Amarna - The Sacred City of Akhetaten

What is Akhetaten / el-Amarna?
Akhetaten (or el-Amarna, as it is called now), is a city that was built by the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten. Akhenaten and his beautiful wife Nefertiti founded a new monotheist religion and they wanted to convert the country somehow, but they realized that the power of Thebes and its priests is very challenging, so they wanted to move the capital to a new city, thus Akhetaten was founded, for the sole purpose of praising the new monotheist god, Aten.

What makes Akhetaten unique is the fact that the spot wasn't occupied before the city was built, and was abandoned right after the city's short life as a capital.

Posters of el-Amarna/Akhetaten.
There are a few posters taken from the actual site of el-Amarna. They are available online if you want to buy one of them. If you click on one of these pictures, you will be taken to a page where you will find the price and the details of each picture, the sizes and prices vary, but basically, the average size is 18 x 24 inches. A good idea if you want to hang them on your wall. Let's take a look:


Books about el-Amarna:
Though el-Amarna city had a very short life, it represents a very important era of ancient Egypt history, many books were completely dedicated just for that city and the innovation it represented both on the spiritual and architectural sides.



Please note that the last book "Amarna Sunset" takes on the ending of el-Amarna period and the restoration of the old Theban way of life. It is still very interesting, though.

Cleopatra V

Berenice III

Cleopatra IV and Cleopatra Selene

Cleopatra III

Cleopatra II

Cleopatra I

Arsinoe III

Ancient Egypt Queens

The Great Harris Papyrus

Setnakhte

From Amenmesses to Queen Twosret

Battle of Kadesh: Ramses II's Military and the Wars of the Hittites.

Relations with the Hittites on Egypt's Syrian frontier were far from friendly during the first part of Ramses' reign. In Seti's time, Egypt had kept her influence on the southern Phoenician coastline ports while the Hittites retained the northern city of Kadesh. In Year 4 of Ramses' reign, however, there was a revolt in the Levant and in the spring of Year 5 (1275 BC) the new king was forced to mobilize his army.
Ramses gathered together one of the greatest forces of Egyptian troops ever seen, 20,000 men basically in four divisions of 5000 each, named respectively after the gods Amun, Re, Ptah and Seth.

Following virtually in Tuthmosis Ill's footsteps of some 200 years earlier, ramses moved up through the Gaza Strip and was few miles from Kadesh in early May. With such a large army, plus all the necessary ancillary elements of baggage trains and camp followers progress was slow and extended over a vast area. Two spies captured and interrogated on the approach to Kadesh indicated that the Hittite army was over 100 miles to the north. ramses therefore moved forward confidently with the first division, Amun, crossed the river Orontes and camped to the west of Kadesh, a city that had created strong defences by diverting water through a canal from the river, making the city virtually an island. ramses' complacency was soon shaken, however, when a forward patrol captured two more spies who

Ramses II

The upper half of a black granite
 seated statue of Ramses II wearing
the Blue or War Crown (khepresh).
 Discovered by Drovetti, it is probably
 the finest existing portrait of  the king.
 Turin Museum.

Ramses II, who acceded to power at the age of 25, can rightly be said to merit his popular title, 'Ramses the Great'. During his long reign of 67 years, everything was done on a grand scale. No other pharaoh constructed so many temples or erected so many colossal statues and obelisks. No other pharaoh sired so many children. Ramses' 'victory' over the Hittites at Kadesh was celebrated in one of the most repeated Egyptian texts ever put on record. By the time he died, aged more than 90, he had set his stamp indelibly on the face of Egypt.

As a young prince, Ramses was imbued with the military tradition established by his grandfather, after whom he was named. From his earliest years all hopes for the new dynasty were pinned on him. At the age of ten he was recognized as 'Eldest King's Son' by title (despite there being no other, his elder brother having died long before), and by his mid-teens he is found associated with Seti as a diminutive figure in the reliefs of the Libyan campaigns at Karnak. Ramses was allowed to participate in Seti's subsequent campaigns against the Hittites in Syria. The young prince rode well in harness alongside his experienced father, learning his trade of statecraft. Ramses is often found referred to in inscriptions, overseeing the cutting of obelisks from the granite quarries at Aswan, involved in Seti's great building projects, and also inaugurating his own (smaller) temple to Osiris at Abydos. Many inscriptions of up-and-coming young men attest to Seti's keen and acute eye in spotting the high flyers, who were to grow up alongside Ramses and serve him well in his turn (although he outlived most of them).

Egyptian Jewellry

Property of Queen Ahhotep.
Found at the tomb of Djer,
 the 3rd Dynasty pharaoh.

Eventhough ancient Egyptians lived some thousands of years ago, their rich still enjoyed relatively a great quality of life that some of our richest people today wouldn't come close to.
One of the manifestations of such luxurious life is jewellry. Ever since the Egyptians settled along the nile valley (maybe earlier, but we have no evidence), they started paying special attention to jewellry specially, and later, precious stones generally.

The beginning of the Egyptian jewellry
When exactly the Egyptian jewellry was first created is totally beyond out knowledge, however the evidence shows that they started way back around the so-called Badarian era. They used leaves and branches of trees to form out different kinds of jewellry and outfits, probably a bit later started developing by using stones and

Medical Profession in Ancient Egypt

Painted wooden stele depicting the statue of
the god Horus, to whom a sick man is bringing
gifts, Third Intermediate Period.
The Museum of Louvre
N. 3657. Paris

In Egypt, as in most early civilizations, men felt secure when they were at peace with the transcendental world and, because religion and magic dominated all aspects of life (as far as Egyptology today understands), both magico-religious and empirico-rational medicine existed side by side.
According to a Christian writer, Alexandrinus Clemens, living in Alexandria in about 200 AD, the priests of early-dynastic Egypt had written the sum total of their knowledge in 42 sacred books kept in the temples and carried in religious processions. Six of these books were concerned totally with medicine and dealt with anatomy, diseases in general, surgery, remedies, diseases of the eye and diseases of women. No example of these books survive nor of the anatomy books said to have been written by Athothis, second Pharaoh of the First Dynasty.
During the Old Kingdom the medical profession became highly organized, with doctors holding a variety of ranks and specialities. The ordinary doctor or Sinw was outranked by the imy-r sinw (overseer of doctors) the wr sinw (chief of doctors), and smsw sinw (eldest of doctors) and the shd sinw (inspector of doctors). Above all these practitioners was the overseer of doctors of Upper and Lower Egypt. There is evidence that a

List of Ancient Pyramids of Egypt - Major Egyptian Pyramids: Pyramids 101: Phase 1

Who was Tutankhamun?

Akhenaten, male or female?

Basins and Pyramids: Pyramids in the Landscape: Pyramids 101: Phase 1