Three thousand four hundred years ago, a contentious ancient Egyptian king abandoned his name, his religion, and his capital in Thebes (modern Luxor).
The team initially set out to discover Tutankhamun's Mortuary Temple, where the young king was mummified and received status rites, but they stumbled upon something far greater.
Within just weeks of digging, they uncovered 'mud brick formations in every direction,' Egyptian mission directed Zahi Hawass said in a statement.
'Many foreign missions searched for this city and never found it,' Hawass continued.
'The city's streets are flanked by houses ... some of their walls are up to three meters high,' Hawass said.
Luxor is famously known for its oldest and most ancient Egyptian sites, along with being home to the Valley of Kings.
This area was once called the 'Great Necropolis of Millions of Years of Pharaoh,' as a number of mummies and massive structures have been discovered in Luxor since the 1800s.
Betsy Brian, Professor of Egyptology at John Hopkins University in Baltimore USA, said 'The discovery of this lost city is the second most important archeological discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamun'.
'The discovery of the Lost City, not only will give us a rare glimpse into the life of the Ancient Egyptians at the time where the Empire was at his wealthiest but will help us shed light on one of history's greatest mystery: why did Akhenaten & Nefertiti decide to move to Amarna.'
The team is still working on a second part of Aten and although partially covered, they believe it is the administrative and residential district, with larger and well-arranged units.
This area is surrounded by a zigzag wall and has only a single access point that leads to internal corridors and residential areas.
'The single entrance makes us think it was some sort of security, with the ability to control entry and exit to enclosed areas, researchers shared.
'The mission expects to uncover untouched tombs filled with treasures,' the statement added.
Music: "Desert City" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: Daily Mail, Nat Geo, Wikipedia, The Sun
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/patryn.worldlatestnews
Archaeologists know what happened next: The pharaoh Akhenaten built the short-lived city of Akhetaten, where he ruled alongside his wife, Nefertiti and worshipped the sun.
After his death, his young son Tutankhamun became ruler of Egypt—and turned his back on his father’s controversial legacy.
But why did Akhenaten abandon Thebes, which had been the capital of ancient Egypt for more than 150 years? Answers may lie in the discovery of an industrial royal metropolis within Thebes that Akhenaten inherited from his father, Amenhotep III.
The find, which has been dubbed the “lost golden city of Luxor" in an announcement released 8 April, will generate as much enthusiasm, speculation, and controversy as the renegade pharaoh who left it.
Excavations uncovered bakeries, workshops and burials of animals and humans, along with jewelry, pots and mud bricks bearing seals of Amenhotep III.
After his death, his young son Tutankhamun became ruler of Egypt—and turned his back on his father’s controversial legacy.
But why did Akhenaten abandon Thebes, which had been the capital of ancient Egypt for more than 150 years? Answers may lie in the discovery of an industrial royal metropolis within Thebes that Akhenaten inherited from his father, Amenhotep III.
The find, which has been dubbed the “lost golden city of Luxor" in an announcement released 8 April, will generate as much enthusiasm, speculation, and controversy as the renegade pharaoh who left it.
Excavations uncovered bakeries, workshops and burials of animals and humans, along with jewelry, pots and mud bricks bearing seals of Amenhotep III.
The team initially set out to discover Tutankhamun's Mortuary Temple, where the young king was mummified and received status rites, but they stumbled upon something far greater.
Within just weeks of digging, they uncovered 'mud brick formations in every direction,' Egyptian mission directed Zahi Hawass said in a statement.
'Many foreign missions searched for this city and never found it,' Hawass continued.
'The city's streets are flanked by houses ... some of their walls are up to three meters high,' Hawass said.
Luxor is famously known for its oldest and most ancient Egyptian sites, along with being home to the Valley of Kings.
This area was once called the 'Great Necropolis of Millions of Years of Pharaoh,' as a number of mummies and massive structures have been discovered in Luxor since the 1800s.
Betsy Brian, Professor of Egyptology at John Hopkins University in Baltimore USA, said 'The discovery of this lost city is the second most important archeological discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamun'.
'The discovery of the Lost City, not only will give us a rare glimpse into the life of the Ancient Egyptians at the time where the Empire was at his wealthiest but will help us shed light on one of history's greatest mystery: why did Akhenaten & Nefertiti decide to move to Amarna.'
The team is still working on a second part of Aten and although partially covered, they believe it is the administrative and residential district, with larger and well-arranged units.
This area is surrounded by a zigzag wall and has only a single access point that leads to internal corridors and residential areas.
'The single entrance makes us think it was some sort of security, with the ability to control entry and exit to enclosed areas, researchers shared.
The site dates from the era of 18th-dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III, who ruled between around 1386 and 1353 B.C. and presided over an era of extraordinary wealth, power and luxury.
In Amenhotep III’s final years, he is thought to have briefly reigned alongside his son, Akhenaten.
But a few years after his father’s death, Akhenaten, who ruled from around 1353–1336, broke with everything the late ruler stood for.
During his 17-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.”
In Amenhotep III’s final years, he is thought to have briefly reigned alongside his son, Akhenaten.
But a few years after his father’s death, Akhenaten, who ruled from around 1353–1336, broke with everything the late ruler stood for.
During his 17-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.”
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: Daily Mail, Nat Geo, Wikipedia, The Sun
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/patryn.worldlatestnews
Comments
Post a Comment