Quelle était la période où Thèbes était plus importante que l'Égypte du Nord en termes de richesse politique et religieuse ?
History

Luxor was the ancient city of Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt during the New Kingdom, and the city of Amun, later to become the god Amun-Ra. The city was regarded in the ancient Egyptian texts as wAs.t (approximate pronunciation: "Waset"), which meant "city of the sceptre", and later in Demotic Egyptian as ta jpt (conventionally pronounced as "tA ipt" and meaning "the shrine/temple", referring to the jpt-swt, the temple now known by its Arabic name Karnak, meaning "fortified village"), which the ancient Greeks adapted as Thebai and the Romans after them as Thebae. Thebes was also known as "the city of the 100 gates", sometimes being called "southern Heliopolis" ('Iunu-shemaa' in Ancient Egyptian), to distinguish it from the city of Iunu or Heliopolis, the main place of worship for the god Ra in the north. It was also often referred to as niw.t, which simply means "city", and was one of only three cities in Egypt for which this noun was used (the other two were Memphis and Heliopolis); it was also called niw.t rst, "southern city", as the southernmost of them.

The importance of the city started as early as the 11th Dynasty, when the town grew into a thriving city. Montuhotep II, who united Egypt after the troubles of the First Intermediate Period, brought stability to the lands as the city grew in stature. The Pharaohs of the New Kingdom in their expeditions to Kush, in today's northern Sudan, and to the lands of Canaan, Phoenicia and Syria saw the city accumulate great wealth and rose to prominence, even on a world scale. Thebes played a major role in expelling the invading forces of the Hyksos from Upper Egypt, and from the time of the 18th Dynasty to the 20th Dynasty, the city had risen as the political, religious and military capital of Ancient Egypt.

The city attracted peoples such as the Babylonians, the Mitanni, the Hittites of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), the Canaanites of Ugarit, the Phoenicians of Byblos and Tyre, and the Minoans from the island of Crete. A Hittite prince from Anatolia even came to marry with the widow of Tutankhamun, Ankhesenamun. The political and military importance of the city, however, faded during the Late Period, with Thebes being replaced as political capital by several cities in Northern Egypt, such as Bubastis, Sais and finally Alexandria.

However, as the city of the god Amun-Ra, Thebes remained the religious capital of Egypt until the Greek period. The main god of the city was Amun, who was worshipped together with his wife, the Goddess Mut, and their son Khonsu, the God of the moon. With the rise of Thebes as the foremost city of Egypt, the local god Amun rose in importance as well and became linked to the sun god Ra, thus creating the new 'king of gods' Amun-Ra. His great temple at Karnak, just north of Thebes, was the most important temple of Egypt right until the end of antiquity.

Later, the city was attacked by Assyrian emperor Ashurbanipal who installed a new prince on the throne, Psamtik I. The city of Thebes was in ruins and fell in significance. However, Alexander the Great did arrive at the temple of Amun, where the statue of the god was transferred from Karnak during the Opet Festival, the great religious feast. Thebes remained a site of spirituality up to the Christian era, and attracted numerous Christian monks of the Roman Empire who established monasteries amidst several ancient monuments including the temple of Hatshepsut, now called Deir el-Bahri ("the northern monastery").

Following the Muslim conquest of Egypt, part of the Luxor Temple was converted from a church to a mosque. This mosque is currently known as the Abu Haggag Mosque today.

The 18th century saw an increase of Europeans visiting Luxor, with some publishing their travels and documenting its surroundings, such as Claude Sicard, Granger, Frederick Louis Norden, Richard Pococke, Vivant Denon and others. By the 20th century, Luxor had become a major tourist destination.
Thèbes (arabe : طيبة, grec ancien : Θῆβαι, Thēbai), connue des anciens Égyptiens sous le nom de Waset (arabe : وسط), était une ville égyptienne antique située le long du Nil, à environ 800 kilomètres (500 miles) au sud de la Méditerranée. Ses ruines se trouvent dans la ville égyptienne moderne de Louxor. Thèbes était la principale ville de la quatrième province (nome) de Haute-Égypte (nome du Fouet) et fut la capitale de l'Égypte pendant de longues périodes sous les règnes du Moyen et du Nouvel Empire. Elle était proche de la Nubie et du désert oriental, avec ses précieuses ressources minérales et ses routes commerciales. C'était un centre religieux et la ville la plus vénérée à de nombreuses périodes de l'histoire de l'Égypte antique. Le site de Thèbes comprend des zones des deux côtés de la rive est du Nil, où se dressent les temples de Karnak et de Louxor et où la ville était située ; et la rive ouest, où l'on trouve une nécropole de vastes cimetières privés et royaux ainsi que des complexes funéraires. En 1979, les ruines de l'ancienne Thèbes ont été classées par l'UNESCO comme site du patrimoine mondial.
### Query ###
Quelle était la période où Thèbes était plus importante que l'Égypte du Nord en termes de richesse politique et religieuse ?

### Main Text ###
History

Luxor was the ancient city of Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt during the New Kingdom, and the city of Amun, later to become the god Amun-Ra. The city was regarded in the ancient Egyptian texts as wAs.t (approximate pronunciation: "Waset"), which meant "city of the sceptre", and later in Demotic Egyptian as ta jpt (conventionally pronounced as "tA ipt" and meaning "the shrine/temple", referring to the jpt-swt, the temple now known by its Arabic name Karnak, meaning "fortified village"), which the ancient Greeks adapted as Thebai and the Romans after them as Thebae. Thebes was also known as "the city of the 100 gates", sometimes being called "southern Heliopolis" ('Iunu-shemaa' in Ancient Egyptian), to distinguish it from the city of Iunu or Heliopolis, the main place of worship for the god Ra in the north. It was also often referred to as niw.t, which simply means "city", and was one of only three cities in Egypt for which this noun was used (the other two were Memphis and Heliopolis); it was also called niw.t rst, "southern city", as the southernmost of them.

The importance of the city started as early as the 11th Dynasty, when the town grew into a thriving city. Montuhotep II, who united Egypt after the troubles of the First Intermediate Period, brought stability to the lands as the city grew in stature. The Pharaohs of the New Kingdom in their expeditions to Kush, in today's northern Sudan, and to the lands of Canaan, Phoenicia and Syria saw the city accumulate great wealth and rose to prominence, even on a world scale. Thebes played a major role in expelling the invading forces of the Hyksos from Upper Egypt, and from the time of the 18th Dynasty to the 20th Dynasty, the city had risen as the political, religious and military capital of Ancient Egypt.

The city attracted peoples such as the Babylonians, the Mitanni, the Hittites of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), the Canaanites of Ugarit, the Phoenicians of Byblos and Tyre, and the Minoans from the island of Crete. A Hittite prince from Anatolia even came to marry with the widow of Tutankhamun, Ankhesenamun. The political and military importance of the city, however, faded during the Late Period, with Thebes being replaced as political capital by several cities in Northern Egypt, such as Bubastis, Sais and finally Alexandria.

However, as the city of the god Amun-Ra, Thebes remained the religious capital of Egypt until the Greek period. The main god of the city was Amun, who was worshipped together with his wife, the Goddess Mut, and their son Khonsu, the God of the moon. With the rise of Thebes as the foremost city of Egypt, the local god Amun rose in importance as well and became linked to the sun god Ra, thus creating the new 'king of gods' Amun-Ra. His great temple at Karnak, just north of Thebes, was the most important temple of Egypt right until the end of antiquity.

Later, the city was attacked by Assyrian emperor Ashurbanipal who installed a new prince on the throne, Psamtik I. The city of Thebes was in ruins and fell in significance. However, Alexander the Great did arrive at the temple of Amun, where the statue of the god was transferred from Karnak during the Opet Festival, the great religious feast. Thebes remained a site of spirituality up to the Christian era, and attracted numerous Christian monks of the Roman Empire who established monasteries amidst several ancient monuments including the temple of Hatshepsut, now called Deir el-Bahri ("the northern monastery").

Following the Muslim conquest of Egypt, part of the Luxor Temple was converted from a church to a mosque. This mosque is currently known as the Abu Haggag Mosque today.

The 18th century saw an increase of Europeans visiting Luxor, with some publishing their travels and documenting its surroundings, such as Claude Sicard, Granger, Frederick Louis Norden, Richard Pococke, Vivant Denon and others. By the 20th century, Luxor had become a major tourist destination.

### Supplementary Text ###
Thèbes (arabe : طيبة, grec ancien : Θῆβαι, Thēbai), connue des anciens Égyptiens sous le nom de Waset (arabe : وسط), était une ville égyptienne antique située le long du Nil, à environ 800 kilomètres (500 miles) au sud de la Méditerranée. Ses ruines se trouvent dans la ville égyptienne moderne de Louxor. Thèbes était la principale ville de la quatrième province (nome) de Haute-Égypte (nome du Fouet) et fut la capitale de l'Égypte pendant de longues périodes sous les règnes du Moyen et du Nouvel Empire. Elle était proche de la Nubie et du désert oriental, avec ses précieuses ressources minérales et ses routes commerciales. C'était un centre religieux et la ville la plus vénérée à de nombreuses périodes de l'histoire de l'Égypte antique. Le site de Thèbes comprend des zones des deux côtés de la rive est du Nil, où se dressent les temples de Karnak et de Louxor et où la ville était située ; et la rive ouest, où l'on trouve une nécropole de vastes cimetières privés et royaux ainsi que des complexes funéraires. En 1979, les ruines de l'ancienne Thèbes ont été classées par l'UNESCO comme site du patrimoine mondial.

### Draft ###

### 1. Query Parsing

"Quelle était la période où Thèbes était plus importante que l'Égypte du Nord" 

→ Comparative primacy question. Not absolute importance.
→ "plus importante" = political + religious dominance
→ Temporal specification critical.

Translation issues: "richesse" = wealth/prosperity/influence? Context suggests political/religious power.

### 2. Domain Contextualization 

Ancient Egyptian political geography:
- Lower Egypt = North (Mediterranean coast, Nile Delta)
- Upper Egypt = South (Theban region, Aswan)
- Capital typically alternates between north/south

Historical periods relevant:
- Archaic/Early Dynastic (c.3150-2686 BCE)
- Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BCE) 
- First Intermediate Period (2181-2055 BCE)
- Middle Kingdom (2055-1650 BCE)
- Second Intermediate Period (1650-1550 BCE)
- New Kingdom (1550-1069 BCE)
- Late Period (1069-332 BCE)

### 3. Information Triangulation

⟨H≈0.3⟩ Thebes: religious center from earliest times. Amun-Ra cult. Karnak temple complex. But political control? Memphis dominates early periods. Thebes rises... when?

● High confidence: New Kingdom peak (1550-1069 BCE)
- Thebes = political capital
- Valley of Kings necropolis
- International diplomacy (Mitanni, Hittites, Babylon)

◐ Partial data: Middle Kingdom resurgence?
- Mentuhotep II reunification narrative
- 11th Dynasty Theban rule

○ Low confidence: Earlier periods
- Archaic Therapeutean nome influence?
- 6th Dynasty regional power?

### 4. Verification Process

Physical constraints help:
- Geographic position: Thebes controls Upper Egypt, Nile trade routes
- Resource access: Gold from Nubia, precious stones, agricultural surplus
- Strategic depth: Further from foreign invasion threats

Logical elimination:
☐ Early Dynastic → Memphis/Heracleopolis primacy
☑ Middle Kingdom → Possible but incomplete evidence  
☑ New Kingdom → Definitive political + religious dominance
☐ Late Period → Northern capitals (Sais, Saqqara) regain prominence

### 5. Synthesis

∴ New Kingdom period (1550-1069 BCE) = peak of Theban primacy

Evidence convergence:
- Political: Capital of unified Egypt
- Religious: Supreme deity (Amun-Ra) + pilgrimage center  
- Economic: Wealth from international trade/tributes
- Military: Campaigns to Kush, Levant
- Diplomatic: Foreign marriages, treaties

NB: "Plus importante" = comparative, not absolute. Northern Egypt retained economic/demographic weight, but Thebes dominated political/religious spheres during this period.

⚠ Potential bias: New Kingdom narratives well-documented vs. earlier regional powers underrepresented in sources.

Final answer: New Kingdom (1550-1069 BCE) ●

### Answer###
Thèbes a été plus importante que l'Égypte du Nord en termes de richesse politique et religieuse principalement pendant la période du Nouvel Empire égyptien, particulièrement à partir de la 18e dynastie jusqu'à la 20e dynastie.

Cette période coïncide avec l'apogée de l'Égypte comme puissance mondiale, lorsque les pharaons du Nouvel Empire, à travers leurs expéditions militaires et commerciales vers la Kush (nord de la Soudan actuel) et les territoires de Canaan, Phénicie et Syrie, ont accumulé une richesse considérable. Thèbes, en tant que capitale religieuse et militaire du royaume, a alors atteint une importance exceptionnelle à l'échelle mondiale.

Durant cette période, Thèbes était la capitale politique du Haut-Égypte et abritait le temple majeur d'Amon-Rê, Karnak, qui était le temple le plus important d'Égypte jusqu'à la fin de l'Antiquité. La ville a servi de centre de pouvoir depuis le 11e dynastie, quand elle est devenue une ville prospère sous Montouhotep II, jusqu'à sa perte d'importance politique durant la Période Basse, lorsque d'autres villes du nord de l'Égypte ont repris le contrôle politique, même si elle a conservé sa prééminence religieuse jusqu'à l'époque gréco-romaine.