The Discovery of Aten The Lost Golden City

In April 2021, Zahi Hawass, an Egyptologist said he and his team found the Lost Golden City, known as Aten near Luxor. They unearthed this large city in a good condition of preservation, with almost complete walls, and with rooms filled with tools of daily life.

Excavations began in September 2020, between the temples of Ramses III and Amenhotep III near Luxor, some 300 miles south of Cairo. And the remains of the city were excavated within weeks.

Remains of Aten, the lost city (Image credit: Africa News)

After 7 months of excavations, several neighborhoods have been uncovered, including a bakery complete with ovens and storage pottery, as well as administrative and residential districts.

The dig revealed a large number of valuable archaeological finds, such as jewellry, colored pottery, scarab beetle amulets and mud bricks bearing seals of Amenhotep III.

Betsy Bryan, professor of Egyptian art and archeology at Johns Hopkins University, said the find was "the second most important archaeological discovery since Tutankhamun's tomb" nearly a century ago.

The team also found a zig-zag wall with just one entry point encloses an administrative and residential area, suggesting that authorities maintained security by limiting movement in and out.

Aten also known as So'oud Atun (the Rise of Aten) was established from the era of 18th-dynasty during the reign of the ninth king, Amenhotep III, between roughly 1386 and 1353 B.C.

According to ancient historians, Amenhotep III inherited an empire that stretched from the Euphrates River in modern Iraq and Syria to Sudan and died around 1354 BC.

In Amenhotep III’s final years, he is thought to have briefly reigned alongside his eldest son, the soon-to-be Amenhotep IV.

However several years after Amenhotep III’s death, his son, who ruled from around 1353–1336, broke with everything Amenhotep III stood for. During his seventeen-year reign, he upended Egyptian culture, abandoning all of the traditional Egyptian pantheon but one, the sun god Aten. He even changed his name from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten, which means “devoted to Aten.”

Akhenaten and his wife, Nefertiti, also moved Egypt’s royal seat from Thebes to a new city called Akhetaten (now known as Amarna) and oversaw an artistic revolution that briefly transformed Egyptian art from stiff and uniform to animated and detailed.

The city appears to have been reused by his son Tutankhamun, who ditched Akhetaten during his reign but established a new capital at Memphis. Ay, who later inherited the throne when he married Tut’s widow, seems to have used it, too. Four distinct settlement layers at the site show eras of use all the way into the Coptic Byzantine era of the third through seventh centuries A.D.

After Akhenaten's death, most traces of the ruler were obliterated. Starting with his son, the boy king Tutankhamun, Akhenaten's capital, his art, his religion, and even his name was dismissed and systematically wiped from history, it was left to the sands until its recent discovery.

Mustafa Marie reports that the archaeologists examined hieroglyphic inscriptions on the lids of wine vessels and other containers for clues to the city’s history. One vase containing dried or boiled meat was inscribed with the names of two people from the city and information showing that Amenhotep and Akhenaten ruled the city jointly at the time it was made.

Betsy Bryan, says she still wonders why it was abandoned during Akhenaten's short reign? She still couldn't answer it yet. She said, "what we're going to get is more and more information about Amenhotep III, Akhenaten, and their families. It's still early days, but I think we'll see more connections."

Image credit: National Geographic

One room within the city contains the burial of two cows or bulls—an odd find that researchers are still investigating.

In another unusual discovery, the team found a human burial with the remains of a rope wrapped around the knees. The team has not yet been able to fully explore a group of rock-cut tombs accessible through stairs carved into the rock.

Image credit: Africa News

While the newly discovered city may not provide a clue to the mystery of the rebellious pharaoh, it will paint a clearer picture of the life he left behind.

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