This informed and richly illustrated guidebook brings the ancient city of Akhetaten alive with a keen archaeological eye, drawing on ongoing archaeological research and the knowledge and insight of Amarna's modern-day communities and caretakers to explain key monuments and events, while offering invaluable practical advice for visiting the site. With over 140 illustrations, maps, and plans, Amarna is both an ideal introduction for visitors to Amarna and a window onto the extraordinary reign of Akhenaten. Huge open-air temples served the cult of Aten, while palaces were decorated with painted pavements and inlaid wall reliefs. Akhenaten created a new royal burial ground deep in a desert valley, and his officials built elaborate tombs decorated with scenes of the king and his city. As thousands of people moved to Akhetaten, it became the most important city in Egypt. But it was not to last. Akhenaten's death brought the abandonment of his city and an end to one of the most startling episodes in Egyptian history. Today, Akhetaten is known as Amarna, a sprawling archaeological site in the province of Minya, halfway between Cairo and Luxor. With its beautifully decorated tombs and vast mud-brick ruins, it is the best-preserved pharaonic city in Egypt.

An illustrated cultural guide to the archaeological site of Amarna containing over 140 illustrations, maps, and plans.

About the Author
Anna Stevens is a research archaeologist specializing in Egyptology, and Assistant Director of the Amarna Project. She is affiliated with Monash University, Australia and the University of Cambridge, UK.

Reviews

"Providing a handy reference guide to the chronology, geography and main players in the story, this book will allow visitors to bring with them the definitive guide to the site. At once scholarly and also entirely accessible, it will instantly become indispensable for enthusiasts, students and scholars of the period and the place. I look forward to my copy becoming increasingly dog-eared with each visit I make to the site in future."-Chris Naunton, author of Egyptologists' Notebooks

"Part academic-reference, part field-guide, this book presents a dramatic and exciting story. . . Armana provides tremendous insight for Egyptologists and scholars into daily life in Egypt 3,000 years ago."-AramcoWorld

Book Information
ISBN 9789774169823
Author Anna Stevens
Format Hardback
Page Count 256
Imprint The American University in Cairo Press
Publisher The American University in Cairo Press