Ancient Thebes (Uaset) - the former capital of the once mighty Egypt - stretched widely along the eastern bank of the Nile. But for thousands of years of its existence, the city of the living never made an attempt to cross the river and occupy the western bank. For the ancient Egyptians, on the other side of the Nile lay the protected City of the Dead, and today the remains of the majestic funeral temples and numerous tombs are protected by law as a valuable historical and cultural heritage.
The City of the Dead includes a coastal strip with memorial temples, the famous Valley of the Kings and Queens, and the tombs of the nobility at the edge of the desert. Unfortunately, I managed to get to know more or less in detail except perhaps with the temple of Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahri and some burials in the Valley of the Kings. Here I will show what little I was able to see mainly from the bus window on the way to the two named objects.
Thebes is the city of the Living and the city of the Dead, united in a metaphysical unity. Thebes is the temple of the living on the eastern bank of the Nile, the River of Visible Life, and the city of those living in the other world - on the west. The two parts of Thebes are like a bridge between two banks, between two lives, connected by the earthly Nile - the image and reflection of the heavenly Nile. Thebes is a mirror of heaven on earth. Thebes is a place where a person lives in harmony with the entire Universe and prepares for life in another world. And it is this experience gained by the ancient Egyptians that invites us to re-realize Professor Jorge Angel Livraga.
The first inhabitants of Thebes
The first inhabitants of the vicinity of Thebes known to science were groups of nomadic hunters and gatherers, who, no later than a hundred thousand years ago, inhabited the highlands, beyond which the desert stretched. In the Paleolithic era, the climate in the desert was much more favorable than today, on the site of the sands there were savannas, abundant in flora and fauna, and dry valleys (wadis) on both banks of the Nile still served as channels of drying up rivers, from time to time filled with floods, which cleared the channels themselves from the litter, created fertile oases and brought to the banks the flints necessary for the manufacture of tools.
In the Neolithic era, starting at the turn of the fifth millennium BC. e. Climate change caused by the retreat of glaciers at the end of the last ice age has led to higher temperatures and lower humidity in the desert. Despite the proximity of the great river, the annual floods of which posed a threat to the inhabitants of the Nile Valley (eliminated by the Aswan Dam), the inhabitants of the highlands began to leave their usual places and move to not very convenient, but very fertile lands of the river floodplain. People quickly appreciated the benefits of the Nile's annual floods. This marked the transition mainly to an agricultural economy.
Little is known about the early beliefs of the ancient Egyptians. We can confidently assume that each settlement worshiped its own special deity, often similar to any animal. Over time, these deities became gods and goddesses of the Egyptian pantheon: the cave paintings, which depicted cattle, discovered in the Theban Valley of the Queens (on the left bank of the Nile), belong, possibly, to one of the cults that later entered the cult of Hathor, the cow goddess.
Promotional video:
From about 4000 BC e. in southern Egypt, the deceased were often buried with various objects, which indicates a growing belief in the afterlife. Like the inhabitants of other Egyptian cities, the Thebans set up their cemeteries in the desert to the west of the residential area, so that the souls of the dead could descend into the underworld after the setting sun, hoping to get a fraction of the fact that every morning the sun revived a new life. The sharp difference between the desert and the fertile land of the Nile Valley highlighted the chasm between the world of the living and the world of the dead.
Jorge Angel Livraga Rizzi, Italian by nationality, Ph. D. of the Aztec Academy of Art, Science and Literature, was the founder and president of the International Organization of the New Acropolis, which currently has branches in more than fifty countries. He penned many works in the field of philosophy and cultural history, among which: Lotus, Anchor-student, Letters to Delia and Fernand, etc. All his works have been translated into many languages of the world.
The ancient buildings on the right bank of the Nile are called the City of the Living - its population lived here, and on the left - the City of the Dead, here were the royal residence and a huge necropolis - burial temples and tombs located in the amphitheater of rocks, over which Dehenet rises - the Western Summit (now el -Kurn).
The snake goddess Meretseger, who loves silence, the ruler of this mountain, according to legends, protected not only the royal burials located in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of Queens, but also the tombs of nobles and ordinary townspeople. The giant statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, which are called the Colossi of Memnon, once towered before the giant memorial complex of this ruler, now almost destroyed. There is the famous ancient Egyptian temple of Amon-Ra, the temples of Mut and Khonsu, as well as many monuments of Hellenistic architecture. In the City of the Living, there are world famous Luxor and Karnak temples. The temple complex of Luxor was connected to Karnak by the avenue of the sphinxes.
The Karnak Temple is a more grandiose and complex structure than the Luxor one, comparable only to the pyramids of Giza. This is one of the greatest architectural buildings of the ancient world. The Karnak temple complex includes buildings erected over several centuries by many pharaohs. The most impressive place in the temple is the Column Hall of Pharaoh Seti I - 134 columns 16 m high each, painted top to bottom with colored bas-reliefs.
On the south side, a small sacred lake adjoins the Karnak temple, on the shore of which there is a huge granite scarab beetle, which was considered sacred in Egypt. Every evening in the Karnak temple, like the pyramids of Giza, there is a colorful light and music performance Sound and Light.
In the City of the Dead, the famous Valley of the Kings is located, the burial place of the pharaohs (about 40 tombs in total), it was here that the tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered. Of great interest is the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, which is fundamentally different from other temples of Ancient Egypt.
Luxor is famous as a center of handicraft production, especially souvenirs imitating the "antiquities" of Egypt. 54 km south of Luxor is the well-preserved temple of the god-potter Khnum in Esna, and 53 km south, in Edfu, is the famous sanctuary of the falcon god Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis. the legendary ancestor of all Egyptian pharaohs, one of the best-preserved temples of ancient Egypt.