Akhetaten

Akhetaten, also known as Tell el-Amarna, was an ancient Egyptian city founded by Pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) during the late 18th Dynasty as the new capital and religious center of his reform movement. Construction began circa 1346 BCE and the city was inhabited for only a few decades before being abandoned near the end of Akhenaten's reign. The name means "Horizon of Aten." The site lies on the east bank of the Nile at Amarna, in present-day Minya Governorate, Egypt.

Urban plan and architecture: The city was laid out on a grid-like plan centered on the royal residence and the sun temple dedicated to Aten. The Great Temple of the Aten, open to the sky, formed the religious core. Residential districts housed officials, artisans and workers. The ruins include palaces, administrative buildings and a necropolis, reflecting a distinctive administrative and ceremonial urban design for its time.

Religion and art: Akhenaten's cult of Aten elevated the sun disk above other deities, and art from the Amarna period often shows the pharaoh and his family in informal, intimate scenes and with stylized, elongated features. The city bears inscriptions and reliefs illustrating Aten worship and royal propaganda.

Archaeology: Tell el-Amarna was rediscovered in the 19th century and explored by German missions led by Ludwig Borchardt in the early 1900s. In 1912, Borchardt's team recovered the workshop where the famous bust of Nefertiti was sculpted. After Akhenaten's death the city declined and many monuments were removed or repurposed.

Today: Tell el-Amarna remains a major archaeological site for understanding the Amarna Period, its urban planning, religious reforms and artistic innovations, and its brief but influential role in Egyptian history.