Tell El-Amarna

The pharaoh Akhenaten gave the order to build this city in the fifth year of his reign Tell El-Amarna , becoming the capital of Egypt, serving the worship of the God Aten (represented by a solar disk). This ancient city was located between Thebes and Memphis, cities that were of great importance in antiquity.

Tell El-Amarna A city that from its origin was a constant political and religious problem between the followers of Aton and his detractors, who worshipped Amon. This caused that when the pharaoh Akhenaton died, this city was destroyed and all the records of the worship to the God Aton were eliminated. Only 15 years after its construction it had been destroyed and forgotten.

There are many important parts of Tell El-Amarna?

The remains of the city of Akhenaton, built by the pharaoh of the same name and his wife Nefertiti, are located in what is now known as Tell Al Amarna. The city, which stretched 15 kilometers from north to south and boasted beautiful temples and palaces, is today nothing more than a stretch of almost desolate land, wrapped, however, in a halo of romanticism.

It was definitely a period of great intellectual activity, with great innovations and extraordinary freedom, undoubtedly a unique moment in the history of ancient Egypt, this because it is manifested in the various forms of art and the proliferation of small businesses a cosmopolitan, Initially, in addition to the Pharaoh and his wife Nefertiti, the officials of Akhenaten moved, the entire court moved to the new capital and later it was populated by artisans, artists and families, allowing them to arrive and locate their homes wherever they chose and creating a growing economy.

Undoubtedly the archaeological remains have demonstrated the importance of this location and show us a little more about the life, customs and history of the Egyptian civilization. When planning your travels in Egypt it will be worth considering visiting and walking through what was an ancient capital of the Egyptian Empire.

what is the location of Tell El-Amarna?

It is 45 km south of the tombs of Beni Hassan in the city of Menia and there are still the ruins of the ancient capital. The city contains two royal palaces, the South Palace and the North Palace, the temples of Aten.
Although it was destroyed both by order of the following pharaohs and the people themselves who used its remains for the construction of their houses, it was never raised another city on it because what has allowed to collect much information provided about life in the missing city are the piles of garbage from that time, among which feathers and bones of birds, remains of goats and sheep, fish bones, barley seeds, peas, lentils, cucumbers, onions, garlic, pomegranates, grapes, figs, olives, dates, etc. have been discovered. This may have helped to determine that the diet of the “Amarnians” was healthy and balanced.

History of Tell el Amarna

Amenophis IV (Akhenaton) ascended to the throne in 1364 B.C. He knew very soon that the belief in Amun-Ra followed by the priests did not satisfy his deepest convictions.

That is why he changed his name from Amenophis IV to Akhenaten: “He who pleases Aton”, the sun god of Ancient Egypt.

In the year 1359 B.C., dissatisfied with his life in Thebes (the city of Amun-Ra) and in the midst of disagreements with the priests of the city, he made a drastic decision that marked a turning point in the history of the Empire: to move the capital.