Thebes: The Holy City of Ancient Egypt

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Thebes was once ancient Egypt's capital and the cultic center of its most prominent god: Amun. It also was home to one of the largest temple precincts in the ancient world: Karnak.
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[@ReligionForBreakfast]

Thank you to Wondrium for sponsoring today's video! Signup for your FREE trial to Wondrium at: ow.ly/klS650LnlVb

[@KarlSnarks]

I know your channel is dedicated to a neutral approach to religious topics, but I'm kinda curious how being a theologian, looking at religion through an analytical historical lens, affects your personal experience of your religious beliefs or lack thereof.

[@Bramble451]

I love when people treat history for what it really is: not a static description, but the story of change over time.

[@leminjapan]

Perfectly said! History is a story still written today.

[@yazid709]

And got exactly has he done that?

[@kenopsicexplorer7065]

@@yazid709 Talking about the city in different time periods of Egyptian history and showing how the religion changed overtime.

[@chompythebeast]

People will say this, but then will turn around and say things like "Ah it's not my fault the natives were genocided, that happened in the past!" History is built on the bones of the past, and we are inheritors of its legacy. It falls to us not to ride evil status quos or to accept historical narratives spoon-fed to us by hegemonic authorities, but to yes, see that history is living, and understand our place in shaping in it, even and especially when that means going against the reigning grain

[@Burning_branches]

Well said. Everything is in constant flux, and to respect and see how something has grown and been different things at different points in time is a good way to look at things.

[@midoriya-shonen]

Everytime I learn more about Egypt it fills me with an inescapable yearning to be surrounded by it. Thanks for this!

[@TerribleShmeltingAccident]

I love how you said that! I agree totally and long for more!

[@rd6203]

I always love all of your content, but anything related to Egypt makes me extra happy... and also a little nostalgic. I firmly believe that if a person only gets one chance in their lives to travel, let it be the destination.

[@GreenMonkeyToaster]

The cheeky "...at least for most of its history" and Akhenaten peeking in from the corner at 7:52 was brilliant! 5/7 sun worshippers

[@fabrisseterbrugghe8567]

Karnak was overwhelming when I visited it. Abu Simbel and the Temple of Hatshepsut were also very impressive.

[@sarahwatts7152]

Aaand now I have a bad case of wanderlust, it's great to see footage of these places from new angles. Hopefully there are more Egyptian videos to come!

[@TheModernHermeticist]

Theban Wargod Montu. Definitely another metal band name.

[@Anubis81]

Planning to go there in 2027. A Total Solar eclipse will go straight though Luxor so I want to combine that with sightseeing.

[@andrelott6920]

This was a very interesting video and also because I think that Ancient Egypt is very fascinating!

[@nzx.]

Analogues of the Opet festival still happen here in India. The way you describe it made me immediately think of the temple processions here. I am kind of surprised and not at the same time of the parallels.

[@speedwagon1824]

I'm sure everyone culture had some festival like that in ancient times

[@kellydalstok8900]

Catholics still drag their gaudy statues of Mary and other saints through the streets of many towns and cities.

[@AloisWeimar]

Protestants with their gaudy mega churches and revival rallies and prosperity gospel charlatans too

[@tuhuttmesiii48]

This festival still happen in egypt

[@deathpigeon2]

Calling Waset simply "No" is similar to how Konstantiniyye became İstanbul which derives from "stim poli" which meant "in the city".

[@mohamed_m_hagag]

By the way, in 2021 celebrating the reopening of the sphinx avenue, the Egyptian government celebrated the Opet festival as and it was very interesting to watch

[@miketacos9034]

Angkor Wat: “Who are you?!” Karnak: “I’m you, but older.”

[@nobody8328]

Hrm. I wonder what the possibility is that they knew each other? 🤔

[@only_fair23]

​@@nobody8328Highly unlikely

[@lanasoares4201]

I was just checking prices to go Egypt next year...not random .

[@TravisLee33]

When it comes to Egypt and never is. Lol

[@ibrahimsafwat]

This brings me great joy as an Egyptian. Which part of the country are you planning to visit?

[@OleOlson]

I was blown away by the Temples of Karnak. Way better than what I expected. You did an excellent review here of the area. One could devote a 4 hour long episode just to Luxor.

[@bdwon]

Cool! My most pressing question about Thebes was why it had the same name as the city of Greece! And you answered it right off! "It was a Greek Thing!" Great work! Probably so very much can be explained by ethnocentrism.

[@stefannikola]

You might want to watch "Death on the Nile" from 1978 with Peter Ustinov. Many scenes take place among Egypt's most famous sites. In fact, they climb and film a scene on top of a pyramid and one actor is even walking on the headstones of the columns at Karnak. I don't know how they got permission to film such scenes (or maybe they didn't and just did it anyway) but it is a very dangerous way to make a movie.

[@danielchand944]

Karnak and Hatshepsuit's temple. My favorite part of Egypt.

[@brunopereira6789]

This absolutely fascinates me - the sheer weight of history in a place like Luxor, dwarfing even Rome. Please make a similar video about Memphis! Alexander himself was crowned Pharaoh there, so why didn't that city survive, unlike Thebes?

[@KarlSnarks]

Ancient Egypt has always fascinated me, great video :)

[@grapeshot]

I just seen a good documentary on the 25th Dynasty in Egypt. And he talks about the Nubian Pharaoh that launched a building campaign in Thebes.

[@raydziesinski7165]

Well done. Deep yet with context.

[@Carlos-ln8fd]

Your content is so great I learn so much from these

[@luislozano6073]

Someday I'm gonna have the resources to patreon you, this is my fav youtube channel, thanks

[@Emymagdalena]

Good use of a very simple and concise timeline 👍

[@PhryneMnesarete]

Every few months I remember the Darnells and what they did at Yale and my entire brain shudders to a screeching halt

[@comradeghostboi7989]

thank you so much for this video what a great resource

[@bananahpolkadot]

Hi!! I love how informative your videos are. Could you make a video on advent? Like what started it, what does it mean, who practices it? I’m a Methodist and observe advent each December but I don’t even know the history behind it.

[@rosierosierosieee8210]

Love your content💖

[@Keimelia]

Great video! I love your channel

[@snailrancher]

One thing though: Thebes was rarely the political capital of Egypt (usually Memphis), and the king normally resided elsewhere, though there are exceptions (early Dyn. 11, Dyn. 17 and 18). During the reigns of the Ramesside kings, for example, the capital was at Memphis and the kings lived at Qantir (in the Delta). Even when Egypt was split politically between Upper and Lower Egypt during Dyn. 21, the High Priest of Amun (who was also the chief general of the military) lived further north at al-Hibah in Middle Egypt, near the border with the north.

[@stevenv6463]

That's really fun and really cleared up why it has the same name as the city in Greece.

[@ebbo9152]

My country's history is truly the greatest, much love to my upper Egyptian brothers.

[@zdzislawbeksinski731]

Yeah, but now is a shitty country

[@ebbo9152]

@@zdzislawbeksinski731 it isn't shitty lol but obviously its not as great as it used to be with all the looting due to several conquests. Why do you think ancient egypt was delicining..it was due to the several invasions that ruined our economy...history repeated itself for modern Egypt. However, Egypt is advancing massively again in terms of architecture and projects...but a good amount of the population is still suffering just like ancient times. Also ancient egypt is so romnaticised that its flaws are usually overlooked, many people don't know about tragedies that wouldn't be accepted in our modern world.

[@zdzislawbeksinski731]

@@ebbo9152 or course, blame your past

[@ibrahimsafwat]

@@zdzislawbeksinski731 just because it’s the past, doesn’t make it any less destructive or criminalizing. This “past” is also the same reason why certain countries in the middle east are obliterated for good due to foreign invasions.

[@iznakhan5868]

Wow

[@krzysztofczarnecki8238]

The Opet festival procession might have inspired the Corpus Christi procession. I have immediately noticed the similarities. Only we now parade the Eucharist in a monstrance around the neighborhood instead of the statue of Amun enclosed in a ceremonial boat. Unless there is inclement weather, then the procession either goes just around the church or around the church interior.

[@phillipbernhardt-house6907]

It's very interesting that you post this today, Dr. Henry, as we celebrate the visit of the imperial party of the Emperor Hadrian to Thebes, and in particular to the Colossoi of Memnon, on this day (and the day before and after!) back in 130 CE, less than a month after the death of Antinous and the founding of Antinoopolis. So: synchronicity! ;) Thanks very much for your excellent work!

[@WorgenGrrl]

Please do Memphis, Egypt next!

[@mehrdadmohajer3847]

Thx.. & Well done 🙏😊🍻

[@bheemabachus5179]

I was really stressed out before watching this video and I gotta say, you could have a serious side-gig doing meditational voice overs etc. I never noticed the fact that your voice is very calm and collected. Lots of KZbinrs, including smart ones, go for entertainment first, so they're very animated. Think VSauce, or maybe TMBH for something closer to your field. Which is great, but I feel like educational content often needs a more soothing presence. Like I feel like you could tell stories about ancient religions over the sounds of a crackling firepit and howling wolves in the distance.

[@js1423]

Keep up the good work!

[@welcometonebalia]

Thank you.

[@andreabarneswoaibeijing4170]

i have been to Karnak!

[@mohamedtolba6333]

I love your videos, and as an Egyptian I really appreciate your approach to our history. Just wanted to correct a small mistake in the translation of the modern name of the city; Luxor. Luxor is in Arabic الأقصر which means the Palaces not the castles. Palace in Arabic is قصر (Kaser), while Castle in Arabic is قلعة (Kala’a). Thanks

[@destinydimensions]

Remarkable!

[@torbjornlekberg7756]

Really interesting. Do we know why Amun was called the hidden one?

[@mirandak3273]

Great video about Thebes! But it begs the question. How does Amun/Mut/Khonsu relate to Osiris/Isis/Horus? Might as well bring in Ra & Aten to the hoped for video too!

[@mirandak3273]

Also interesting is the shared name of Thebes with the Greek city. But what about the Neolithic site of Carnac in Brittany? Really strange coincidence in names!

[@eaaaaaaaaa4093]

Can you do a video on the Therapeutae?

[@Olivier-Jaquet]

Grear video ! Could you make a video on the Church of John Coltrane ?

[@Skycroft1000]

2:40 an even better example is Istanbul, which (at least in one theory of the name's origins) simply means "the city". Because for a long time Constantinople was, well, _the_ city.

[@mercurydime8152]

Could you PRETTY PLEASE do a short video on the origins of “Amen” at the end of a prayer? Did the word come from an adulteration of the god “Amun”?

[@MarksofDistinction]

Would be great if you used AD and BC there’s no difference in date other than just people trying to get away from the proper calendar.

[@Cor6196]

The Opet Festival is echoed today in the Roman Catholic celebrations that feature the statues of the Virgin Mary or other heavenly protectors being carried through the neighborhood (like on the Feast of St Anthony in Boston’s North End). In Eastern Orthodoxy there’s the Good Friday phenomenon of the Epitaphion - carrying the funeral bier of Jesus Christ through the city or around the perimeter of the church. I imagine that Hindu processions also share a lot of the same features because there would be a universal impulse among iconophile religions to celebrate festivals by carrying an image of the divine being out of its temple and through the streets to spread its holy aura abroad and encourage worship.😊

[@julieyoung3815]

Can you do video on purgatory? Please?

[@mocaxu]

i remember this from The Mummy Returns

[@crypto66]

I named my dog Amun thanks to Assassin's Creed. His original owners named him Zeus, but I don't like the guy so I wanted to change it. Didn't want to "downgrade" his name though, so I figured a pantheon switch instead.

[@SidheKnight]

So appropiate, given that the precursor of the Assassin Order in Origins is called "The Hidden Ones", and Amun is "The Hidden One".

[@nobody8328]

From someone who worked in pet care for 20+ years, thank you! Zeus is way overdone.

[@per-netjereweclectickemeti93]

I love assassin’s creed origins but I play it both for a hobby/fun and as a spiritual experience because I can experience my religion and spiritually in a way that’s not possible anymore in the real world sadly. I even make a pilgrimage save file for the game to help with this

[@per-netjereweclectickemeti93]

And the Theban triad of Amun-Re, Mut, and Khonsu are my main deities/patrons

[@rerun374]

you do a Gospel of Phillip video, and Ill have no choice but to become a patrion patron

[@bradonbyrd8061]

Very cool nice good super

[@DrexelGregory]

I thought Karnak was a Johnny Carson bit

[@13gladius28]

With 40,k - 50,k population they built things that today millions would be unable to duplicate

[@RadAlzyoud]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/eIOonKusp9V3hck Thebes in Greece as well. I was in Greece last month visiting the ancient cites like Delphi, Mycenae, Sparta, Olympia, etc I think the Greeks "copied" a lot of Ancient Egypt more than most people want to admit. You can see that in their older statues etc.

[@meimei51793]

On oahu where i live the main city is honolulu but most people just call it “town” like how the Egyptians just called their main city “the city”

[@behati9108]

Its very fascinating to think bout how the journey of the egyptions gone through from Amun to Allah in the 4000years period. 🤔

[@metallsnubben]

Very strong thumbnail haha

[@larrylouie]

"What's around the bend?" Probably Karnak...

[@samyebeid4534]

I love how it went from being the sacred seat of the god Amun to being called 'No Amun'

[@qboxer]

It is typical for our rulers to be enthroned in sacred rituals. The melding of political and religious power is the norm through out our history.

[@KarlSnarks]

While it has produced beautiful art, architecture and rituals, it's also a shame that those have been used as propaganda for the powerful.

[@qboxer]

@@KarlSnarks thus is the world. They will have to account for their actions.

[@nosibaelbassel5252]

This is make me feel so proud to be a coptic egyptian

[@TheWeslej]

You were bigger than a dot, Andrew. Don't sell yourself short.

[@KarlSnarks]

Hahaha wholesome comment lol.

[@iDragy]

Wait hold up these aren't anubis smoke lineups

[@amankumar-zx1eo]

Nice vedio.but can you talk a bit slow

[@RadAlzyoud]

One Note at kzbin.info/www/bejne/eIOonKusp9V3hck New Yorkers call Manhattan/New York borough, The City. Not New York City(NYC). NYC includes the 5 boroughs.

[@MohamedHassan-kt3cj]

Luxor means the palaces

[@Bramble451]

The difference between "castle" and "palace" isn't always clear. And, in fact, "Luxor" derives ultimately from the Latin word "castrum", which applied to a wide variety of fortified locations, both small and large.

[@ibrahimsafwat]

@@Bramble451 Luxor is the literal English translation of the arabic word “الأقصر" which transliterates as “al uxor”. This plural Arabic word stood for “palaces” due to the sheer amount of palaces and temples (which sometimes are also referred to as palaces in the arabic lexicon) existing within that region.

[@MohamedHassan-kt3cj]

​@@Bramble451 Luxor is a plural term of "Qasr" in Egyptian Arabic which means palace in Arabic

[@zVampiirePlatypus]

There's no evidence that new kingdom Egypt had the technology to build karnak because of the precision required to cut granite like that.

[@vikramssctelugu6148]

surprisingly there is a sun temple in india which is called konark

[@fransvalkenburg1156]

👍👍👍

[@mehrdadmohajer3847]

I'm sure many of you are famillier with the book of Sinuhe ( Pharaon's Doc. ) . What do the Scholars say about its validity!!? If it 's True, did they found his Temple down Stream of Nil?

[@TupacMakaveli1996]

Serious sam

[@noreaction1]

When did Thebes start to be called Luxor?

[@andrewsuryali8540]

He already answered that. After the Arab conquest they named it Al'Uqsur. Then Europeans transliterated that to Luxor.

[@Music-xp5wg]

Luxor is the name of the government, much like stares in the US. Thebes is a city in Luxor.

[@naomilee9866]

You know he had to do it to ‘em 🧍🏻

[@per-netjereweclectickemeti93]

The holy city of my patron pagan god and goddess from the Egyptian polytheistic Neterism faith

[@per-netjereweclectickemeti93]

The holy city of my Netjerist patrons of Amun-Re and Mut

[@TeethToothman]

🫀🦢🫀

[@napolien1310]

Al-qusor in Arabic means palaces not castles.

[@ready1fire1aim1]

Samaritan Chronicle > Book of Joshua (as the True Book of Joshua)

[@melongladiator4256]

Can you make a video for "the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints" or what other people call it "mormons" or "lds"

[@melongladiator4256]

@Revolutionary Utena may i have your source?

[@Fantasygod930]

Throughout history ancient rulers always try to depict themselves as God's but no King literally became a God besides amun or amun-ra and maybe augustine? That one's Up For Debate and maybe the Chinese emperors as well but they pale in comparison to amun and at least one ruler of Egypt try to reduce his power but it didn't work oh well at least a given interesting part of Egyptian history

[@GoodmansGhost]

Ever heard of Julius Caesar?

[@enqrbit]

not first

[@chitwansingh]

First!

[@randallcraft4071]

You say Thebes the way I've always said it and the way its been said in pop culture. Why do some academics say Theee bees

[@deesta357]

Black people are so great

[@giffica]

Eh mid video. Kings and generals did this way better.