Great Aten Temple

The Boundary Stelae and scenes and texts in the decorated rock tombs at Amarna give pride of place to the ‘House of the Aten’. The way it is depicted in some of the tombs leaves little doubt that it is to be identified with the building in the Central City known today as the Great Aten Temple. It formed part of the grand clearance of the Central City undertaken in the 1930s by the Egypt Exploration Society and directed by John Pendlebury. The plans of the remains of the building were made by architect Ralph Lavers.


The area towards the back of the Long Temple, during reconstruction in 2023.

The removal of the stonework at the end of the Amarna Period had left the site largely flat and featureless, the original buildings reduced to heaps of stone chippings and dust. The EES excavations had the effect of removing this loose material to the perimeters of the buildings, heaped into mounds and ridges surrounding shallow depressions marking the locations of areas of flat foundations that were all that was left when the stone blocks were taken away. The flat foundation layer had been made from gypsum concrete. Large patches of this survived, often preserving the outlines of the walls and other architectural features that had been erected on them. These were recorded by Pendlebury and Lavers who were, as a result, able to reconstruct the plan and general appearance of the two main parts.

One of these was a long narrow building towards the front of the temple enclosure. Its original name might have been Gem-pa-Aten (‘Discovery of the Aten’); here the neutral term Long Temple is preferred. The other, the Sanctuary, lay towards the rear of the huge temple enclosure. Between the two, and arranged on a perpendicular, north–south axis, was a series of lesser features that included a free-standing stela.

One of the achievements of these excavations was the demonstration that the temple had seen two major phases of building, an earlier and more modest set of constructions replaced during Akhenaten’s reign by a grander design.

The Pendlebury excavations were carried out on a large scale that enabled the main parts of the temple to be exposed and recorded in a relatively short time. It is almost always the case that a second examination of the sites of older excavations uncovers fresh evidence. A more pressing reason to re-open the site, however, is the effect of the site being left open and untended for such a long time, since 1932–3. Apart from the effects of weathering on the relatively fragile gypsum foundation surfaces, the site lies adjacent to the modern cemetery of the village of El-Till. The official boundary between ground that belongs to the Egyptian antiquities authority and the village is poorly defined. The cemetery continues to expand at the expense of the temple ground. Increasing quantities of village rubbish have also, in recent years, been dumped over the front part. It is, too, the case that visitors to the site miss the opportunity to see and appreciate what was, in its heyday, Amarna’s principal place for the devotion of the Aten.

In 2012 the Amarna Project began a scheme to study the temple remains afresh, to clean the site and to mark the main building outlines in fresh stonework.

The work done at the Great Aten Temple is organised on the ground through a 5 x 5-metre grid that is numbered grid 18 in the Amarna excavation grid system.

Barry Kemp

Further reading

Early excavations

Publications

Frankfort, H. 1927. Preliminary report on the excavations at Tell el-‘Amarnah, 1926–7. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 13, 209–18.

Pendlebury, J.D.S. 1933. Preliminary report of the excavations at Tell el-‘Amarnah, 1932–1933. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 19, 113–8.

Pendlebury, J.D.S. 1934. Excavations at Tell el Amarna: Preliminary report for the Season 1933–4. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 20, 129–36.

Pendlebury, J.D.S. 1951. The City of Akhenaten III. (MEES 44; London), 5–20.

Petrie, W.M.F. 1894. Tell El Amarna. London: Methuen, 18–19, Pl. XXXVII.

Documentation from the early work

EES photographs 1932: with commentary on what they show. The locations of the pictures are marked on the plan: Annotated Lavers plan.
EES photographs 1932 PDF (11 Mb)

The plan, by architect Ralph Lavers, is published in J.D.S. Pendlebury, The City of Akhenaten III. (MEES 44; London, EES 1951), Pl. III.
Annotated Lavers Plan (PDF 3.6Mb)

Recent work

Publications

Balestra, F. 2021. GAT East Gate excavation, The Akhetaten Sun 27 (2), 30-51.

Balestra, F. 2022. Excavation in the vicinity of the East Gateway, The Akhetaten Sun 28 (2), 32-52.

Balestra, F. 2023. The Great Aten Temple: East Gateway Excavations, Autumn 2022, in Stevens, A., Dabbs, G. R., Balestra, F., Tully, G., Schiødt, S., Rose, P., Clapham, A. J., Docherty, P., Garnett, A., and Bertram, M., Tell el-Amarna, 2022, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 109, 90-9.

Balestra, F. 2024. Third season at the rear of the Great Aten Temple, in Stevens, A., Balestra, F., Driaux, D., Dabbs, G. R., Docherty, P., Boonstra, S. L., Tully, G., Bos, J. E. M. F., Lakin, T., Gasperini, V., Rose, P., and Bertram, M., Tell el-Amarna, Autumn 2023 to Summer 2024. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 110, 19-25.

Bertram, M. 2024. Im Zeichen des Aton: Zu den Forschungsergebnissen der letzten Kampagnen im Großen Aton-Tempel in Amarna. Sokar 41: 82–101.

Kemp, B., M. Shepperson and A. Hodgkinson. 2012. Great Aten Temple, in B. Kemp, Tell el-Amarna, 2011–12. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 98, 9–26.

Kemp, B., M. Bertram, A. Hodgkinson and S. Kelly. 2013. Great Aten Temple, in B. Kemp, Tell el-Amarna, 2012–13. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 99, 20–32.

Kemp, B. M. Bertram, D. Driaux, A. Hodgkinson and S. Kelly. 2014. Great Aten Temple, in B. Kemp, Tell el-Amarna, 2014. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 100, 1–33.

B. Kemp, M. Bertram, D. Driaux, A. Hodgkinson, S. Jędraszek and S. Kelly. 2015. Great Aten Temple, in B. Kemp, Tell el-Amarna, 2014–15. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 101, 5–17.

Unpublished reports

Kemp, B, M. Hill, A. Hodgkinson and M. Shepperson. October 2012. Great Aten Temple: Spring 2012 season. Preliminary report.

Kemp, B. January 2013. Great Aten Temple: Autumn 2012 season. Preliminary report.

Kemp, B. (with an appendix by K. Thompson). March 2013. Great Aten Temple: Spring 2013 season. Preliminary report.

Kemp, B. April 2014. Great Aten Temple: Spring 2014 season. Preliminary report.

Kemp, B. April 2015. Great Aten Temple: Spring 2015 season. Preliminary report.

Kemp, B. and M. Bertram. December 2018. Great Aten Temple: Autumn 2017, Spring and Autumn 2018. Preliminary report.

Kemp, B. and P. Docherty. January 2019. The solar observation and offering platform at the front of the Great Aten Temple.

Kemp, B. and M. Bertram. October 2019. Great Aten Temple: Report on recent work (May–June 2019).

Kemp, B. and M. Bertram. November 2019. Great Aten Temple: Report on recent work (October–November, 2019).

Kemp, B., M. Bertram, A. Hodgkinson, S. Allan, F. Balestra, M. Cavriani, P. Docherty, J. Friedrichs, T. Hagedorn, S. Kelly, M. Serpico, J. Vilaró and A. Winkels. May 2020. Great Aten Temple: Report on recent work (February–May, 2020).

Kemp, B., M. Bertram, M. Cavriani, J. Friedrichs and A. Mesli. March 2021. Great Aten Temple: Report on recent work (February–March, 2021).

Kemp, B., M. Bertram, J. Friedrichs, A. Hodgkinson, F. Balestra, S. Kelly and A. Mesli. 2021. Great Aten Temple: Report on recent work (September 16th–November 4th, 2021).

Balestra, F. 2021. Report on the Great Aten Temple East Gateway excavation, Autumn 2021.

Kemp, B., M. Bertram, A. Hodgkinson, S. Kelly, J. Friedrichs, J. Vilaró, A. Mesli, C. Kalmykova, S. Boonstra and K. Glosauer. April 2022. Great Aten Temple: Report on recent work (Spring 2022).

Balestra, F. (with an appendix by M. Bertram). February 2023. Report on the Great Aten Temple East Gateway excavation (Autumn 2022).

Kemp, B., M. Bertram, A. Hodgkinson, F. Balestra, A. Clapham, P. Docherty, J. Friedrichs, R. Gerisch, M. Hill, C. Kalmykova, S. Kelly, A. Mesli and K. Thompson. April 2023. Great Aten Temple: Report on recent work (September 15th–November 5th, 2022)

Kemp, B., M. Bertram, A. Hodgkinson, F. Balestra, S. Boonstra, S. Buccafusca, P. Docherty, D. Driaux, J. Friedrichs, V. Gasperini, M. Hill, S. Ikram, C. Kalmykova, S. Kelly, A. Mesli, P. Rose, C. Stimpson, K. Thompson and M. Torres. November 2023. Great Aten Temple: Report on recent work (August 31st–November 3rd, 2023).

(No fieldwork was carried out in 2016 owing to security conditions in Egypt)

Reports can also be found in Horizon newsletter:

  • Reclaiming the House of the Aten. Horizon 11, 1–6.
  • Reclaiming the House of the Aten (continued). Horizon 12, 6–8.
  • The House of the Aten. The work of the spring 2013 season. Horizon 13, 8–9.
  • The House of the Aten Horizon 15, 1-7.
  • Further work at the Great Aten Temple. Horizon 16, 2-3.
  • Miniature landscapes. Horizon 17, 5-6.
  • A new head of Akhenaten. Horizon 18, 10-11.
  • Carved limestone fragments from the Great Aten Temple. Horizon 18, 14-18.
  • The Great Aten Temple as newly revealed. Horizon 19, 3-10.
  • Understanding statuary from the Great Aten Temple. Horizon 19, 11-18.
  • Wine for the Aten. Mud jar-sealings from the Great Aten Temple. Horizon 20, 8-10.
  • Distribution maps. Horizon 20, 11-13.
  • Photogrammetry at Amarna. Horizon 20, 18-19.
  • Great Aten Temple (pictures). Horizon 20, 24.
  • Amarna, autumn 2019 and the year 2020. Horizon 21, 3-7.
  • Recreating the plan of the Great Aten Temple on the ground. Horizon 22, 6–10.
  • Excavations at the East Gateway: the public entrance to the Great Aten Temple? Horizon 22, 12–14.
  • Quarry size and building size at Amarna. Horizon 22, 15–21.