​Thebes becomes one of the centers of the monastic movement.

Many buildings in Thebes were looted, demolished and destroyed by the Romans. Only archaeologists and scientists from Napoleon's retinue managed to awaken Thebes from sleep again. It was then that Egyptology and educational tourism to Egypt was born. In ancient times, Thebes was located on both banks of the Nile. In the east, the old capital of Egypt was divided by a canal into two parts: in the south, the city of Luxor was born, in the north, the village of Karnak. On the east bank of the Nile stood two grandiose temples - Karnak and Luxor, connected by alleys of sphinxes.

Luxor. Alley of sphinxes.

Majestic temple complexes coexisted here with luxurious palaces, houses of the nobility, gardens of rare trees and artificial lakes. Gilded needles of obelisks, tops of painted temple pylons and colossal statues of kings pierced the lapis lazuli sky. Through the lush greenery of tamarisks, sycamores and date palms, the window openings of wealthy houses lined with turquoise-green faience tiles looked through. The conquered peoples of Syria-Palestine brought here countless vessels with wine, leather, semi-precious lapis lazuli so loved by the Egyptians and handicrafts; from distant regions of Africa came caravans loaded with ivory, ebony, incense and gold.

On the other side of the Nile, in the western part of Thebes, there was a royal residence and a huge necropolis, located in the amphitheater of rocks, over which Dehenet rises - the "Western peak", now called el-Kurn. The ruler of this mountain, the snake goddess Meritseger (“loving silence”), who guarded the peace of the dead, according to legend, protected not only the royal burials located in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, but also the tombs of nobles and ordinary citizens. Going on a tour it is better to take comfortable shoes, a hat and a camera. When visiting the Valley of the Pharaohs, the use of a video camera is not allowed.

The goddess Meritseger was the patroness of the Valley of the Kings, and Pharaoh Thutmose I (XVIII Dynasty) chose this place for his future burial. He and his court architect, Ineni, hoped that a tomb hidden in the rocks was better protected from robbers than pyramids open to all eyes. And in order to mislead the hunters for easy money even more, the temples of the dead were laid at a distance from the tombs themselves. In the famous Valley of the Pharaohs, there are 42 tombs, almost all of the pharaohs. Unlike the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom, whose capital was at Memphis, the Theban pharaohs of the New Kingdom did not build pyramids. The tombs are carved into the rocks; they tried to hide them as carefully as possible from prying eyes. The entrances to the tombs were covered with large stones and walled up. But these tricks did not save the tombs from ruin.

For 500 years, this form of burial remained unchanged and only slightly improved. All the tombs were built according to a similar plan: an inclined corridor up to 200 m long was made in the limestone rock, steeply descending to a depth of up to 100 m and ending in three or four rooms. The walls and ceilings of the corridors and rooms are covered with color drawings that have not lost their brightness to this day, telling about the life and exploits of the deceased. Secret falling doors led to the burial chamber, the main entrance was masked by earthen hills and embankments.

Of the 64 tombs discovered so far, the most notable are those of Thutmose III, Amenhotep II, Tutankhamun, Horemheb, Ramesses I, Seti I, Merenptah, Ramesses III, Ramesses VI, and Ramesses IX. All the tombs were plundered in antiquity. Only the tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered by the English archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922 in complete safety. This tomb of a historically insignificant pharaoh, who died at the age of nineteen, was simply overflowing with gold, jewelry and other treasures. Tutankhamun, the heir of the "heretic pharaoh" Akhenaten, only once again replaced the cult of Aten with the cult of Amun.

In the Valley of the Queens, not only queens - the wives and mothers of the pharaohs, but also early dead Egyptian princes were buried. In this necropolis, archaeologists have already found over 70 tombs. His appearance the tombs resemble those of the Valley of the Pharaohs, but are slightly smaller in size. The most interesting is the tomb of Nefertari, the wife of Ramesses II the Great, painted from wall to ceiling.

Thebes. The god Khepri, the vulture goddess Nekhbet, the goddess Hathor-Amentet and the sun god Ra. Fresco paintings of the tomb of Nefertari. XIX dynasty. First half of the 13th century BC. Valley of the Queens.

The wall paintings of the tomb illustrate the "Book of the Dead", the burial chamber is overshadowed by a vault in the form of a starry sky. After restoration (1995), this tomb is again open to the public. Access to the tomb is limited: visitors are allowed in groups of 10 people and only for 10 minutes. During the day, only 150 people manage to see it.

Thebes. Nefertari and the goddess Isis. Fresco paintings of the tomb of Nefertari. XIX dynasty. First half of the 13th century BC. Valley of the Queens.

Murals also adorn the walls of the tombs of the early deceased sons of Ramses III Amenherkhepeshef and Khaemuas. The colors of wall paintings, such as sea blue, glow so intensely, as if the paintings were painted just today.

Thebes. God Ra-Harakleti and Amentet, goddess of the West. Fragment. Tomb of Queen Nefertari. Valley of the Queens.

Western Thebes was the burial place not only of the pharaohs and their wives. Hundreds of courtiers, priests and high-ranking dignitaries were buried here, striving to stay close to their rulers even after death. Their tombs are located along the eastern slope of the Theban mountains and form a huge necropolis - the Valley of the Nobles. In fact, it consists of 5 cemeteries grouped around the rock massifs of Sheikh Abd el-Kurna, Dra Abu el-Naga, Asasif, Kurnet Moorei, el-Khokha and el-Tarif.

Most of the tombs date back to the reign of the pharaohs of the XVIII and XIX dynasties. The first burials of the Valley date back to the Old Kingdom. In the Middle Kingdom, the Theban nomarchs, the deputies of the pharaoh, who ruled the fourth Upper Egyptian nome Waset, were buried here. Even the pharaohs of the IX and X dynasties laid their necropolis in Western Thebes, and the ruler of the XI dynasty, Mentuhotep II, began the construction of a completely unusual for that time mortuary complex in Deir el-Bahri, completed already under his successors. During the second transitional period, the pharaohs of the 17th dynasty chose Dra Abu el-Naga as their burial place. The rulers of the New Kingdom moved their necropolis to the Valley of the Kings, leaving the eastern part of the Theban Highlands to their close dignitaries.

Thebes. Musicians from the feast scene. Fragment of the painting of the tomb of Nakht. XVIII dynasty. Late 15th century BC.

Thebes. Musicians and dancers. Fragment of a feast scene from the tomb of the sculptor Neboman. 15th c. BC. British museum. London.

The tombs of the nobles were not as huge as the tombs of their rulers. As a rule, they consist of several parts - an open courtyard, the space of which was limited by walls, a sanctuary and a burial chamber going underground. Starting from the 19th dynasty, the entrance to the courtyard was made in the form of a pylon - a giant gate that was an integral part of the architecture of Egyptian temples. Mortuary stelae were installed in the courtyard, and statues of the owner of the tomb were placed in the sanctuaries. Here the funeral cult of the deceased was sent - sacred texts were read and sacrifices were made to his ka, vital energy, which was one of the components of the essence of man. The upper part of the facade of the tomb was lined with tomb cones - clay cylinders - "carnations", bricked up to the "hat" in the thickness of the walls. On the outer side of the cones, the name of the owner of the tomb and his earthly and posthumous titles were inscribed with special seals.

The reliefs and paintings of the tombs of the nobles are rightfully considered masterpieces of Egyptian art. The walls of the tombs of nobles were most often decorated with scenes from their earthly life. The main idea of ​​these paintings was to reflect the most important events in the life of the dignitary and the well-being that he achieved during his lifetime. This was by no means done for boasting - everything properly imprinted on the walls of the tomb should have surrounded a person in afterlife and bring him joy. The most interesting tombs are located in the Sheikh Abd el-Qurna necropolis. The paintings of the tombs of Rehmir (the vizier of Thutmose III and Amenhotep II), Sennefer (governing the southern part of Thebes under Amenhotep II), Nakht (the court astronomer of Thutmose IV), Ramos (the ruler of Thebes and vizier under Amenhotep III and Akhenaten), Menna (a land surveyor and cadastral clerk under Thutmose I). On the walls of their tombs, funeral celebrations with musicians and dancers, peasants working in the field, court scenes are depicted. In most cases, the life path of the deceased is depicted on the left wall, and the burial ceremony is depicted on the other walls. Over time, the Valley of the Nobles became the burial place of many people. Today, more than 500 tombs (XI-XXVI dynasties) are officially open, a large number of burials were destroyed in antiquity or are still hidden in the depths of the Theban mountains.

Giant statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, which are called the Colossi of Memnon, welcome every traveler on the border of green wheat fields and lifeless desert sands. Two seated figures, 18 meters high, once guarded the entrance to the gigantic posthumous temple of Amenhotep III, which does not exist today. They preserved Greco-Roman graffiti from the time of Emperor Hadrian and other prominent figures of the ancient world. In their time, these colossi were known for the fact that one of them issued a plaintive groan at dawn. It was believed that in this way his mother, the goddess of the morning dawn, Eos was greeted by the Ethiopian Memnon, who died during the Trojan War at the hands of Achilles. The sounds stopped after the restoration in 199 AD. e.

Thebes. Statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III ("colossi of Memnon"). Height 18 meters. Two seated figures guarded the entrance to the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III, which has not survived. The colossi were famous for the fact that one of them uttered a plaintive groan every morning. It was believed that in this way the Ethiopian Memnon, who died during the Trojan War at the hands of Achilles, greets his mother, the goddess of the dawn. After the restoration in 199 AD. the sounds stopped. XVIII dynasty. Late 15th century BC.

Ramesses II ordered the construction of a giant mortuary temple in honor of the god Amun, which is now called the Ramesseum. The Ramesseum has reached our time in a severely destroyed state. The grandiose mortuary temple of Ramesses II, erected by the architect Penra on the western coast of Thebes. This complex, which in ancient times was called the “House of Millions of Years of Ramses Meriamon”, far exceeded similar monuments built by the pharaohs of the 18th dynasty in terms of scale and monumental design.

Currently, the entrance to the territory of the memorial ensemble of Ramses II is a giant sandstone pylon. The surface of the pylon was covered with painted reliefs. The bas-reliefs depicted scenes of the wars of Ramses II with the Hittites. Behind the pylon is the first courtyard. The southern wall of the courtyard was at the same time the facade of the palace located here. A staircase led to the second courtyard - it was located higher than the first. On each side of the stairs stood a giant statue of Ramesses (20 m) weighing about 1 thousand tons.

The central part of the palace was occupied by a reception hall with 16 columns. Then it was possible to get into the personal rooms of the king and the throne room. Behind the palace was the "women's house" of the king. The second courtyard of the Ramesseum served as an approach to the mortuary temple. The courtyard was adorned with porticos with papyrus-shaped columns and osiric colossi. The hypostyle (columned) hall of the temple had 48 columns. The coloring of the capitals of the columns imitating the emerald thickets of papyrus, the reed of eternal youth, has been superbly preserved. Behind the hypostyle was the cult part of the temple, the main sanctuary, storerooms. In the Ramesseum there was a famous library, called by Diodorus "The Clinic of the Soul", as well as a large school of scribes. Under the floors of the temple, a shaft was found with the burial of a priest of the Middle Kingdom, and magic wands, masks and several papyri were found in the burial chamber of the tomb.

Once Medinet Habu was just a quarry for the construction of tombs and temples. Ramesses III erected his powerful posthumous temple in the Medinet Abu area, taking the Ramesseum as a model. The pylons at the entrance depict scenes of the Pharaoh's victories over his enemies. Within the grandiose walls to the right of the entrance gate, a temple dedicated to ancient deities is visible. To the left rise the tombs of the divine wives of Amun.

Near the village of Qurna are the ruins of the mortuary temple of Seti I, founded by the pharaoh for himself and his father Ramesses I.

Thebes - in ancient times the main city of the region of central Greece, Boeotia, located on a low hill, among the fertile Aonian plain. At present, the city with a population of 22 thousand people (2012) is the largest city in the Boeotian Prefecture. Thebes coordinates: 38°19′27″ s. sh. 23°19′25″ in. e. Time zone: UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer. The telephone code of the city of Thebes: +30. Thebes city postal code: 32200.

The history of the city of Thebes

Thebes - the legendary birthplace of Hercules and Dionysus - was a powerful city-state in 400 BC. The rise of Thebes was facilitated by the advantageous position of the city between northern Greece and the Peloponnese. In modern Thebes, little is reminiscent of its former greatness, but the tragic story of the Theban royal dynasty, associated with the legend of King Oedipus, still, as in ancient times, touches the hearts of people.

In the XII century BC, after the Trojan War, Thebes became the main city of the Boeotia region. In 371 BC the city won the battle with the once invincible Sparta. However, the glorious age of Thebes ended unexpectedly in 335 BC, when Alexander the Great ravaged the city. He did not like that Thebes resisted the Macedonian power and entered into an alliance with the Persians. Alexander spared the city temples, but not the inhabitants of the city: 6 thousand Thebans died in the battle and another 30 thousand were captured.

Transport, food and accommodation in Thebes

How to get there

Buses to Athens leave from the central bus stop in Thebes (KTEL Thiva), located 500 m south of Platea Agios Kalothinis (€8, travel time 1.5 hours every hour). From another bus stop (KTEL Amfissa) buses go to Levadia (€4.50, every hour) and Delphi (€8, travel time 50 min., six times a day). This stop is located at the Shell gas station in the suburbs of Piri, 1 km from the center of Thebes, on the Athens-Levadia road.

Trains departing from railway station in Thebes, located 500 m north of the museum, go to Athens (regular train/express/intercity train €5/9/10.30, travel time 75/70/60 min., 10 times a day) and Thessaloniki (regular train/express/intercity) €16.70/25/33, travel time four/five/5.5 hours, 10 times a day).

Where to eat

Dionysos Restaurant (Epaminonda 88; main course €6-9) The owner of this restaurant, Takikh, says that his tavern is the only place in Thebes where you can try traditional Fecian food. There are many dishes on the menu; portions are large and flavored with olive oil. We advise you to come here for lunch, as the same dishes are served throughout the day, and at lunchtime they are fresh.

Ladhokolla (main dish €6.50-14). This trendy tavern is located on the square. It serves seafood (especially fishermen's spaghetti, €14) and grilled dishes.

Where to stay

Hotel Niovi (Epaminonda 63; Single/Double Room with Breakfast €43/55) With friendly staff, this hotel is both cozy and modern. Pots of flowers adorn the marble stairs, and the rooms have satellite TV and free wireless internet. The hotel is located in the city center on the Epaminonda pedestrian street. There is a Carrefour Express supermarket on the ground floor.

Map of the city of Thebes

Sights of the city of Thebes

The main attraction of Thebes is the archaeological museum. If you want to get up close with the history of Thebes, the best way is to visit the Archaeological Museum. The museum contains jewelry found in Mycenaean palaces, terracotta masks and carved Sarcophagi.

The well-preserved Elefthera Fortress (IV century) guards the Kaza Pass on Mount Kiteron - the watershed between Athens and Thebes. According to the Greek myth, King Oedipus, when he was a child, was left to die on this mountain, on the border of ancient Attica. The shepherd rescued the baby. The ruins near Erythres will be of more interest to history buffs. The Battle of Ilatei (479 BC) took place on this site, marking the end of the Greco-Persian Wars. Unfortunately, this area is currently abandoned. If you pass by, we advise you to turn onto the Elefsina - Thebes road leading to Porto Germeno. This road ends near the majestic fortress of Egosthenes of the 4th century - this building of the ancient Greeks has been preserved better than others. From here you have a view of Porto Ermeno, a coastal resort located 45 km southwest of Thebes.

THEBES (LUXOR)

"Scepter",

"Southern City",

Akkadian (URU) ni-'i ,

Greek, later -,

Roman Diospolis Magna,

Coptic.

The city, which played an important role in ancient Egyptian history, is one of the capitals of Egypt. Located in Upper Egyptian nome IV (Pillet, Thebes, palais et necropoles I–II, 1928–1930; Ch. Nims, Thebes of the Pharaons, 1965; Vandier, Manuel d'Archeologie egyptienne, II; L. Manniche, City of the dead : Thebes in Egypt, London, 1987).
The Greek name comes from a phonetic confusion with the Egyptian name of the temple of Amun at Karnak, or with the name of the city quarter, which reminded the Greeks of Thebes in Boeotia. First mentioned in Homer (Iliad, IX, 381). Later Greeks used the name Diospolis Megale or "Great City of Zeus" (identified with Amun). In ancient Egypt, the city was called, and the Thebans called it the City of Amon, the Southern City, or simply the City.
Little is known about the history of the development of this city before the Middle Kingdom. However, there is no doubt that settlements appeared here as early as the Middle Paleolithic, and in the pre-dynastic era and in the era of the Old Kingdom, three urban centers already existed here. Apparently, the ancient capital of the nome was Hermont, now Armant, located on the western bank of the Nile. On the east coast, the city of Tod arose, and to the north of Thebes, Medamud. The main deity here was Montu. During the era of the first five dynasties, the Theban region did not play a significant political role, although its symbol already appears on one of the triads of Menkaure, discovered in his temple of the 4th dynasty near the pyramids of Giza. At the end of the Old Kingdom, the Theban nomarchs built their own tombs in the mountain slopes east of the Deir el-Bahri basin. At the end of the First Intermediate Period, the Theban nomarch Intef united under his rule the seven southern nomes of Upper Egypt, which constituted the province of the Gates of the South, and fortified in this territory, which in principle depended on the Heracleopolis kings. His son Mentuhotep crowned himself with the royal title. The cult of Amon flourished in the city. For the first time his name is mentioned in Thebes in the First Intermediate Period, and his first temple belongs to the same era. Traces of it have not been found, but there are mentions of it in inscriptions (Petrie, Gurneh, pl. X, 1.3). Under the XII dynasty, the cult of Amun became dominant in the Theban region.
At the end of the 3rd millennium, the union of the southern nomes, joined by the 8th and 11th nomes, defeated the kingdom of Heracleopolis, and Thebes became the true capital of Egypt, the residence of the 11th dynasty. Monumental buildings and sanctuaries were erected in Thebes: this is evidenced by the blocks with cartouches of Mentuhotep found in the later buildings of Karnak and, especially, the ruins of the majestic mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II in Deir el-Bahri, surrounded by the necropolis of the nobility. On the east bank of the Nile was the "city of the living" - a religious and administrative center. On the western bank was the "city of the dead", where the rulers of the IX and X dynasties, bearing the name Intef, built their necropolis at the foot of the Dra Abu-l-Negga hill. The most outstanding element of the Theban necropolis was the remarkable temple of Mentuhotep II (XI dynasty) at Deir el-Bahri, which was a series of terraces topped with a mastaba. Mentuhotep II's successor intended to build a similar sanctuary for himself in a nearby valley, but it was never completed. Next to it is the necropolis of the nobility with the famous tomb of Meketre, where many small wooden sculptural "models" were found.
Despite the fact that the rulers of the XII dynasty moved the administrative and political capital of the state to the Faiyum region (to the still unfound city of Ittaui), Thebes continued to develop as an important cult center of Amun. The construction on the territory of the sanctuary of Amun of Theban began the very first pharaoh of the XII dynasty Amenemhat, but his successor Senusret I succeeded most in decorating this sanctuary. Apparently, it was he who owned the temple, the ruins of which were found in the center of the huge temple that arose here later, he also a temple-kiosk was built, one of the best architectural monuments of that time and destroyed by Amenhotep III, who used his stone blocks to build the third pylon of the Temple of Amun. The kiosk was restored in 1937–1938. architect A. Chevrier north of the large temple of Karnak. On its masonry, the famous geographical list of the Middle Kingdom has been preserved.
The royal necropolises of the XII dynasty were located not far from the royal residences (Dashur, Lisht, Lahun, Khawara). In Thebes, several tombs of local nobles of that time are known, among them is the tomb of the vizier of the times of Senusret I, Antefoker.
During the Second Intermediate Period, the Theban rulers, who retained some independence from the Hyksos, continued to decorate the sanctuary of Amun, and the kings of the 17th dynasty erected tombs topped with small brick pyramids in the necropolis of Dra Abu-l-Negga (H. Winlock, The rise and fall of the Middle Kingdom at Thebes, 1947).
The heyday of Thebes falls on the era of the New Kingdom, when, under the XVIII dynasty, the city again became the capital of all Egypt. The city of the living and the city of the dead become a grandiose metropolis, which the rulers of subsequent eras continued to decorate. The most beautiful quarter rose on the east coast: in the north it bordered on the temple complex of Amon Ipet-Sut (modern Karnak) (G. Legrain, Les temples de Karnak, 1929; P. Barguet, Le temple d'Amon-Re a Karnak, 1961) , in the south - with the temple of Ipet-Resit-Imen (modern Luxor) (A. Gayet, "Le temple de Louxor", MIFAO XV, 1941). Here were the royal palaces and two-story residences of nobles. All these buildings, built of mud brick, were surrounded by gardens. The metropolitan suburbs stretched far beyond modern Luxor and Karnak, but now nothing remains of their former splendor except the ruins of stone temples.
The temple ensemble of Karnak was already divided into three independent complexes during the New Kingdom. In the north was the temple complex of Montu, built under Amenhotep III and surrounded by a brick wall (Cl. Robichon, P. Barguet, J. Leclant, Karnak-Nord IV, 1954). Even Amenhotep I, who launched active construction on both banks, built an alabaster temple-kiosk in Karnak, which was reconstructed from blocks found in later buildings. His cartouches are also preserved in the chapels, which were part of the buildings of Thutmose III. He also built two of his own mortuary temples on the west bank of the river. It cannot be said with certainty that it was he who introduced the distinction between the rock tomb and the royal mortuary temple, which was so essential for the cult of the deceased pharaoh in the era of the New Kingdom. But his successor Thutmose I followed him. On the site of the destroyed sanctuary of the Middle Kingdom era, he built three pylons - VI, V and IV - leading to a rectangular temple. It should be noted that the southern part of this temple is slightly expanded relative to the central axis. In front of Pylon IV, which at that time was the entrance, Thutmose I placed two obelisks. To the north of the sanctuary of Amun and to the east of the sanctuary of Montu, he erected a monument of a hitherto unknown type: judging by the marks of the stonecutters, it was called a treasury. This suggests that an administrative quarter was located nearby; Numerous fragments found by the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology testify that it was very richly decorated (see J. Jacquet, Karnak-Nord V. Le tresor de Thoutmosis Ier, Etude architecturale, 1983; H. Jacquet-Gordon, Karnak- Nord VI. Le tresor de Thoutmosis Ier, La decoration, 1988). The name of Thutmose II appears on buildings erected at Karnak by Hatshepsut and Amenhotep II. The latter apparently did not pay too much attention to the sanctuary of Amun, although some blocks from his structures can be found among the stones reused in the construction of Pylon III.
The scale of the building activity of Queen Hatshepsut in Thebes was more impressive. In Karnak, in the sanctuary of Amon, in the center of the temple of Thutmose I, she ordered the construction of a quartzite hall for the sacred barge, as well as many side halls, called "the queen's chambers." Four obelisks were also erected: two between pylons IV and V, in the hypostyle hall of Thutmose I, and two near the eastern wall of the temple. In addition, the VIII pylon was built on the south side of the temple.
But the most impressive monument was the mortuary temple of the queen at Deir el-Bahri, built by Senenmut, chief architect, high dignitary and favorite of the queen. Senenmut borrowed the idea of ​​a stepped structure with a porticoed eastern façade from the nearby temple of Mentuhotep. The best decorations of the building are the reliefs of the left portico depicting the expedition sent by Hatshepsut to the country of Punt (probably Somalia). This temple was excavated by Mariette and Naville. The latter published 6 volumes of works, which to this day serve as a guide for all researchers of this site.
Thutmose III, the successor of Hatshepsut, who significantly expanded the borders of Egypt, was clearly hostile to the creatures of the queen. He enlarged the temple of Amun at Karnak by adding two obelisks in front of the obelisk of Thutmose I, and by building in the eastern part of the temple a magnificent hall for the festival of Sed, surrounded by numerous chapels. He ordered the obelisks of the queen in the hall of Thutmose I to be surrounded by a wall 20.13 m high, however, the height of this wall was inferior to the height of the obelisks (30.70 m). Thutmose III began his activities in Karnak with the destruction and alteration of the buildings of his predecessors. He completely changed the appearance of the hall of Thutmose I and placed between the V and VI pylons the Osirian statues of this king, which previously adorned the wall of the sanctuary. He also changed the portico between the V and VI pylons, placing there the famous list of the peoples defeated by Egypt. Between the VI pylon and the buildings of the era of Hatshepsut, he built a vestibule with two heraldic pillars, symbolizing the unity of Upper and Lower Egypt. Fragments of the text of the chronicle, which tells about the military exploits of this king, have been preserved on its walls, which is why this vestibule is called the western hall of annals. A similar text is preserved on the wall, which Thutmose III ordered to build along south side northern part of Hatshepsut's chambers. Its reliefs commemorate the offerings made to Amun by the king. He surrounded the large festive hall (Ah-menu) with numerous halls, one of which was two-story. Particularly interesting is hall No. 2, the walls of which are decorated with reliefs called " Botanical Garden". The same scenes are partly repeated in Room 22 (see H. Beaux, "Le Cabinet curiosites de Thoutmosis III", OLA 36, 1990). In a small room adjoining the southwestern corner of the hypostyle hall, reliefs depict the king offering sacrifices to his predecessors. At the time of the discovery of the reliefs, 61 royal cartouches could be distinguished on them. This monument is extremely valuable for compiling the chronology of Ancient Egypt. Now his reliefs are kept in the Louvre.
To the east of the large sacred complex between two obelisks, Hatshepsut Thutmose III built another, more modest temple. In the south, in front of the queen's pylon, he erected a new VII pylon, and near the sacred lake - a chapel. The courtyard, formed between two pylons, he decorated with his granite statues. Nilomere, located in front of the sacred lake, was also built by his order, as was the small temple dedicated to Ptah in the northern part of the sacred territory of the temple of Amun. Later, gates and new reliefs were added to it.
On the territory of the Luxor Temple, Thutmose III erected an altar with three chapels. However, the remains of the most interesting building of this king are located on the western bank of the Nile in the Theban necropolis. At Medinet Abu, in front of the later temple of Ramesses III, there is a temple that he dedicated to Amun. In the same place he rebuilt the temple of Thutmose II, and in Gurne built a new mortuary temple, excavated by Quibell and Weigall and published by Ricke (Ricke, Der Totentempel Thutmoses III, 1939). In Deir el-Bahri, between the temples of Hatshepsut and Mentuhotep, he erected another temple, discovered by a Polish archaeological expedition in 1962. In addition to excellently preserved polychrome reliefs, many sculptures were found here, including a two-meter granite statue of a king sitting on a throne. This temple was already destroyed in antiquity, but during the XX dynasty it was still visited by numerous pilgrims who left hieratic inscriptions of great historical value on its columns and walls (M. Marciniak, Les inscriptions hieratiques du temple de Thoutmes III a Deir el-Bahari, 1974; J. Lipinska, "The portraits of Thutmosis III newly discowered at Deir el-Bahari", Melanges K. Michalowski).
In the temple of Hatshepsut, Thutmose III destroyed some statues of the queen, redid the reliefs, erased the inscriptions with her name. Probably, already from the moment of his accession, he began the construction of his magnificent tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
Thutmose III had good reason to thank the Karnak priests who contributed to his accession to the throne. His successors Amenhotep II and Thutmose IV paid less attention to the decoration of Karnak. Amenhotep II built a small temple, which, after the erection of pylons by Horemheb IX and X, ended up in the eastern part of the new courtyard. It is not known for certain whether the architectural fragments found between pylons V and IX belong to the chapel erected by this pharaoh. In any case, we know that both he and Thutmose IV erected small alabaster chapels at Karnak, blocks of which were found in massif III of the pylon. The tombs of both pharaohs are located in the Valley of the Kings, and the mortuary temples are in Gurn, their ruins are found on both sides of the Ramesseum.
The pharaoh who did more than others to decorate the capital was Amenhotep III (E. Riefstahl, Thebes in the time of Amunhotep III, 1964). Under him, the Luxor Temple with a magnificent colonnade was erected. To the south of it, in January 1989, at a depth of 1 m, a cache was discovered with 24 perfectly preserved statues dating from the period from the XVIII to XXV dynasties. The time of their placement in the cache is not determined: it could have happened between the reign of Taharqa (XXV dynasty) and Psammetikh II (XXVI dynasty): the cartouche of the first, found on one of the statues of this cache, is replaced by the cartouche of the second on a similar statue originating from Karnak. Among the found sculptures, the "statue of a statue" stands out - a unique monument made of red quartzite depicting a statue of Amenhotep III standing on a sleigh. 17 monuments out of 24 are exhibited in the new hall of the Luxor Museum. Among the many reliefs that adorned this sanctuary, mention should be made of the relief in the southeast room, which depicts the famous scene of the birth of the pharaoh. This theme is a development of a motif already encountered in Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahri.
Already in those days, Karnak and Luxor were connected by an alley along which processions passed. Part of the sphinxes of Amenhotep III that adorned it have been preserved in their place, the rest belong to a later era.
Traces of the activities of Amenhotep III can be found in different parts of Karnak. In the sanctuary of the goddess Mut, south of the temple of Amun, are the ruins of a temple erected or rebuilt by this pharaoh on the site of some older structure. From the south, this temple was framed by a sacred lake. On its territory, especially in the courtyard, there were hundreds of statues of the seated goddess Sokhmet - a hymn in stone dedicated to her by Amenhotep III.
Near the sacred lake of Amon, Amenhotep III installed a huge figure of a granite scarab, identified with Atum-Khepri. He also made changes to the large temple of Amun: in the massif of the III pylon erected by him, blocks were found that originated from more ancient structures that existed by that time on the territory of the sacred complex. Perhaps he also built the central colonnade of the hypostyle hall, consisting of 12 columns (initially there were 14 of them - two eastern ones later turned out to be in place of the second pylon), forming an alley leading to a new entrance to the temple. To the north of the temple of Amun, in the sacred territory of Montu, he built main temple this god.
Another creation of Amenhotep III at Karnak is the famous temple of Khonsu, the construction of which was continued by Ramesses III. The successors of the latter decorated the temple with reliefs and made some changes to it.
Even Mariette suggested that the temple of Ramses III was erected on the site of the temple of the times of Amenhotep III. M. E. Mathieu put forward a hypothesis that the general plan of this structure dates back to the times of Amenhotep III. A statue of Amenhotep, the architect of Amenhotep III, was found in this temple, and ancient blocks of a stele from the time of Amenhotep II were preserved within its walls. It is known that the avenue of sphinxes, which began at the temple of Amenhotep III in Luxor, led directly to the entrance to this temple. We know that from the time of the Middle Kingdom there was a cult center of Khonsu south of the Temple of Amon. It is hard to imagine that until the time of Ramses III, one of the gods of the Theban triad, the son of Amun and Mut, did not have his own temple in Karnak.
On the opposite bank of the Nile, Amenhotep III built the largest of the Theban mortuary temples, of which only two colossi of Memnon and one stele have survived. The creator of the temple was the architect Amenhotep, the son of Hapi, the only person in the history of Egypt who received the right to build his own mortuary temple in Medinet Abu (C. Robichon, A. Varille, Le temple de scribe royal Amenhotep, fils de Hapou, 1936). In this temple, for the first time, the classical scheme of temple architecture of the New Kingdom was embodied, the best example of which is the temple of Khonsu in Karnak.
Amenhotep III in western Thebes had not only a mortuary temple and a rock tomb in the Valley of the Kings. To the southwest of the temple, on the shore of an artificial lake connected with the Nile by a canal, there was also his palace, where he lived with his beloved wife Teye. The ruins of this palace, today called Malkata, were excavated by the American expedition of the Metropolitan Museum (A. Lansing, “Excavations at the palace of Amenhotep III at Thebes, BMMA XIII, 1918, March, Suppl., pp. 8–14). To the south of the palace, in the vicinity of the temple in Deir Sheluit in the area called Kom-es-Samak, the remains of a mud-brick building with fragments of painting were found by a Japanese expedition of Waseda University of Tokyo in 1974. This building was intended to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the reign of Amenhotep III.
Before Amenhotep IV moved his capital to Amarna, he built a separate sanctuary for the Aten to the east of the temple of Amun. After the death of the pharaoh, it was destroyed, but some of the monuments that were on its territory were preserved. First of all, we are talking about the colossal statues of the king, which stood at the supports that formed the peristyle. Numerous sandstone blocks with reliefs in the Amarna style are also known. They were recovered from later structures, primarily from Pylon IX built by Horemheb.
In Luxor, in front of the temple, many blocks were also found, decorated during the time of Akhenaten, and proving that he did not ignore this complex.
His successors Tutankhamen and Aye, judging by the architraves with their names, also built in Karnak. In an effort to cleanse themselves of suspicion of involvement in the Amarna heresy, they dedicated statues and steles to Amon. Tutankhamen, in addition, decorated with reliefs the colonnade of Amenhotep III in Luxor.
However, the name of this pharaoh is primarily associated with his Theban tomb, found in 1922 by H. Carter, the head of the excavations of Lord Carnarvon (H. Carter, The tomb of Tut-ankh-Amun, I–III, 1923–1933). Richly decorated with gold and extremely well-preserved funerary utensils from this tomb is now the greatest treasure of the Cairo Museum.
The last king of the 18th dynasty, Horemheb, erected three pylons in Karnak, II, IX and X, the last two from blocks of more ancient buildings. In front of the entrance of Pylon II there was a small vestibule, the walls of which were decorated in the time of Horemheb, but all the royal cartouches, except for one, were remade under the names of Ramses I and II. The avenue of sphinxes between the 10th pylon and the sanctuary of Mut, as well as several stelae installed by him in various parts of the complex, including the temple of Ptah, date back to his reign.
In Luxor, Horemheb carved his cartouches on the reliefs of a large colonnade belonging to Amenhotep III and Tutankhamen. He usurped many monuments of his predecessors in Thebes. His mortuary temple is a remodeled and slightly enlarged tomb of his predecessor Aye. However, he also did much to restore the temples of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri and Thutmose III at Medinet Habu.
His tomb in the Valley of the Kings is one of the largest and most majestic tombs of the 18th dynasty.
Under this dynasty, the necropolis of the nobility also developed in the area of ​​​​the modern settlement of Sheikh Abd-el-Gurna. The most interesting of his tombs are the tombs of the architect Ineni, decorated with reliefs and paintings, who created the tomb of Thutmose I; Senenmut, architect and favorite of Queen Hatshepsut (famous astronomical scenes are preserved on the plafonds of this tomb), who, however, was not buried here; Menkheperraceneb, high priest of Amun under Thutmose III; Rekhmir, vizier Thutmose III and Amenhotep II; Sennefer, ruler of southern Thebes and overseer of the gardens of Amun under Amenhotep II; Menna, manager of land under Thutmose IV; his contemporary Nakht, the priest of Amun. Two noble tombs of the times of Amenhotep III and Akhenaten deserve special attention: these are the tombs of Kheruef and Ramose (N. Davies, The Tomb of the Vizier Ramose, 1941), famous for the magnificent reliefs that adorn their burial chambers (see G. Steindorff, W. Wolf , Die thebanische Graberwelt, 1936).
From the time of the 18th dynasty, a city of artists and stonemasons arose in Deir el-Medina in western Thebes, who worked on the construction and decoration of royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings. A necropolis grew up near the city, many of whose tombs were decorated with beautiful paintings. Under the 19th and 20th dynasties, both the city and the necropolis grew. Their studies were carried out by the French Institute of Oriental Archeology under the direction of B. Bruyere (FIFO I–VIII, X, XIV–XVI, XX).
The most significant architectural construction of the 19th dynasty at Karnak is undoubtedly the famous hypostyle hall built by Seti I and Ramesses II between pylons II and III. On the sides of the central colonnade erected by Amenhotep III, they added seven rows of columns oriented along an east-west axis. There were windows in the ceiling of the central nave, and small openings in the side naves. Despite the twilight that reigned in the room, its walls and columns were richly decorated with reliefs. Reliefs also covered the outer walls and the walls of the hypostyle hall erected in the central part of the temple under Thutmose III. On the outer northern wall of the hypostyle, the military exploits of Seti I in Syria, Palestine and Libya are depicted, on the southern wall there is an interesting relief depicting the victory of Ramses II over the Palestinians and containing an excerpt from the Pentaura poem (about the battle of Kadesh). The walls of the courtyard between the 7th pylon and the southern entrance to the temple of Amun are also covered with inscriptions from the time of Ramses II, among which texts relating to the treaty with the Hittites are especially interesting. The vestibule at the II pylon was also decorated with reliefs, and in front of the pylon Ramesses II placed two of his colossal granite statues. From the Nile to the entrance to the temple, he laid an alley of cryosphinxes (that is, sphinxes with rams' heads) that he laid. Its western part in front of Pylon I was preserved in its place, while the eastern part was later shifted to the south after the construction of the first courtyard. Colossal statues of the king and his wife Nefertari were also placed in front of the IX pylon. During his reign, two small temples were built: one dedicated to Amun - to the east of the main temple, the other - next to the temple of Mut, in the eastern corner of the complex.
In Luxor, Ramesses II added a courtyard to the temple of Amenhotep III, surrounded by a double row of columns and pylons, where numerous granite statues of the king stood. In front of the pylons, he installed two colossal statues and two obelisks, one of which adorns the Place de la Concorde in Paris today.
In the Valley of the Kings are the magnificent tombs of Ramesses II and Seti I. The latter can serve as an example of the complex organization of galleries and chambers carved into the rocks at different levels. Its painted reliefs are among the finest examples of funerary art of the 19th dynasty (E. Lefebure, "The tombeau de Seti Ier", MIFAO II, 1886). The wives of the kings and some of the princes were buried in the Valley of the Queens, located southwest of the Valley of the Kings. One of the most beautiful tombs belongs to Queen Nefertari, wife of Ramesses II. Its remarkable painted reliefs were threatened by groundwater and salt exposure, but were magnificently restored in the late 1980s.
Both pharaohs erected mortuary temples for themselves in the city of the dead. The modest temple of Seti I at Gurne is the best preserved. His second smaller temple was incorporated by Ramesses II into his own mortuary temple, the ruins of which are today called the Ramesseum. Of particular interest are his reliefs on inside II pylon depicting the Battle of Kadesh. Following the custom of the pharaohs of that era, Ramses II built a palace next to his mortuary temple. Near the temple, the remains of vaulted storerooms built of raw bricks have been preserved.
The most important monuments from the time of Merneptah - the successor of Ramesses II - are the reliefs that adorn the eastern wall of the northern courtyard of Pylon VII, which depicts the battle of the pharaoh with the Libyans and the peoples of the sea. In the Valley of the Kings, he built himself a tomb and a mortuary temple, located south of the Ramesseum and now completely destroyed. For its construction, he used the blocks of the temple of Amenhotep III.
The last ruler of the 19th dynasty, Seti II, built a pylon in front of the temple of Mut in Karnak, and in front of the temple of Amun, a chapel dedicated to the Theban triad (later it ended up on the territory of a large courtyard) (H. Chevrier, Le temple reposoir de Seti II a Karnak, 1940). He also intended to expand the temple towards the Nile, as evidenced by his obelisk, installed on the embankment.
Among the pharaohs of the 20th dynasty, Ramesses III was especially successful in decorating the capital. His largest architectural creation was the temple, erected near the II pylon of the temple of Amun in Karnak and oriented along the north-south axis. His courtyard was decorated on both sides with Osirian statues of the king. Along with the temple of Khonsu, this temple is the best preserved shrine of Karnak. To the north of the temple of Amun, at the III pylon, he built another, more modest sanctuary. He laid the third temple in the western corner of the complex dedicated to Mut, behind the sacred lake. The current state of the temple of Khonsu is also the work of his hands, although the later Ramesses also decorated this temple. From their times, no significant buildings remained in Karnak, with the exception of a wall with a portal connecting Pylon III and IV: it was rebuilt or erected by order of Ramesses IX.
However, the main architectural masterpiece of Ramesses III, in addition to his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, is located on the western coast of Thebes. We are talking about a huge architectural complex in Medinet Abu (University of Chicago, Medinet Habu, I–V, 1934–1964). Its construction was carried out in two stages. First, a mortuary temple with auxiliary structures was erected. It was surrounded by a wall, behind which was also the royal palace, located to the left of the entrance to the sacred territory, next to the first courtyard. The second stage of construction took place at the end of the reign of this pharaoh: the complex was given a defensive character, it was surrounded by a second wall 10.5 m wider and 18 m higher than the first, behind it was the temple of Thutmose III. Fortified gates were erected in the east and west. The eastern gate was three stories high. They have survived to this day in good condition, as well as a significant part of the temple. In some rooms, reliefs depicting the king with princesses have been preserved, for which these rooms received the name "harem". A ditch was dug in front of the eastern gate, and a wharf was built on the Nile Canal.
About the mortuary temples of the successors of Ramses III, with the exception of one belonging to Ramses IV, we know only through references found in papyri. Numerous storerooms of Ramesses IV, found during the excavations of the American expedition in Asasif, and the remains of a huge mortuary temple with two courtyards and two pylons indicate that Ramesses IV intended to outshine the creation of his predecessor at Medinet Abu. But he did not have time to finish it, despite the fact that he used blocks from the temples of Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Amenhotep II and Ramesses II in the construction of the foundation. Its complex cut off from the Nile the mortuary temples of Hatshepsut, Mentuhotep I and Thutmose III, located deep in the valley of Deir el-Bahri (Hayes, Scepter of Egypt, II, p. 364 sq.).
In the Valley of the Kings, the tombs of the later Ramessides were found. In those days, the necropolis of the nobility also grew rapidly in Deir el-Medina. It is curious to note that in the 16th year of the reign of Ramesses IX, qualified investigators were first entrusted with the case of constant looting of royal tombs (T. Peet, The Great tomb-robberies of the twentieth Egypt Dynasty, I–II, 1930).
The priest-kings of the 21st dynasty, who ruled in Thebes, perpetuated their names on the walls of pre-existing buildings. Favorable conditions for the development of monumental architecture were lost due to the collapse of the country into Upper and Lower Egypt, which came under the rule of the kings who settled in Tanis. Only Herihor, the first representative of this dynasty, added a courtyard with columns to the temple of Khonsu in Karnak.
The kings of the XXII dynasty built a portico in Karnak in the southeast corner of the first courtyard, between the temple of Ramses II and the II pylon. King Osorkon II also built a small chapel on the shore of the sacred lake.
The Nubian rulers from Napata, after the conquest of Egypt, had to propitiate Amon in order to be recognized as a legitimate Egyptian dynasty. Already Shabaka built a temple-kiosk at the sacred lake in Karnak and a portal near the temple of Ptah, in addition, he decorated the second temple in Medinet Abu. Taharqa not only completed the construction of the second pylon started by Shabaka in front of the temple of Thutmose III in Medinet Abu, but also built many new buildings in Karnak. The most majestic building of this pharaoh was a large temple-kiosk in the first courtyard of the temple of Amun. One of the huge columns of this temple, 21 meters high, has been preserved in its place to this day. Between the southern wall of the temple and the sacred lake, he built a sanctuary, near the small temple of Ramses II - a colonnade, between the sanctuaries of Amon and Mut - a chapel dedicated to Osiris-Ptah, and in the temple of Mut he restored one of the chapels. However, at the end of the reign of Taharqa, a catastrophe occurred: in 667 BC. e. Ashurbanipal conquered Egypt and captured Thebes. In 663, a few months after the death of Taharqa, Ashurbanapal completely destroyed the capital. The ruler of Thebes at that time was Montuemhat, who came from Nubia and was appointed to this post by the Nubian kings. He faithfully served successive rulers and lived to old age, becoming one of the most zealous supporters of the Sais dynasty. He was buried in Asasif in a tomb, which, in its size, not only did not concede, but even surpassed the royal ones. Until now, in the center of Asasif, a pylon made of mud bricks, which belonged to this tomb, rises. The Egyptian Antiquities Service unearthed its fragments, which remained unknown until the end of the 80s.
The next four dynasties, beginning with the Sais, limited themselves to partial restoration and usurpation of the ancient Theban monuments, on the walls of which they carved their inscriptions. Several small structures were built in this era: the chapels of the Sais princesses in Medinet Abu, the modest sanctuary of Osiris, founded by Psammetichus III to the northwest of the Montu temple at Karnak, and several small chapels at the Karnak temple of Amun.
The restoration of buildings destroyed by the Assyrians, and new construction work began only during the XXX dynasty. Nectaneb I surrounded the temple of Amun with a massive mud-brick wall, which was decorated with an entrance portal from the east. He also erected the first pylon of this temple and the pylon near the temple of Montu. The alley of sphinxes, excavated in recent years by an Egyptian expedition, dates from the same era. This alley led from the pylon of Ramesses II in Luxor to Karnak. Apparently, we are dealing here with large-scale restoration work, since it is difficult to assume that this avenue, some parts of which at Karnak date back to the era of Amenhotep III, did not reach the Luxor temple during the 18th dynasty. Nectaneb I also expanded the 18th Dynasty temple at Medinet Abu, the eastern side of which was already being restored by the Nubian rulers.
His successors Theos and Nectaneb II continued to restore destroyed monuments in Thebes. The latter also built a small chapel to the east of the temple of Mut at Karnak.
By order of Alexander the Great, who after the conquest of Egypt visited the oracle of Amon in the Siwa oasis and was proclaimed by the priests as the earthly incarnation of Amon, in Karnak, the main cult center of this god, one of the rooms located behind the jubilee hall of Thutmose III was restored, and a votive inscription was drawn up .
In the sanctuary of Amun in Luxor, restoration work was also carried out on his orders. In the depths of the temple, in front of the main sanctuary, on the site of an ancient hall on four columns, a new chapel was built for the barge of Amon.
Philip Arrhidaeus built on the axis of the main temple of Amun in Karnak, in the center of the construction of the times of Queen Hatshepsut, a large granite chapel for the barge of Amun. It is not surprising that the Ptolemies, who sought to acquire the same authority among the population of the country as the former Egyptian pharaohs enjoyed, especially cared for Thebes, despite the fact that the city rebelled against them three times. They not only placed their cartouches on the walls of the local temples, but also erected new structures: Ptolemy II - in the sanctuary of Mut in Karnak, his successors - in the sanctuary of Montu. A new, independent sanctuary was also built for the goddess Ipet (Taurt), who at that time was worshiped along with Osiris. Its construction began under Euergetes II, and the decoration continued under his successors.
The most magnificent buildings of the Ptolemies at Karnak were the gates and pylons. The most significant among them are the gates of Euergetes I in front of the temple of Khonsu and the pylons of Ptolemies II and III in front of the sanctuaries of Mut, Montu and the temple of Ptah.
In 1903–1904 G. Legren found a cache in Karnak - a 14-meter hole dug near the VII pylon, in which there were about 20,000 items, including 750 sculptures and stone stelae. It has been suggested that the sculptures were placed here in different eras, as the temple developed (E. Bothmer, Egyptian Sculpture of the Late Period, p. 152), but the point of view that Maspero adhered to, who believed that all these the objects were put into a cache under Ptolemy III or IV: it is hard to believe that a pit that looks like a giant dump could remain open and accessible for a long time on the territory of the most important sanctuary in Egypt.
In western Thebes, the Ptolemies also carried out restoration work and built modest sanctuaries. Euergetes II restored the damaged hypostyle hall on the upper terrace in Deir el-Bahri, in addition, he erected a small portico in front of the rock-cut sanctuary of Amun from the time of Hatshepsut and added another room to it. In the deepest part of this temple, the cults of Imhotep, Amenhotep, the son of Hapi, and the Greek goddess Hygia, the daughter of Asclepius, with whom the Greeks identified Imhotep, flourished in that era. The mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut in those days became a hospital, which was under the auspices of Imhotep-Asclepius.
At Deir el-Medina, the Ptolemies erected a small temple next to the necropolis of the New Kingdom era, in Medinet Abu - a pylon in front of the temple of Thutmose III, in Qasr el-Aguz - the chapel of Thoth (Everget II).
In those days, Thebes was visited by many tourists from Greece. Many wall graffiti with the names of tourists, and sometimes with rave reviews, have been preserved. At the turn of the era, visitors to Thebes were most interested in the two colossi of the temple of Amenhotep III, created by its architect Amenhotep, son of Hapi, on the west bank of the Nile. These statues, depicting a king sitting on a throne, were carved from monolithic sandstone, delivered from quarries located in the vicinity of Memphis, i.e., 700 km away from Thebes. Their height is more than 15 m, not counting the pedestal, which exceeds 2 m.
In 27 BC. e. as a result of the earthquake, the temple was destroyed, and a crack appeared at the northern colossus at the level of the torso. Changes in temperature and humidity during the sunrise period generated an internal vibration of the stone in the crack, and the colossus began to make a slight sound that attracted everyone's attention. The Greeks were especially interested in them. This phenomenon was described by Strabo (XVII, 816), and the Greeks soon began to identify the statue of Amenhotep III with the hero of Greek myths Memnon, who died under the walls of Troy at the hands of Achilles, and every morning complained to his mother Eos, the goddess of the dawn. In 19 AD e., after visiting these places by Germanicus, a real pilgrimage to these colossi began in an educated Greco-Roman society. They found a lot of graffiti left by ancient tourists who visited this wonder of the world. This continued until Septimius Severus ordered the sculptors to repair the crack in order to save the statue. After that, Memnon lost his voice, but the name was assigned to the statue, and the Greeks called this place Memnonia, seeing in the cult of the deceased king a connection with the deceased hero.
Like Alexander the Great, Octavian Augustus, having conquered Egypt, immortalized his name on the walls of Karnak temples and erected his statue here (K. Michalowski, BIFAO, pp. 73–88, 1935).
Domitian added a courtyard with a portal in front of the pylon of Nectanebo at Medinet Habu. Hadrian, who visited Thebes in 130, decorated the temple of Isis at Deir Sheluit, which was erected by the first Roman emperors in western Thebes, south of Medinet Habu. Its decoration was continued by Antoninus Pius.
At the end of the III century. In Thebes, an uprising broke out against the Romans. Probably, in those days, near the Luxor temple, a Roman military camp arose.
Christianity entered Thebes at the end of the 4th century. Some temples were adapted for the needs of the new cult, ancient statues were destroyed, many reliefs were broken. The production of lime, which was mined from the limestone blocks of ancient temples, started under the Romans, expanded. In the 7th century many monasteries appeared in western Thebes. The main cult center was in Medinet Abu, where the church of St. Mines. In the temple of Queen Hatshepsut there is a monastery, the ruins of which were dismantled by Naville. Another monastery was at Deir el-Medina. Hermits settled in the tombs, and another monastery settled in the tomb of the vizier Dag of the Middle Kingdom (H. Winlock, The Monastery of Epiphanios at Thebes, I–II, 1926). Two churches were built on the territory of the temple in Luxor, and the ancient sanctuaries in Karnak were adapted for the needs of the new cult.
The population built houses on the territory of ancient sacred complexes. It should be noted that in Thebes, unlike other centers of the Nile Valley, not a single new religious building appeared in the Christian era. This is partly due to the fact that ancient temples were converted here into churches, but the main reason was the loss of Thebes of its former significance. The political decline of this center began much earlier, since the fall of the New Kingdom. With the transfer of the capital to Alexandria, Thebes was left with only the role of a repository of historical shrines and religious traditions. With the fall of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity, this role lost its meaning.
Today, Luxor, Karnak and the Theban necropolis represent the largest artistic and cultural ensemble of Ancient Egypt.
The revival of Thebes in modern European culture had a long history. The first travelers could not even accurately determine the location of the ancient capital of Egypt. In the XIII century. one of them confused the ruins of Memphis with Thebes. However, the Dutch traveler and cartographer Ortelius in 1584 already quite accurately indicated the location of Thebes on his map, but only at the beginning of the 18th century. the Jesuit Claude Sicard identified the ruins of Luxor and Karnak with the great ancient capital. After the campaign of Napoleon and the publication of Vivant Denon, a basis appeared for new, more methodical studies of Egyptian monuments. At the beginning of the XIX century. in Thebes, one of the most zealous seekers of Egyptian antiquities, Giovanni Belzoni, launched his activities; in the first half of the same century, virtually all of the least known Egyptologists contributed to the study of Theban sanctuaries and necropolises. However, systematic excavations on the territory of Thebes began only in the second half of the 19th century, when the Antiquities Service appeared, created by Auguste Mariette, who was later replaced by Gaston Maspero as its director. Work in the necropolis was continued by Victor Lore, the Ramesseum and the western necropolis were excavated by the most prominent English archaeologist Flinders Petrie, E. Naville worked in Deir el-Bahri. Later, an expedition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art worked here, as well as in Malcate, under the leadership of Winlock, and then Lansing and Hemps. Karnak and Medinet Abu researched the Oriental Institute of Chicago.
French archaeologists and architects Legrain, Pille and Chevrier, within the framework of the Antiquities Service, began large-scale work to restore and preserve the large Karnak temple, the French Institute of Oriental Archeology began to explore the northern part of Karnak. In 1967, the Franco-Egyptian Center for the Study and Restoration of the Karnak Temples was established, which since that time has been actively working on the territory of the sanctuary of Amun: excavation of the dwellings of the priests, reconstruction of the IX pylon, restoration of the murals in Ah-menu, restoration of the statue of Thutmose IV, creation of a museum outdoors, etc.