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Tell El Amarna : Pharaonic
Tell El-Amarna was formally known as Akhetaten. The new name
came from a local village called El- Till. The word Amarna came from the
Bedouin tribe that settled in this village. The word Tell, in Arabic, means a
mound or a small hill. But interestingly enough, Tel El-Amarna is a flat piece
of land beside the Nile Valley.
The ancient name, Akhetaten, means the horizon of the solar
disk. It is very similar to the meaning of Amun Dwelt at Thebes, Ptah at
Memphis and other gods at their favored places. King Akhenaten offered this
place to be the home for his god Aton. The area is a plain field, separated
from the Nile Valley by a strip of palm trees. It stretches 12 kilometers from
north to south. The area is covered mostly with sand and outlined with ruins of
temples, palaces and houses that archeologists discovered or are trying to
find. Some tourists considered it one of the most romantic places they have
ever seen because of the silence and the peaceful beauty that the area gained
through the centuries.
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