El-Amarna

One of the stelae that marked the boundary of the city. Copyright: Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

El-Amarna, formerly known as Akhetaten, is a flat piece of land located beside the Nile River Valley. The area is a plain separated from the Nile Valley by a strip of palm trees, stretching 12 kilometers from north to south. The area on which it stretches is mostly outlined with ruins of temples, palaces and houses that stretch the entire distance.

There are more than twenty-five tombs facing the base of the cliff front that is located there. Six tombs are located at the north side near Darb El-Malik, while nineteen of them are located at the south side. These tombs are built to be highly complicated to ensure that they are protected from thieves. Most of them start with an open court that leads to three chambers, within these chambers there are papyrus columns that meet in the rear end which have a statue of the dead looking toward the entrance.

Among these tombs there are famous tombs that have been discovered, the first is Ay's tomb, which is considered to be the finest of the tombs there. This tomb was found by Giovanni Battista Belzoni. While walking through the Nile Valley he found some rocks that were out of place so he poked through them with a stick and found a hole that was deep. He and associates removed the rocks and found a tomb that the Arabs dubbed the Tomb of the Monkey, because of the rows of paintings of apes that were present.

King Ay reigned for only four years between 1339 and 1335 BC and his tomb was only half completed. There are some descriptive scenes of the streets of ancient Akhenaten, a few moments of daily life in the palace of Ay are depicted, for example, a woman of the harem having her hair done. Also in the temple is the most complete version of the Hymn to the Sun decorating the right hand side of the doorway.

Among some of the more notable tombs also located here are, Huya, who was the steward of Queen Tiyi, the queenmother and wife of Amenhotep III; Meri-re II who was the superintendent of the palace of Queen Nefertiti; Meri-re I, a high rank priest of Aton; and Panhesy, the chief servitor of the Aton in Akenhaten. Aton was the god that Akhenaten worshipped and some of these people had shrines to them.

Greg Dawson