AMARNA/AKHETATEN

ruins at Amarna (Akhetaten), courtesy, EgyptSites.wordpress.com

Amarna is located on the eastern bank of the Nile in the modern-day province of Minya in central Egypt, some 194 miles south of Cairo, and 36 miles south of the provincial capital city of al-Minya. It is an extensive Egyptian archaeological site dating back to the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. Today, several, largely indigenous Coptic villages are located adjacent to, or around, the site: Deir Mawas, el-Tell, el-Hagg Qandil, Deir el-Bersha, Mallawi.

“Amarna” is actually Arabic, named after the Arab tribe that invaded and occupied the place. It was originally called “Akhetaten” by the ancient Egyptians meaning “horizon of the Aten” because it was built as the new capital city of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, dedicated to his new religion of worship to the Aten. Construction of Akhetaten started in or around Year 5 of his reign (1346 BC) and was probably completed five years later, during which time, it officially became the capital city. Most of the buildings were constructed out of mud-brick, and white washed. The most important buildings were faced with local stone.

It was laid out roughly north to south along a "Royal Road" – the further from the Road, the poorer the neighborhoods. The Royal residences were generally to the north, in what is known as the North City, with a central administration and religious area. The South City was made up of residential suburbs containing the estates of many of the city's powerful nobles, including Nakhtpaaten (Chief Minister), Ranefer, Panehesy (High Priest of the Aten) and Ramose (Master of Horses). This area also held the studio of the sculptor Thutmose, where the famous bust of Nefertiti, chief wife of Akhenaten, was found in 1912.

South of this area was Kom el-Nana, an enclosure, usually referred to as a sun-shade, and was probably built as a sun-temple. It was Akhenaten’s wish to have several temples of the Aten to be erected here, as well as for the royal tombs to be created in the area’s eastern hills for himself, Nefertiti and his eldest daughter Meritaten. The Maru-Aten, which was a palace or sun-temple was originally thought to have been constructed for one of Akhenaten's wives Kiya, but on her death her name and images were altered to those of Meritaten.

The city greatly declined during the reign of his son Tutankhamun, who began to reign two years after his father’s death. He decided to leave the city and return to his birthplace in Thebes, but Akhetaten seems to have remained active and a shrine to Horemheb indicates that it was at least partially occupied at the beginning of the reign of that Pharaoh, if only as a source for building material elsewhere.

After the death of Horemheb, the city was finally abandoned and remained so until Egypt came under Roman rule. Akhetaten revived and new settlements were established nearby along the edge of the Nile, namely, the villages of Deir el Bersha and Mallawi, both established directly across the river. When Christianity was introduced to Egypt, the local inhabitants adopted the new religion and their descendants have remained on that same spot since then.

During the early period of Christianity, several local churches and monasteries were established. In the 4^th century, Saint Pishoy established his monastery, eventually named after him, in Deir is Bersha. This was part of a chain of monasteries he established throughout Egypt but when he died in 417, he was buried at the monastery in Bersha alongside his friend and fellow “desert father” Saint Paul of Tammah who died 2 years previously. However, some say it was his wish to be buried at one of the other monasteries he founded, specifically one located at Wadi el Natrun, in the north near the Nile Delta. In 841, his wish was carried out by Pope Joseph I who transferred his remains accordingly. Other churches that were prominent in Bersha include the Deir Abu Fam Tombs Coptic Orthodox Church, the Church in the Tomb of Urarna, and the Virgin Mary and Anba Abraam Coptic Orthodox Church (destroyed by Arabs in 2013).

For centuries thereafter, European explorers and archaeologists have occasionally covered the area but in 1887, a local woman digging for sebakh, decomposed mud brick, uncovered a cache of over 300 cuneiform tablets (now commonly known as the Amarna Letters). These tablets recorded select diplomatic correspondence of the Pharaoh and were predominantly written in Akkadian, the lingua franca commonly used during the Late Bronze Age of the Ancient Near East for such communication. This discovery led to the recognition of the importance of the site, and lead to a further increase in exploration. In 1891, a “dig house” was built by German archaeologist Ludwig Burchhardt as a storage base for artefacts recently discovered.

Since then, archaeologists have been making remarkable finds. They include: stelae dedicated to Isis and Shed, a cemetery of private individuals, the Royal Wadi, the North Riverside Palace, the Great Temple of the Aten, the Small Aten Temple, the ceremonial residence of the King and Royal Family, the Bureau of Correspondence of Pharaoh, the Boundary Stelae (each a rectangle of carved rock on the cliffs on both sides of the Nile) describing the founding of the city, the Royal necropolis, Workmen's village, Tomb of Akhenaten, Northern tombs, Southern tombs, Stelae U, Desert altars, Northern Palace, and Stelae H.