t: +20 1225113357 (mobile)
t: +20 27955666 (office)
Help us to save the Great Aten Temple
The Great Aten Temple (‘The House of the Aten’) lies beside a rapidly expanding modern village and is thus threatened with encroachment. The Amarna Project launched a major reclamation scheme in 2012 to protect the temple and to lay out in stone its principal alignments which otherwise would not be visible.
Can you help out?
Your donation through our online fundraising page will be put towards costs of specialist staff, building materials and transport.
No donation is too small – every little bit makes a difference.
Find out more and donate here >>
Supporting the Amarna Project
The ancient Egyptian city of Tell el-Amarna (or simply Amarna) was the short-lived capital built by the ‘heretic’ Pharaoh Akhenaten (1360–1343 BC) and abandoned shortly after his death. It was here that he pursued his vision of a society dedicated to the cult of one god, the power of the sun (the Aten). As well as this historic interest Amarna remains the largest readily accessible living-site from ancient Egypt. It is thus simultaneously the key to a chapter in the history of ideas and to a fuller understanding of what it was like to be an ancient Egyptian. There is no other site like it.
The Amarna Project has developed from a long-running archaeological excavation formerly carried out under the auspices of the Egypt Exploration Society and now in the name of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research (University of Cambridge), under permits from the Ministry of State for Antiquities of Egypt (formerly Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt). Over the years the remit of the Project has extended to include repairs to ancient buildings, improvements to visitor access and assistance to the Ministry of Antiquities in creating and running a Visitor Centre.
Archaeology, although widely popular, attracts limited public support. Despite the contributions made by the Ministry of Antiquities to protecting the site, much that needs to be done can only be accomplished by outside support. It was to help direct support to the Amarna Project that the Amarna Trust was set up in 2005 and registered with the Charity Commission of the United Kingdom (charity no. 1161292).
