What Happened to Them?

NOPH and No are Biblical names for Egypt’s once famous capitals of Memphis and Thebes. Noph (Memphis) was some 14 miles [23 km] south of Cairo, on the west side of the Nile River. In time, however, Memphis lost its status as Egypt’s capital. By the turn of the 15th century B.C.E., Egypt had a new capital, No (Thebes), located about 300 miles [500 km] south of Memphis. Among the many temple ruins of Thebes is that of Karnak, considered to be the largest structure ever built with columns. Thebes and its Karnak temple were dedicated to the worship of Amon, the chief god of the Egyptians.

What did Bible prophecy foretell regarding Memphis and Thebes? Judgment was pronounced against Egypt’s Pharaoh and its gods, especially the chief god, “Amon from No.” (Jeremiah 46:25, 26) The crowd of worshipers who flocked there would be “cut off.” (Ezekiel 30:14, 15) And so it turned out. All that is left of Amon’s worship are temple ruins. The modern town of Luxor is situated on part of the site of ancient Thebes, and other small villages exist among its ruins.

As for Memphis, little remains except for its cemeteries. Bible scholar Louis Golding says: “For century upon century the Arab conquerors of Egypt used the titanic ruins of Memphis as a quarry for the building of their capital [Cairo] on the opposite side of the river. So well have the Nile and the Arab builders between them done their work that for miles upon miles within the circuit of the ancient city not a stone protrudes above the black soil.” Truly, as foretold in the Bible, Memphis became “a mere object of astonishment . . . without an inhabitant.”​—Jeremiah 46:19.

These are just two of many examples demonstrating the accuracy of Bible prophecies. The devastation of Thebes and Memphis gives us solid reason to have confidence in Bible prophecies as yet unfulfilled.​—Psalm 37:10, 11, 29; Luke 23:43; Revelation 21:3-5.

[Picture Credit Line on page 32]

Photograph taken by courtesy of the British Museum