TEL EL-AMARNA, HERMOPOLIS MAGNA AND TUNA EL-GEBEL
This morning was our earliest wake-up (excluding the day we went to Abu Simbel), and rightfully so: not only did we have to drive several hours to get to Tel el-Amarna, but we also had to take our van on a ferry to the east bank of the Nile before traveling on a road made strictly for the purpose of visiting the site. Both of these facts point to the seclusion and separation of Akhenaten’s city, clearly a reflection of the outcasting by following dynasties and self-separation of his religion.
The walk up to the necropolis is the only reminder I needed of the “tel” in this site’s name: a long chain of staircases winds up the rock for hundreds of yards. This stuff is up in the hills, away from everything. We visited three tombs at Tel el-Amarna, which to the best of my knowledge have not been documented: that which is believed to have belonged to Akhenaten himself (no body was found—it may have been moved or destroyed), that of Ahmosa and that of Meri-Re.
Akhenaten’s tomb was in poor condition, with sloping walls and ceilings, unfinished areas and glyphs where no paint remains. Mauve plaster, probably chosen by conservators because it makes the place look a little lighter, covers every blank space (and there are lots of them). Outlines of the sun disk can still be seen at the tops of the crumbling walls, likely defaced at some point. The ceilings are cavernous and make for a lovely bat cave of sorts, especially when combined with the small unfinished rooms and shafts cut at eye level into the rock.
At the front of Ahmosa’s tomb is a strange lintel that looks unfinished: it is a series of raised rectangles, likely where reliefs were meant to sink in. The walls bear painted scenes of horses and chariots, and the center chamber holds a statue of a scribe (the fat rolls don’t lie). This tomb was wholly unexciting, but had a nice overlook outside.
I asked Asharaff why Meri-Re was buried at Akhetaten, since the inclusion of the name “Re” in this name seems contradictory to the king’s belief system. He explained that because Amun-Re is the personification of the sun disk, it can be worshipped in conjunction with the disk itself. Meri-Re’s tomb has a blue-painted pylon and a lintel formed out of a row of stones in front, which lead to a strange space perpendicular to the entrance. This room has columns on the right, and a large wall of glyphs on the left. It is probably unifinished (or was destroyed—no one seemed to like Akhenaten and his friends very much), judging by the roundabout staircase with no end, shaved into the rock in a dark corner.
When we exited the tomb, I was able to get a better idea of how the tombs were constructed by looking at the facades of this and others: the process started from the bottom up, where the stone was shaved flat and cut to form the bases of pillars. The work then moved inward and upward to completion.
We took a quick look at the palace at Tel el-Amarna, which is very clean and restored perfectly at its foundations. The pipes in the central pool are still visible, and look a lot like the qanats we saw in the oases. The conservators clearly did a good job, because what you see in front of you really looks like the plans in the books!
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The temple at Hermopolis was in shambles: at least one level of baked-brick city architecture was visible under part of the tri-lobed basilica structure, weathered and sloping from the weight of the limestone floor. The place is overgrown with grass. I could tell that some reconstruction work had been done, since the fragments of an enormous lintel bearing a Greek inscription were arranged on a stone platform, and two rows of long, thin pillars were in their original locations. As for physical supports, there were wooden ones for some of the columns and metal rings around others; neither of these showed any signs of an attempt to be hidden.
We wandered around for about twenty minutes, during which I discovered that the SCA uses Akhenaten’s favorite image of the sun disk stretching out its arms of tender loving care as their logo!
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Tuna el-Gebel (necropolis of Hermopolis Magna), contrary to what one might think from its name, does not smell like fish (haha). Rather, it stinks like rotting corpses!
Isadora, a woman who drowned during the second century CE, is on display in a glass case in her tomb. This is pretty interesting, considering the tendency of communities elsewhere to bury their drowned deceased separately from the rest; but Isadora was Greek, and the custom at the time seems to have been to consider her death uncorrupt enough to warrant an ordinary entombment.
Leigh and I love dead people, but we were rather taken aback when we realized that the display case was neither air-tight nor temperature-controlled. Her mummy is small and fragile, wrapped in a white shroud so one can only see her tiny feet and contorted face. For some reason, her hair has either disintegrated or been fused to her skull so that no remains are visible.
The tomb of Petosiris doesn’t stink, but it’s rather misleading for two reasons. Firstly, it is built to look like a Late Period temple, but the walls are covered with marvelous scenes of very Greek-looking people (their clothing is the most striking thing about them) carrying out everyday Egyptian practices. The scenes are painted in pale colors and are detailed to a degree we have not yet seen; the men boast a surprising amount of muscle tone, and women growing out of trees in bold yellows and blues are scattered here and there. A very small owl painted with thin black and blue stripes can be seen on one of the rows of glyphs.
Secondly, the sign in front of the structure claims that it dates to 350 BCE, though the tomb was probably constructed in about 150 CE (close to the time of Isadora’s death). As William pointed out, how can something influenced so much by Greek style and thought have been constructed just after Alexander’s conquest?
