Thebes, the largest city of Ancient Egypt

Egypt tourism

One of the exciting time machine travel destinations in Ancient Egyptian history is Thebes, which is the Greek name of an Egyptian city known as waset, located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the River Nile.

In the modern city of Luxor. The Necropolis of Thebes is located near the west bank of the Nile. Thebes was inhabited since 3200 BC. Waset was the capital of Egypt during part of the 11th Dynasty (Middle Kingdom) and most of the 18th Dynasty (New Kingdom).

When Pharaoh Hatshepsut built a Red Sea fleet to facilitate trade between Thebes and the Elim port of the Red Sea. History relates that Thebes had about 40.000 inhabitants in 2000 BC (compared to 60.000 in Memphis, the largest city in the world at the time).

By 1800 BC, the population of Memphis had dropped to 30.000, making Thebes the largest city in Egypt. By the Amarna period (14th century BC), Thebes may have grown to become the largest city in the world, with a population of around 80.000, which the position it held until around 1000 BC, when it was again overtaken. by Memphis.

Today the archaeological remains of Thebes offer striking testimony to Egyptian civilization at its peak. The Greek poet Homer exalted the wealth of Thebes in the Iliad, Book 9 (c. XNUMXth century BC).

In 1979, the ruins of ancient Thebes were classified by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. There, the two great temples, the Temple of Luxor and Karnak and the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens are some of the great achievements of Ancient Egypt.


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