Akhenaten’s city – Akhetaten

When Akhenaten began his reign as Pharaoh of Egypt, his administrative centre and his government were based in the city Memphis is the north of the country - whereas his religious centre was at Thebes in the south. This is how things had been throughout the 18^th Dynasty up until Akhenaten took power.

However, within four years of Akhenaten becoming Pharaoh, he had started work on a virgin city that was to become the centre for both his government and his alternative religion, and it was this dramatic change that gave this famous individual the name of ‘the rebel king’.

Akhenaten’s city was named Akhetaten, which is thought to mean ‘the horizon of the Aten’. It was based on the eastern shore of the Nile virtually equidistant from Memphis and Thebes, in the area called Tel-el-Amarna. Building began at the end of Akhenaten’s fourth year in power, and the proposed boundaries were marked with three commemorative stelae that were clearly inscribed with Akhenaten’s original birth name Amenophis IV. By year 6 the centre of the city was complete, as was the Great Temple of Aten, and it was at this point that Akhenaten officially changed his name in honour of the religion that was to become the principle religion of Egypt – the Aten.

Even though the centre of the city was finished and the royal living quarters were habitable, Akhenaten and his family did not make Akhetaten their official residence until year 8 of the rebel king’s reign.

Akhetaten itself was semicircular, with a length of around 7 miles. It was bounded by the Nile in front and desert cliffs around its sides, which made it an ideal location for a capital city. The centre of the city consisted of the lavish royal residence, the administrative buildings and other official quarters and of course the Great Temple of Aten. There was also a smaller temple for the use of the royal family, and this was connected to the main temple by the ‘house of the King’ – the Pharaoh’s state office.

It is thought that Akhenaten pushed for the building work on his new city to be completed so quickly that a lot of it was substandard and had to be constantly repaired and altered over the next few years. After the central section of Akhetaten was complete, work was started on the houses of the important officials such as the vizier (prime minister) and the army commander.

These houses, like every house in Akhetaten, would have been square in plan and they would have had an average of 40 rooms - including a huge main hall, living quarters, sleeping quarters, bathrooms, a courtyard and extensive gardens. Each house would also have had separate living quarters for the servants and other household help. The main houses would have been incredibly luxurious, with only the best furnishings and linen. Each of these houses was enclosed by a high wall, making them into individual estates; however as the city grew less important, people began to build houses in between the estates so that the plan of the city was ruined.

The rest of Akhetaten gradually spread out from the central section with a mixture of houses, the size of which depended on the wealth of the owner. Akhetaten had very little structure, and looked like the hastily built city that it was. The whole city only took around 8 years to complete, and the standard of building was poor throughout. This did not trouble the Pharaoh however, because (it is thought) he knew his city would be abandoned when his reign came to an end.

Both the north and south ends of the city had a private residential palace with gardens, pools and shrines to the Aten. These abodes were mainly ceremonial, and had the effect of projecting the presence of Akhenaten all around the huge city.

In the east of the city was the workmen’s village that housed the state workers commissioned to build and decorate the Pharaohs tomb. Today there is still a lot of uncertainty about the location of Akhenaten’s burial place; some say it has been found in the Valley of the Kings while others dispute this. It may be that the mystery is never solved with certainty, and so the exact fate of the rebel king may never be known.

His city, however, was quickly abandoned and dismantled in the reign of his son Tutankhamen, and most of the building materials were ironically used to rebuild temples dedicated to the religions he tried so hard to destroy.