In ancient Egyptian texts the city is called “the City of Amon.” This is because it became the principal center of the worship of the god Amon, who rose from being a minor deity to the position of chief god of the nation, equated by the Greeks with Zeus (Jupiter). (See AMON No. 4.) Here the pharaohs built enormous monuments and temples, covering an extensive area on the E bank of the Nile (at Karnak and Luxor), with other magnificent temples and a huge burial ground on the W bank. The temple of Amon at Karnak is considered the largest columnar structure ever built, some of its massive columns measuring some 3.5 m (12 ft) in diameter.

Center of priesthood. Even when administrative control shifted to other sites, No-amon (Thebes) continued to be a wealthy and prominent city, the center of the powerful priesthood of Amon, whose chief priest ranked next to Pharaoh himself in power and wealth. But in the seventh century B.C.E., Assyrian aggression spread into Egypt during the rule of Assyrian King Esar-haddon. His son and successor Ashurbanipal renewed the conquest, reaching Thebes and thoroughly sacking the city. It is evidently to this devastation that the prophet Nahum referred when warning Nineveh, Assyria’s capital, about a destruction of similar magnitude. (Na 3:7-10) No-amon’s defenses, stretching across the road from Palestine and on up the Nile, failed, and the riches from her commercial traffic and religious temples became the prize of the ransacking Assyrians.

Brought to Ruin. Yet, by the close of the seventh century or the early part of the sixth century, No-amon had regained a position of some prominence. Jeremiah and Ezekiel foretold a judgment by Jehovah God upon Egypt’s chief god, Amon of No, and upon Pharaoh and all the Egyptian gods, which judgment would come by the hand of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. (Jer 46:25, 26; Eze 30:10, 14, 15)