We are now within the sacred territory of Akhenaten's holy city,
Akhetaten, better known to most people as El-Amarna . The present appearance of
this once great and famous city is not imposing . The area is located on the
east bank of the Nile River in the modern Egyptian province of Minya, some 58
km ( 36 miles ) south of the city of al-Minya .
It originally extended along
the east bank of the Nile for about five miles ; but its maximum breadth was
only about 1100 yards, and it must have appeared as a long, straggling town
situated between the fertile land by the river-bank and the barren desert
behind, which extends to the base of the hills, in which were the rock-tombs of
its great men . At present it is represented by Beni Imran, El-Hagg Qandil,
El-Amarna, and El-Hawata, and by the scanty ruins which lie along the line of
the ancient city and the tombs behind . It is, nevertheless, one of the most
interesting spots in Egypt ; the scene of the great adventure in which a
Pharaoh ( Amenhotep IV ), the son of the most magnificent monarch of the 18th
Dynasty, pitted his will against the religious inertia of the whole nation and
the fanaticism and jealousy of its priests in an effort to accomplish what he
deemed to be a reformation in religious belief ; and perished in the prime of
his days amid the ruin of his plans .
This is not the place for a discussion of the significance of Atenism,
the new religion which Akhenaten strove to introduce in place of Amunism and
the other faiths of Egypt, nor the question of whether it was or was not a
spiritual monotheism and an advance upon previous Egyptian beliefs . It is
sufficient for our purpose to say that when once Amenhotep IV ( Akhenaten ) had
broken with Amunism he found it necessary to abandon the ancient capital
Thebes, the stronghold of Amunism, and to build for himself a new and holy city
in which his new faith might strike root, unhindered and undefiled by any taint
of ancient superstitions . Choosing this area immediately south of Gebel
El-Sheikh Said, where the hills recede from the river-bank for some miles, he marked
out the limits of a sacred domain, with a corresponding area on the western
bank, and delimited it by means of fourteen inscriptions chiselled on
rock-steles, binding himself by a solemn oath not to overstep the boundaries of
the domain for ever . The oath is as follows : ҅ My oath of truth, which it is
my desire to pronounce, and of which I will not say " It is false "
eternally for ever : The southern tablet, which is on the eastern mountain of
Akhetaten . It is the tablet of Akhetaten, namely this one by which I have made
halt : I will not pass beyond it southwards, eternally, for ever . Make the
south-west tablet opposite it on the western mountain of Akhetaten exactly ҆ -
and so on for each eastern tablet, with its counterpart on the west bank .
Whether the oath meant, as some believe that Akhenaten meant to bind
himself to a hermit existence, and never to move beyond the limits of his holy
domain, or whether he meant merely to indicate that the domain was not to be
extended beyond these limits by encroachments on the rights of the magnates of
the vicinity, is another matter which it is perhaps impossible to decide . At
all events, the absolute power of the young Pharaoh ensured for his new city
rapid growth and prosperity for so long as his life or his control of the
resources of his nation lasted . The city of Akhetaten ( The Horizon of Aten )
grew up with more than the rapidity of a mushroom town of the West . It had at
least three palaces, one of which was a summer palace of somewhat fantastic
design, and several temples, of which the great Aten temple was of imposing
size and splendour . The courtiers, whether from genuine conviction or from
mere desire to be in the fashion and to make themselves acceptable to their
monarch, followed his example and built themselves mansions in the new city .
The arts and crafts which ministered to the taste and luxury of the court
speedily established themselves, and Akhetaten became a busy centre of several
industries, especially of the manufacture of coloured glazes and of glass
itself . Art, too, established itself in the city, exhibiting that spirit of freedom
which had been growing for some time in Egypt, and along with it that tendency
to what seems almost caricature, which is the besetting sin of the Amarna Art .
Nevertheless, some of the finer pieces discovered in the ruins of Akhetaten by
German Expedition rank among the very foremost products of the Egyptian school
of sculpture .
All this came to a comparatively sudden end when
Atenism fell from power with the death of the Pharaoh who had maintained it in
being . It had never had any grip on the national mind, and from first to last
had been a purely court religion, dependent for its life upon the championship
of the king . When that was withdrawn by death, and when Akhenaten was
succeeded by two young lads, Smenkhkere and Tutankhamun, the older faith of
Amun, which had possibly been regaining some of its influence even before the
death of the heretic Pharaoh, had no difficulty in re-establishing itself . The
withdrawal of the court sealed the doom of Akhenaten's holy sity, and though
its decay may have been a somewhat longer business than was once supposed, the
whole story of its prosperity and magnificence falls within the limits of a
single generation .
Successive expeditions have done much to reveal the character of this
short-lived capital . Petrie visited it in 1891-1892, and his investigations
disclosed much of the great possibilities of the site . His work did much to
reveal the splendour of the great palace of Akhenaten, and particularly its
treasures of painting and its rich decoration of glazes and gilding . Two fine
painted pavements of stucco were discovered by him and placed under cover and
guard, only to be destroyed in 1912 by the spite of a dismissed guardian . The
portions which were rescued from the wreck may be seen in the Egyptian Museum
at Cairo ( 627, G 28, centre ) . To the east of the palace lay the chamber in
which the records of the Egyptian Foreign Office of Akhenaten's time were
stored ; and here, in 1887, a woman fertilizer-digger found the famous tablets
since so widely known as The Amarna Tablets . Such of them as survived rough
handling and official incredulity are now scattered in the British Museum, the
Berlin Museum, and the Egyptian Museum . It is said that the original
discoverer disposed of her interest in the find for about two shillings . The
tablets of course have proved to be of the utmost value, as giving a first-hand
picture of the views and desires of the various kings of Babylonia, Mitanni,
Hatti, and Assyria, who wrote some of them to the king of Egypt ; while the
tablets written by Egypt's vassal princes and governors in Syria, particularly
those of Ribaddi of Byblos, Abi-Milki of Tyre, and Abdi-khipa of Jerusalem, are
of even greater interest and value, since in them we can trace the process of
the downfall of the Egyptian Empire in Asia .
Akhenaten's great palace and temple lay side by side to the south of the
village of El-Tell . To the north of the village was a second palace, excavated
in 1923-1925 by the Egypt Exploration Society's Expedition . The ruins of the
city itself, though not imposing, are instructive, and enable the lay-out of
Akhetaten to be grasped with more or less clearness . The city was traversed
from north to south by three main streets, which were crossed at right angles
by other streets running east and west . There was no attempt, however, to
secure uniformity in the blocks of houses, which vary considerably in size, and
sometimes even in alinement . Neither, apparently, was there any effort to keep
the residential quarters and the industrial separate . Houses seem to be set
down without any suggestion of an attempt to secure suitable grouping and
consistency in arrangement . High priest rubs shoulders with leather-worker,
and vizier with glass-maker ( see The City of Akhenaten, by Peet and Woolley,
chapter I ) .
The mansions of the grandees were fine spacious
houses, with great reception-halls, tastefully decorated, plenty of bedroom
accommodation, and good provision of lavatories and bathrooms . The average
size of the better type of house is about 65 to 70 feet square . The house of
the Vizier Nakht, which is one of the finest examples of the domestic
architecture of Akhetaten, measures about 95 feet by 85 feet . The workmen's
houses are, on the whole, not disproportionately small, and even the poorest
has the indispensable front hall, a living-room, a bedroom, and perhaps a
kitchen . All the houses, from the mansion of the vizier down to the smallest
workman's cottage, are, of course, built of crude brick, which was covered with
white stucco or whitewash .
Part ( 2 ) .. Coming SoOoOon .....
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