Amarna Is Where You Attend a Pharaonic Religious Revolution Dates To 1348 BC! Pharaonic Secrets and Mystries Amid Mountains
Main City Amarna
by isawnyu
Enough using the names of the gods to impose political and administrative corruption. It is time for spreading justice and equality. These phrases were repeated in the king’s Amenhotep IV mind, the king X of the 18th dynasty (1352 – 1336 BC). A Pharaonic religious revolution led by the pharaoh himself. It was against the sorcery of Amun priests that humiliated the people had launched. And it was the first stop to the way of the Amarna Project.
Tombs of Amarna by Kurohito
Designs were set by the pharaoh quickly while the mountains were surrounding him in this isolated area. The religious revolution voices rise amid fears at a very sensitive period in the history of Egypt. While the ancient Egyptian builders were carrying the bricks to establish pharaonic luxury houses and palaces as fast as possible.
Amarna site or as it is called Tell El-Amarna is where you will be amid the events when Amenhotep IV was going far Away from Amun priests for a religious revolution blessed by the pharaonic god Aten. So, what is the exact story of the Amarna project! And what are the events that will surround you there!
Amarna Project was the unique answer to The Pharaoh’s journey in order to create a religious revolution in the history of Egypt!
Amarna Site by Orell Witthuhn
“The hostility of god Amun priests has intensified. I will not be able to control their anger. Where can I escape with my faith and belief?” These phrases dominated the mind of Amenhotep IV.
Amenhotep IV blasphemed the trinity of Thebes and worship of the god Amun, announcing a religious revolution. It came to embody the human rights standards and called for peace and tolerance. Also, it aimed to break the throne of Amun priests in Theba and stop the increase of their influence and authority.
This new religion was based on the unification of all the gods in one god and named it “Aten.” It was one of the old names of the god “Ra,” the lord of the sun disk.
Amenhotep IV, who was nicknamed Akhenaten in the fifth year of his reign, completely rejected the depiction of the god as an animal or a human as it was known in ancient Egypt. A complete revolution was not only related to the practice of religion but to the style of daily life. And also, this era witnessed a great artistic revolution.
From this point, his journey started from Theba
Tell Al-Amarna by Kurohito
He could not find a way to change the worship in Thebe. So, Akhenaten sent his priests, the ancient Egyptian nobles, and soldiers to search for a virgin city that was not inhabited by any creature before, nor there was not a god worshiped in it, an isolated place.
Behind mountain ranges, the king’s men reached a region. The mountains border it on three sides, and the Nile extends on its western side. So, finally, they had found refuge in that city, escaping from the influence of Amun priests. You are now in the heart of the Pharaonic site, Amarna, the center of Aten worshiping.
The events will run towards your eyes, as Twelve flint walls were built to cover the city. On which you can witness remarkable inscriptions recorded the memory of the first visit to this site (in the fourth year of King Akhenaten reign), and its receipt (in the sixth year), and confirmation of the final establishment of this city (in the eighth year).
While the builders, in a hurry, held tablets and stones to mark out the limits of the new Egypt Capital and adobe and white bricks to build the Amarna buildings as fast as possible. They covered the most important buildings with local stone. Then how was Tell El-Amarna, Akitaton, Horizon of Aton, looked like at the end!
How Had Amenhotep IV Designed “Akhenaten” The Horizon of Aton…Wander In the heart of King Akhnaton Era
Among the spacious royal palaces where the king and nobles lived, the pharaonic residences for workers and employees, and the tombs that resemble the tombs of the Valley of the Kings. In addition to the creative arts that were characterized by the lively scenes, especially in the inscriptions of the tombs, and temples walls, which depict the daily life in Tell El-Amarna within the revolution. That will be how your tour in Amarna pharaonic site.
A tour takes you back to 1348 BC, the date of the Tell El-Amarna establishment.
Along the road from north to south, you will go on the royal road. On either side are the royal, religious, and administrative buildings. South of the Royal Road, you will meet the charm of the Akhenaten Royal Palace, seeing where Akhenaten, and his favorite wife, and his partner in the revolution, Nefertiti, lived.
Then the great Temple of Aten, where Amenhotep IV set up his religious revolution. It is The largest in Amarna, which is primarily a series of walled courts leading to the main open-air sanctuary. The design of this temple was in itself creativity and out of traditions. Unlike the rest of the temples of ancient Egypt, the temple of Aten in Tell El-Amarna had a roofless sanctuary, allowing the sun rays to enter powerfully the temple announcing the glory of god Aten. In contrast, the other temples had roofed chambers and sanctuaries.
From these spectacular pharaonic designs, you will find yourself going through the accurate details of Egyptian life within Akhnaton’s reign. Wander amid where the senior officials of Akht Aten, Tell el-Amarna, lived in luxurious pharaonic homes, as well as the homes of engineers and builders and their workshops.
The walls, floors, and rooms ceilings of these houses were decorated in a lively naturalistic style.
Even the nobles’ villas in the Amarna project declare a difference from those in Thebes. Amarna Houses!
The nobles’ houses were not like those that were in Theba, as the villas in Amarna had only one floor, simple houses. The roof of the central living room was higher than the rest of the house to allow clerestory lighting and ventilation. While the workers’ houses had more simple and were arranged in rows.
You are amid designs set up by Akhnaton himself, and it became the residence of the Holy Royal Family and the moral and political center of the new kingdom in Akhnaton’s reign, far away from Amun priests. To find at each large house had a shrine with a stela depicting Akhenaton in the affectionate embrace of his family.
Thanks to the surprisingly intact dwellings of this city, it was possible to draw up a detailed map of the spacious palaces in which the nobles lived, as well as the dwellings of the “cemetery workers” and staff. But we can find that Thutmose house provides us with a famous collection of complete works of art, including charming Portraits of Nefertiti. This led us to the fact that the period of Akhenaten and his revolution created a huge artistic course. Even the decorations of the tombs were sufficient evidence for that.
How tombs announce a new art during the reign of Akhenaten
Amarna by Prof. Mortel
The artist in the tombs was freed from restrictions in depicting some subjects related to the king and his family. As Nefertiti appeared breastfeeding her baby. And other inscriptions show the king kissing his wife. This kind of art had not appeared before, but maybe it was forbidden.
The other decorations depicted the visit of the king and queen to the Aten temple. As well as the view of the king and queen and their daughters worshiping the god Aten inside the temple.
Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and three daughters beneath the Aten
by Prof. Mortel
Actually, the scenes and texts engraved on the walls of the tombs of the king’s entourage in the eastern mountain are a basic source that allows visualizing the Aten faith. Also, they provide many vivid images of temples and palaces and aspects of the religion. They enable you to witness as if you attend all the Burial rites and how the living mourns their dead amid a solemn Pharaonic ceremony. These inscriptions also uncover worldly activity in the period when the “Horizon of god Aten” was a wonderful seat of the pharaoh.
These tombs took the same design as the Valley of the Kings. They are consisting of a ramp with three corridors branching from it.
That was how Akhnaton’s revolution was even in the artists and architecture but was this revolution successful?
Success or Failure of the Akhenaten Revolution!
Along the reign of Amenhotep IV, Akhitaton was the center of the power. It was the stick that deters the oppression and tyranny of the priests of Amun. But the age of the city did not last more than seventeen years. As the time of King Akhnaton’s death had come.
After the king’s death and in the reign of Tutankhamun, the king abandoned the city. The priests took advantage of his young age. So, under pressure from these priests, Tutankhaten left Akhitaton. They restored the center of power again to Theba, where the god Amun was worshiped. Then the king was called Tutankhamun instead of Tutankhaten.
Later in all the historical eras that followed because of the city’s association with the god Aten, the priests of Amun erased any title associated with that god. And even considered the city cursed. It completely left, and no one lived there.
Until the Amarna tribe came. So, Akhitaton takes the name of Amarna, attributing it to this tribe. While Tell means hill, as this area is surrounded by mountains and hills. A woman of these peasants met a historical treasure in Tell El Amarna land that shines to tell about foreign relations in that period. What is this treasure, then!
What had the land of the Amarna project embraced?
A local woman was digging to suddenly find a cache of over 300 cuneiform tablets. These tablets are archaeological treasures. They revealed to us the diplomatic correspondence of the pharaoh in the kingdoms of Canaan and Amuro or the leaders of the neighboring kingdoms.
The used language in these tables is mostly the Akkadian cuneiform, a writing style that was common in ancient Mesopotamia. Sometimes this language called a mixed language of Canaanite and Akkadian.
This ancient city that is located on the eastern bank of the Nile in the Minya Governorate in Upper Egypt is considered a symbol of “revolutionary beliefs” and “imaginary hymns.”
