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ALL ONE WORLD EGYPTOLOGISTS TOUR
THE ROYAL ATON TOMB
— SATURDAY 12 JANUARY 2008 — AMARNA, EGYPT — 18TH DYN. NEW KINGDOM —

photography by Mark Damen

We made the winding drive up the Royal Wadi to the Royal Tomb.

The Supreme Council of Antiquities has recently renovated the tomb for visitors. We stopped at a small building as we drove in the Wadi and picked up two men. Ruth said that they had to turn on the power to the site and then ride with us to let us in.


artwork by Amarna Project

This tomb has, of course, suffered many indignities over the millennia.

The biggest damage was caused by hundreds of thousands of gallons of water running into the shafts and submerging the artwork on the walls every time there was a major rainstorm.

Akhenaton proclaims:
“If the Great King's Wife, Nefertiti, dies in any town downstream, to the south, to the west, to the east in these millions of years, let her be brought back, that she may be buried in Akhetaton.”

Akhenaton proclaims:
“Let a tomb be made for me in the eastern mountain of Akhetaton. Let my burial be made in it, in the millions of jubilees which the Aton, my father, has decreed for me. Let the burial of the Great King's Wife, Nefertiti, be made in it, in the millions of years which the Aten, my father, decreed for her. Let the burial of the King's Daughter, Meritaton, be made in it, in these millions of years. If I die in any town downstream, to the south, to the west, to the east in these millions of years, let me be brought back, that I may be buried in Akhetaton.”


photography by Ruth Shilling
Akhenaton proclaims:
“If the King's Daughter, Meritaton, dies in any town downstream, to the south, to the west, to the east in the millions of years, let her be brought back, that she may be buried in Akhetaton.”

Here is the gold giving scene of Nefertiti and Akhenaten in the burial hall.

 

You can see all the water damage.

Here is an artist's rendition
of a similar scene.


©clipart.com

We also visited the Tomb of Ay in the South tombs, though I do not remember and have no photography.

 

Sometimes, I chose to sit out selected sites, in order to be fully present for the places that resonated with my lifetime of study.

     
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