| Royal Tomb of Akhenaten (TA26) | |
|---|---|
| Burial site of Akhenaten and Meketaten | |
 Entrance of the Royal Tomb showing modern flood protection | |
  Royal Tomb of Akhenaten (TA26) | |
| Coordinates | 27°37′34″N30°59′07″E / 27.6262°N 30.9852°E |
| Location | Royal Wadi, Amarna |
| Excavated by | Alessandro Barsanti (1893–94) |
| Decoration | yes |
The Royal Tomb of Akhenaten, located in the Royal Wadi at Amarna, is the burial place of the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. [1]
A flight of twenty steps, with a central inclined plane leads to the door and a long straight descending corridor. Halfway down this corridor a suite of unfinished rooms (perhaps intended for Nefertiti). The main corridor continues to descend, and to the right again a second suite of rooms branches off.
The corridor then descends via steps into an ante-room, and then to the pillared burial chamber where his granite sarcophagus sat in a slight dip in the floor. It was decorated by carvings of Nefertiti acting as a protective goddess, and by the ever-present sun-disks of the Aten.
It is believed that the second suite of three chambers (referred to as Alpha, Beta and Gamma) was used for the burial of Meketaten, Akhenaten's second daughter. Two of the chambers (Alpha and Gamma) are decorated and depict very similar scenes: in the Alpha chamber, Akhenaten and Nefertiti bend over the inert body of a woman, weeping and gripping each other's arms for support. Nearby, a nurse stands with a baby in her arms, accompanied by a fan-bearer, which indicates the baby's royal status. The names in the scene have been hacked out. In the Gamma chamber, a very similar scene is shown; here the hieroglyphs identify the dead young woman as Meketaten. In the same chamber, another scene shows Meketaten standing under a canopy, which is usually associated with childbirth, but can also interpreted as representing the rebirth of the princess. In front of her, amongst courtiers, stand Akhenaten, Nefertiti and their three remaining daughters, Meritaten, Ankhesenpaaten and Neferneferuaten Tasherit. The presence of a royal baby has led many to believe that the young princess died in childbirth (in this case, the father is most likely to have been Akhenaten himself, marrying his daughter), but this cannot be proven.
Large amounts of the decoration have been destroyed by flooding.
His body was probably removed after the court returned to Thebes, and reburied somewhere in the Valley of the Kings, possibly in KV55. His sarcophagus was destroyed, but has since been reconstructed and now sits in the garden of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
The tomb was excavated by Alessandro Barsanti, in 1893–1894.
Neferneferuaten Nefertiti was a queen of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the great royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for their radical overhaul of state religious policy, in which they promoted the earliest known form of monotheism, Atenism, centered on the sun disc and its direct connection to the royal household. With her husband, she reigned at what was arguably the wealthiest period of ancient Egyptian history. Some scholars believe that Nefertiti ruled briefly as Neferneferuaten after her husband's death and before the ascension of Tutankhamun, although this identification is a matter of ongoing debate. If Nefertiti did rule as Pharaoh, her reign was marked by the fall of Amarna and relocation of the capital back to the traditional city of Thebes.
Tiye was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III, mother of pharaoh Akhenaten and grandmother of pharaoh Tutankhamun; her parents were Yuya and Thuya. In 2010, DNA analysis confirmed her as the mummy known as "The Elder Lady" found in the tomb of Amenhotep II (KV35) in 1898.
Kiya was one of the wives of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Little is known about her, and her actions and roles are poorly documented in the historical record, in contrast to those of Akhenaten's ‘Great royal wife’, Nefertiti. Her unusual name suggests that she may originally have been a Mitanni princess. Surviving evidence demonstrates that Kiya was an important figure at Akhenaten's court during the middle years of his reign, when she had a daughter with him. She disappears from history a few years before her royal husband's death. In previous years, she was thought to be mother of Tutankhamun, but recent DNA evidence suggests this is unlikely.
Meritaten, also spelled Merytaten, Meritaton or Meryetaten, was an ancient Egyptian royal woman of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Her name means "She who is beloved of Aten"; Aten being the sun-deity whom her father, Pharaoh Akhenaten, worshipped. She held several titles, performing official roles for her father and becoming the Great Royal Wife to Pharaoh Smenkhkare, who may have been a brother or son of Akhenaten. Meritaten also may have served as pharaoh in her own right under the name Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten.
Tomb WV23, also known as KV23, is located in the Western Valley of the Kings near modern-day Luxor, and was the final resting place of Pharaoh Ay of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The tomb was discovered by Giovanni Battista Belzoni in the winter of 1816. Its structure is similar to that of the tomb of Akhenaten, with a straight descending corridor, leading to a "well chamber" that has no shaft. This leads to the burial chamber, which now contains the reconstructed sarcophagus, which had been smashed in antiquity. The tomb had also been anciently desecrated, with many instances of Ay's image or name erased from the wall paintings. Its decoration is similar in content and colour to that of Tutankhamun (KV62), with a few differences. On the eastern wall there is a depiction of a fishing and fowling scene, which is not shown elsewhere in other royal tombs, normally appearing in burials of nobility.
Tomb WV22, also known as KV22, was the burial place of the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III. Located in the Western arm of the Valley of the Kings, the tomb is unique in that it has two subsidiary burial chambers for the pharaoh's wives Tiye and Sitamen. It was officially discovered by Prosper Jollois and Édouard de Villiers du Terrage, engineers with Napoleon's expedition to Egypt in August 1799, but had probably been open for some time. The tomb was first excavated by Theodore M. Davis, the details of which are lost. The first documented clearance was carried out by Howard Carter in 1915. Since 1989, a Japanese team from Waseda University led by Sakuji Yoshimura and Jiro Kondo has excavated and conserved the tomb. The sarcophagus is missing from the tomb. The tomb's layout and decoration follow the tombs of the king's predecessors, Amenhotep II (KV35) and Thutmose IV (KV43); however, the decoration is much finer in quality. Several images of the pharaoh's head have been cut out and can be seen today in the Louvre.
The Royal Wadi is a necropolis in Amarna, Egypt. It is the burial place of the Ancient Egyptian royal family of Amarna, which reigned during the 18th Dynasty. The cemetery is a local parallel to the Valley of the Kings.
Meketaten was the second daughter of six born to the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten and his Great Royal Wife Nefertiti. She likely lived between Year 4 and Year 14 of Akhenaten's reign. Although little is known about her, she is frequently depicted with her sisters accompanying her royal parents in the first two-thirds of the Amarna Period.
Neferneferuaten Tasherit or Neferneferuaten the younger was an ancient Egyptian princess of the 18th Dynasty and the fourth daughter of Pharaoh Akhenaten and his Great Royal Wife Nefertiti.
Neferneferure was an ancient Egyptian princess of the 18th Dynasty. She was the fifth of six known daughters of Pharaoh Akhenaten and his Great Royal Wife Nefertiti.
Amarna Tomb 1 is a sepulchre near Amarna, Upper Egypt. It is the tomb of the ancient Egyptian noble Huya, which is located in the cluster of tombs known collectively as the Northern tombs.
Mahu was Chief of Police at Akhetaten.
Setepenre or Sotepenre was an ancient Egyptian princess of the 18th Dynasty; sixth and last daughter of Pharaoh Akhenaten and his chief queen Nefertiti.
Mutbenret (Benretmut) was an Egyptian noblewoman, and said to be the sister of the Great Royal Wife Nefertiti. Her name used to be read as Mutnedjemet. The hieroglyphs for nedjem and bener are similar and so is their meaning. The name is now thought to be Mutbenret however.
Amarna Tomb 3 is a rock-cut cliff tomb located in Amarna, Upper Egypt. The tomb belonged to the Ancient Egyptian noble Ahmes (Ahmose), who served during the reign of Akhenaten. The tomb is situated at the base of a steep cliff and mountain track at the north-eastern end of the Amarna plains. It is located in the northern side of the wadi that splits the cluster of graves known collectively as the Northern tombs. Amarna Tomb 3 is one of six elite tombs belonging to the officials of Akhenaten. It was one of the first Northern tombs, built in Year 9 of the reign of Akhenaten.
Amarna Tomb 5 is an ancient sepulchre in Amarna, Upper Egypt. It was built for the courtier Pentu, and is one of the six Northern tombs at Amarna. The burial is located to the south of the tomb of Meryra. It is very similar to the tomb of Ahmes. The sepulchre is T-shaped and its inner chamber would have served as the burial chamber.
Amarna tomb 7 was one of the Southern tombs at Amarna, Egypt. It belonged to Parennefer, who was a pure handed cupbearer of the king's Person.
The Tomb of Panehsy is a sepulchre in Amarna, Upper Egypt. It was erected for the First servant of the Aten in the house of Aten in Akhet-Aten, Second prophet of the Lord of the Two Lands Neferkheprure-Waenre (Akhenaten), the sealbearer of the King of Lower Egypt, Overseer of the storehouse of the Aten in Akhetaten, Overseer of cattle of the Aten in Akhet-Aten.
The Anonymous Tombs in Amarna are ancient Tombs of Nobles at the Royal Wadi in Amarna, Upper Egypt. They consist of both sepulchres and burial pits in varying stages of construction.
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| Necropolis | ||
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