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A new discovery on the west banking company of the Nile, well-nigh the iconic Valley of the Kings, has archaeologists buzzing about what may be the most important archaeological find since the location of Tutankhamun's tomb. An entire lost urban center has been found, with workshops, palaces, a cemetery, and living quarters. The site is said to be in splendid condition.

"There's no doubt about it; it really is a astounding find," Salima Ikram, an archeologist who leads the American University in Cairo's Egyptology unit of measurement, told National Geographic. "It'due south very much a snapshot in time—an Egyptian version of Pompeii."

The archaeologists have institute multiple artifacts stamped with the seal of Amenhotep III or dated to year 37 of his reign, when Amenhotep III and Amenhotep Iv are believed to accept ruled side-by-side. Co-ordinate to Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, the squad that found the lost city was actually searching for the mortuary temple of Tutankhamun afterwards locating the mortuary temples of both Horemheb and Ay in the aforementioned area.

"The city'south streets are flanked past houses… some of their walls are upwards to iii meters high," Hawass continued. "We tin can reveal that the city extends to the west, all the manner to the famous Deir el-Medina."

Deir el-Medina is the name of the town where generations of artisans and laborers worked to carve rock tombs out of the Valley of the Kings. Wikipedia notes that Deir el-Medina is "laid out in a minor natural amphitheater, inside easy walking distance of the Valley of the Kings to the north, funerary temples to the due east and south-east, with the Valley of the Queens to the west. The hamlet may accept been built apart from the wider population in society to preserve secrecy in view of sensitive nature of the work carried out in the tombs." If the new city stretches all the way to Deir el-Medina, it means the village of workers may have been less isolated than previously thought.

Some of the decorative objects plant at The Ascent of Aten. Prototype by Zahi Hawass

The find is beingness described as "The lost aureate city of Luxor," just that appellation risks defoliation. Luxor is a modern Egyptian urban center and its present-twenty-four hours boundaries are already known to include the ruins of Thebes, the ancient Egyptian uppercase. This new lost city, known in ancient times equally Rising of the Aten, is inside the borders of modern-mean solar day Luxor, on the west depository financial institution of the Nile, not far from the Valley of the Kings. While described as a urban center, it's not a large location.

Zoomed out view, showing the location of The Rise of Aten inside Luxor.

Hawass identifies the site as "sandwiched between Rameses III's temple at Medinet Habu and Amenhotep 3's temple at Memnon." Google Maps (above) shows that this specific area isn't very large, only hither'southward a zoomed-in view showing the relationship between the new finds and existing structures.

A zoomed-in view, showing the lost city in relationship to other nearby locations and the Valley of the Kings.

Rise of the Aten was congenital on the west bank of the Nile and occupied during the reign of Amenhotep III, but it was plainly abandoned suddenly during the reign of his son, Amenhotep Four, as well known as Akhenaten, father of Tutankhaten / Tutankahmun. The changing titles of both pharaohs hints at the cultural upheaval in Egypt during their reigns.

Ancient Egypt was more often than not polytheistic, simply not entirely. During the reign of Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten, the uppercase of Arab republic of egypt moved from Thebes to a new urban center he founded 250 miles to the due north, named Akhetaten, which means "Horizon of the Aten." At the same time, the nature of Egyptian organized religion inverse.

Prior to the reign of Amenhotep 4, the Aten was the disk of the lord's day and considered one aspect of the Egyptian dominicus god Ra. Under Amenhotep Iv, Aten became the sole deity Egyptians worshipped and the pharaoh renamed himself as Akhenaten. This was controversial, to put it mildly.

Akhenaten'southward son, Tutankhaten, appears to have changed his name to Tutankhamun after his father's death, perhaps to indicate allegiance to the old religious orders and to affirm Amun-Ra equally leader of the Egyptian pantheon. He took multiple deportment to restore the religious orders his begetter had disfavored, including abandoning Akhetaten and returning the seat of Egyptian power to Thebes. After his death, he was succeeded by Ay, who was possibly his great-uncle or his vizier. Ay may also have married Tutankhamun's queen, Ankhesenamun.

The Amarna period is known for its artistic experimentation. But Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, and Ay were all associated with what ancient Egyptians viewed as religious heresy. The pharaoh who came after Ay, Horemheb, practiced damnatio memoriae against his predecessors. Damnatio memoriae is Latin for "condemnation of memory" and refers to systemic efforts to exclude mention or depiction of a person from history. The efforts the ancient Egyptians made to go on the afterwards rulers of the 18th Dynasty out of the history books have complicated our efforts to understand their lives today, despite the fact that Tutankhamun's burial treasure represents the near complete trove of purple ancient Egyptian artifacts ever discovered.

ExtremeTech reached out to professor Kara Cooney, professor of Egyptian Art and Architecture and Chair of the Section of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA, to improve empathize the implications of the find.  "This is 1 of the biggest things to happen to domestic architecture and settlement archæology in some time," Cooney said. "The town is beautifully preserved, even past one story, in mudbrick, which shouldn't survive. What is phenomenal is all that comes with the town, tools, pottery, texts, as if the town was left suddenly, which is what archaeologists recollect happened."

"Mudbrick isn't preserved like this elsewhere," Cooney continued. "They [archaeologists] are worried near preserving this site. Once rainstorm will do untold damage. This is a special and amazing detect that must be carefully studied and preserved."

The Rise of Aten could shed new light on a tumultuous catamenia of time in Ancient Egypt when artistic and religious standards were changing. Reports indicate the city has been establish "packed" with artifacts and everyday objects, many of which may help the states understand the lives of the people that lived there. It is non clear if the site was used when Tutankhamun returned to Thebes. We may discover clues to that decision as work on the site progresses.

One other thing we want to mention. At that place take been claims that the recent Ascent of the Aten discovery reported by Zahi Hawass is an inadvertent duplication of French archaeological finds that date dorsum to the 1930s. This appears to be unlikely. A follow-upwardly investigation comparing the French expedition piece of work to the Rise of the Aten site found that they occurred in two different locations, though both engagement to the reign of Amenhotep 3. The 2 sites may or may not be related, simply the claims of a previously-unknown Egyptian Pompeii are holding up thus far.

Every now and and then, the discoveries nosotros brand in these long-lost places dramatically reshapes what we know of the past. Some of our cognition of ancient writers and thinkers comes from just one place — a library in Herculaneum, buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Rise of the Aten may hold similar secrets, kept safe and untouched for thousands of years.

Feature paradigm by Zahi Hawass

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