Read Online Atlantis and the Ten Plagues of Egypt: The Secret History Hidden in the Valley of the Kings by Graham Phillips - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Graham Phillips
Tags: Egypt/Ancient Mysteries
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however, original drawings of the stelae still survive in the British Museum.
Erected while the city was being built, the boundary stelae enable us to reconstruct something of the city's brief history andthe thinking behind its creation. Now identified by a different letter, three of them bear a series of initial proclamations that are dated to Year 5, Month 8, Day 13 of Akhenaten's reign, while the others bear proclamations made exactly a year later, and all but three of these bear a postscript of Year 8, Month 5, Day 8. From the assorted inscriptions we learn that eight months into the fifth year of his reign, Akhenaten came to Amarna officially to found the city, set up an altar and establish the city's perimeters, and by the end of his eighth year construction was largely completed.
In the initial proclamations we are told that something terrible had happened which had evidently persuaded Akhenaten to build the city. The king declares that something had been heard which was more evil than what he had heard in the fourth year of his reign, more evil than what he had heard in his first year, and more evil even than what his predecessors Amonhotep III and Tuthmosis IV had heard. What was this evil? Could it offer a clue to the mystery of Smenkhkare's eternal imprisonment in Tomb 55?
Infuriatingly, this inscription had been badly damaged even when the early explorers made their drawings and we can no longer tell what the great evil was meant to be. This damage was clearly the work of Akhenaten's anti-Atenist successors, and seems to have been an attempt to eradicate what would otherwise have been a vital clue as to what lay behind the establishment of the new religion. All that can be discerned from the surviving text is that certain observances could somehow make amends, such as festivals of the Aten, the imposition of dues, and an enigmatic reference to the land of Kush to the south of Egypt.
We can tell, though, from the surviving inscriptions that the changes wrought by Akhenaten were truly revolutionary. Inthe undamaged section of the text that follows we learn how Akhenaten founded the city in the location he believed the Aten originated:
His majesty mounted a great chariot of electrum, like the Aten when he rises on the horizon and fills the land with his love, and took a goodly road to Akhetaten, the place of origin which the Aten had created for himself that he might be happy therein. It was his son, the only one of Re, who founded it for him as his monument when his father commanded him to make it. Heaven was joyful, the earth was glad, every heart was filled with delight when they beheld him.
Akhenaten himself then vows that he will build the city in that particular location and nowhere else, and no one – not even the queen – will persuade him otherwise. He continues by listing the buildings to be erected on the site, including an estate of the Aten, a temple of the Aten, and a 'house of rejoicing'. There were also to be built the apartments of the pharaoh and his queen, and tombs were to be prepared for them and their daughter Meritaten in the eastern hills. He goes on to declare that if any of them died elsewhere they must be bought back here for burial.
From the later proclamations, dated exactly a year after the first, we learn that the king is now residing in a tent in the city, from where he set out to re-establish his decrees and make a new vow. Accompanied by Nefertiti, Meritaten, and a second daughter, Meketaten, he mounted his state chariot, drove to the southernmost edge of the town and swore that he would never again leave the holy city. He then travelled to the northernmost boundary and repeated the oath. Finally, in the eighth year ofhis reign he travelled around the boundaries reaffirming the city's perimeters, presumably now that construction was completed, and inscriptions were added to some of the stelae to commemorate the event.
Apart from revealing something of the city's sacred
Erected while the city was being built, the boundary stelae enable us to reconstruct something of the city's brief history andthe thinking behind its creation. Now identified by a different letter, three of them bear a series of initial proclamations that are dated to Year 5, Month 8, Day 13 of Akhenaten's reign, while the others bear proclamations made exactly a year later, and all but three of these bear a postscript of Year 8, Month 5, Day 8. From the assorted inscriptions we learn that eight months into the fifth year of his reign, Akhenaten came to Amarna officially to found the city, set up an altar and establish the city's perimeters, and by the end of his eighth year construction was largely completed.
In the initial proclamations we are told that something terrible had happened which had evidently persuaded Akhenaten to build the city. The king declares that something had been heard which was more evil than what he had heard in the fourth year of his reign, more evil than what he had heard in his first year, and more evil even than what his predecessors Amonhotep III and Tuthmosis IV had heard. What was this evil? Could it offer a clue to the mystery of Smenkhkare's eternal imprisonment in Tomb 55?
Infuriatingly, this inscription had been badly damaged even when the early explorers made their drawings and we can no longer tell what the great evil was meant to be. This damage was clearly the work of Akhenaten's anti-Atenist successors, and seems to have been an attempt to eradicate what would otherwise have been a vital clue as to what lay behind the establishment of the new religion. All that can be discerned from the surviving text is that certain observances could somehow make amends, such as festivals of the Aten, the imposition of dues, and an enigmatic reference to the land of Kush to the south of Egypt.
We can tell, though, from the surviving inscriptions that the changes wrought by Akhenaten were truly revolutionary. Inthe undamaged section of the text that follows we learn how Akhenaten founded the city in the location he believed the Aten originated:
His majesty mounted a great chariot of electrum, like the Aten when he rises on the horizon and fills the land with his love, and took a goodly road to Akhetaten, the place of origin which the Aten had created for himself that he might be happy therein. It was his son, the only one of Re, who founded it for him as his monument when his father commanded him to make it. Heaven was joyful, the earth was glad, every heart was filled with delight when they beheld him.
Akhenaten himself then vows that he will build the city in that particular location and nowhere else, and no one – not even the queen – will persuade him otherwise. He continues by listing the buildings to be erected on the site, including an estate of the Aten, a temple of the Aten, and a 'house of rejoicing'. There were also to be built the apartments of the pharaoh and his queen, and tombs were to be prepared for them and their daughter Meritaten in the eastern hills. He goes on to declare that if any of them died elsewhere they must be bought back here for burial.
From the later proclamations, dated exactly a year after the first, we learn that the king is now residing in a tent in the city, from where he set out to re-establish his decrees and make a new vow. Accompanied by Nefertiti, Meritaten, and a second daughter, Meketaten, he mounted his state chariot, drove to the southernmost edge of the town and swore that he would never again leave the holy city. He then travelled to the northernmost boundary and repeated the oath. Finally, in the eighth year ofhis reign he travelled around the boundaries reaffirming the city's perimeters, presumably now that construction was completed, and inscriptions were added to some of the stelae to commemorate the event.
Apart from revealing something of the city's sacred
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