NO or No Amon (margin, Nahum 3:8), rather than "populous No." So Jeremiah 46:25, "the multitude," rather "Amon of No." So Ezekiel 30:14-16. Named from Amen, Thebes' chief god (from whence the Greeks call it "the city of Zeus" or "Diospolis".) Appearing in many kings' names, as Amenophis. Connected by some with Ham, Noah's son, or Aman "the nourisher," or Hamon "the sun god," or Amon "the artificer." Septuagint translated "the portion of Amon." Inscriptions call him Amon-re, "Amon the sun." A human figure with ram's head, seated on a chair (See AMEN.) Nahum describes Thebes as "situate among the rivers" (including the canals watering the city) on both sides of the Nile, which no other town of ancient Egypt is. Ezekiel's prophecy that it should be "rent asunder" is fulfilled to the letter, Amen's vast temple lying shattered as if by an earthquake (Ezekiel 30:16).
        Famed in Homer's Iliad (ix. 381) for its "hundred gates," but as no wall appears traceable either the reference is to the propylaea or portals of its numerous temples (Diod. Sicul., but warriors would not march through them), or else the surrounding mountains (100 of them pierced with catacombs and therefore called Beeban el Meluke, "the gates of the kings") which being mutually detached form so many avenues between them into the city. But the general usage of walling towns favors the view that the walls have disappeared. Her "rampart was the sea, and her wall from (or, as Maurer, consisted of) the sea," namely, the Nile (Isaiah 19:5). Homer says it possessed 20,000 war chariots, which Diodorus Siculus confirms by saying there were 100 stables along the river capable of accommodating 200 horses each. Sargon after destroying Samaria attacked Hoshea's ally, So or Sabacho II, and destroyed in part No-Amon or Thebes (Isaiah 20).
        "The monuments represent Sargon warring with Egypt and imposing tribute on the Pharaoh of the time, also Egypt as in that close connection with Ethiopia which Isaiah and Nahum imply" (G. Rawlinson). No is written Ni'a in the Assyrian inscriptions. Asshur-bani-pal twice took Thebes. "No," if Semitic, is related to naah, "abode," "pasture," answering to Thebes' low situation on a plain. The sacred name was Ha-Amen, "the abode of Amen"; the common name was Ap or Ape, "capital." The feminine article prefixed made it Tape, Thape, Coptic Thabu, Greek Thebes. No hieroglyphics are found in it earlier than the sixth dynasty, three centuries later than Menes, a native of This in the Thebaid, the founder of Memphis. Diodorus states the circuit was 140 furlongs. Strabo (xvii. 47) describes the two colossal figures, "each a single stone, the one entire, the upper part of the other from the chair fallen, the result of an earthquake (Ezekiel 30:16). Once a day a noise as of a slight blow issues from that part of the statue which remains still in the seat and on its base": the vocal Memnon.
        The Nile's deposit has accumulated to the depth of seven feet around them. It is two miles broad, four long; the four landmarks being Karnak and Luxor on the right bank, Quurnah and Medinet Haboo on the left. Temples and palaces extended along the left bank for two miles. First the Maneptheion palace or temple of Seti Oimenepthah of the 19th dynasty, a mile from the river. A mile S. is the so named Memnonium of Amenophis III, called Miamun or "Memnon," really the Ramesseium of Rameses the Great, with his statue of a single block of syenite marble, 75 ft. high, 887 tons weight, the king seated on his throne. The vocal Memnon and its fellow are a quarter of a mile further S. Somewhat S. of this is the S. Ramesseium, the magnificent palace temple of Rameses III, one of the ruins of Medinet Haboo. The columns are seven feet diameter at the base and 23 ft. round. Within the second and grand court stood a Christian church afterward. The right bank has the facade of Luxor facing the river.
        The chief entrance looks N. toward Karnak, with which once it was joined by an avenue more than a mile long, of sphinxes with rams' heads and lions' bodies (one is in the British Museum). Colossal statues of Rameses the Great are one on each side of the gateway. In front stood a pair of red granite obelisks, one of which now adorns the Place de la Concorde, Paris. The courts of the Karnak temple occupy 1,800 square feet, and its buildings represent every dynasty from Ptolemy Physcon, 117 B.C., 2000 years backward. It is two miles in circumference. The grand hall has twelve central pillars, 66 ft. high, 12 ft. diameter. On either side are seven rows, each column 42 ft. high, nine feet diameter. There are in all 134 pillars in an area 170 ft. by 329. The outer wall is 40 ft. thick at the base and 100 high. On it is represented Shishak's expedition against Jerusalem and "the land of the king of Judah "under Rehoboam (1 Kings 14:25; 2 Chronicles 12:2-9). It records also Tirhakah the Ethiopian's exploits. In the 12th and 13th dynasties of Manetho, first, Theban kings appear.
        When the nomads from the N.E., the Hyksos or shepherd kings, invaded Egypt and fixed their capital at Memphis, a native dynasty was maintained in Thebes. Ultimately, the Hyksos were expelled and Thebes became the capital of all Egypt under the 18th dynasty, the city's golden era. Thebes then swayed Libya and Ethiopia, and carried its victorious arms into Syria, Media, and Persia. It retained its supremacy for 500 years, to the close of the 19th dynasty, then under the 20th dynasty it began to decline. Sargon's blow upon Thebes was inflicted early in Hezekiah's reign. Nahum (Nahum 3:8; Nahum 3:10) in the latter part of that reign speaks of her being already "carried away into captivity, her young children dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets, lots cast for her honourable men, and all her great men bound in chains," notwithstanding her having Ethiopia, Egypt, Put, and Lubim as "her strength and it was infinite," and makes her a warning to Nineveh.
        A still heavier blow was dealt by Nebuchadnezzar, as Jeremiah (Jeremiah 46:25-26) foretells: "Behold I will punish Anjou No and Pharaoh and Egypt, with their gods and their kings. Afterward it shall be inhabited." This last prophecy was fulfilled 40 years after Nebuchadnezzar's conquest of Egypt, when under Cyrus it threw off the Babylonian yoke. So Ezekiel 29:10-15, "I will make ... Egypt ... waste ... from the tower of Syene (N.) even unto Ethiopia (the extreme S.) ... Yet at the end of 40 (the number expressing affliction and judgment, so the 40 days of the flood rains) years will I ... bring again the captivity of Egypt." The Persian Cambyses gave the finishing blow to No-Amon's greatness, leveling Rameses' statue and setting fire to the temples and palaces. In vain the Ptolemies tried subsequently to restore its greatness. It now consists of Arab huts amidst stately ruins and drifting sands.