Ancient site · Minya
Amarna
Akhenaten's short-lived capital, Akhetaten, on the Nile's east bank in Middle Egypt, where rock-cut tombs and boundary stelae still tell the story of the Amarna Period.
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The story
King Akhenaten of the Eighteenth Dynasty founded this city as his new capital and named it Akhetaten, 'Horizon of the Aten', in honour of the sun-disk god. Building began around the fifth year of his reign and was largely finished within a few years; tens of thousands of people are thought to have lived here. Soon after his death the city was abandoned and its stone buildings were dismantled, so what remains is mostly mud-brick foundations. The city stretches roughly six kilometres between the Nile and the eastern cliffs and was marked out by boundary stelae carved at the king's command. In 1887 hundreds of cuneiform clay tablets, the Amarna Letters, came to light here, preserving diplomatic correspondence between Egypt and its neighbours, and in 1912 the celebrated bust of Nefertiti was found in the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose; it is now in Berlin.
Good to know
- The city's ancient name, Akhetaten, means 'Horizon of the Aten', and it was the centre of Akhenaten's worship of the sun disk.
- Construction began around year five of Akhenaten's reign, and the population is estimated at about 30,000.
- In 1887 hundreds of cuneiform clay tablets, the Amarna Letters, were found here: diplomatic correspondence between Egypt and its neighbours, mostly written in Akkadian.
- The famous bust of Nefertiti was found in the sculptor Thutmose's workshop at Amarna in 1912 and is displayed today in Berlin's Neues Museum.
Visiting tips
According to the Amarna Project, the site is open daily from 8:00 to 16:00, with tickets sold at the office on the North Tombs road and a Visitor Centre in El-Till village. It lies about 60 km from Minya over rough desert ground, so plan a full day with a driver; there are no hotels on site. Please check hours and prices before visiting, as they can change.