El-Amarna formerly known as Akhetaten, is a flat piece of land located beside the Nile River Valley. The area is a plain field separated from the Nile Valley by a strip of palm trees, it stretches 12 kilometers from the north to south. The area on which it stretches is mostly outlined with ruins of temples, palaces and houses that stretch the entire distance.
There are more than twenty-five tombs facing the base of the cliff front that is located there. Six tombs are located at the north side near Darb El-Malik, while nineteen of them are located at the south side. These tombs are built highly complicated to ensure that they are protected from thieves. Most of them start with open court that leads to three chambers, within these chambers there are papyrus columns that meet in the rear end which have a statue of the dead looking toward the entrance.
Among these tombs there are various famous tombs that have been discovered, the first is Ay's tomb, which is considered to be the finest of the tombs there. This tomb was found by Giovanni Battista Belzoni, while walking through the Nile Valley here he found some rocks that were out of place so he poked through them with a stick and found a hole that was deep, he and associates removed the rocks and found a tomb that the Arabs dubbed the tomb of the monkey, because of the rows of paintings of apes that were present. King Ay reigned for only four years between 1339 and 1335 BC and his tomb was only half completed. There are some descriptive scenes of the streets of ancient Akhenaten, a few moments in the palace of Ay are depicted; a woman of the harem having her hair done. In the temple the most complete version of the Hymn to the Sun is decorating the right hand side of the doorway.
There are other tombs here also a couple of the more notable one are Huya, who was the steward of Queen Tiyi, the queenmother and wife of Amenhotep III. Meri-re II who was the superintendant of the palace of Queen Nefertiti. Meri-re I a high rank priest of Aton, and Panhesy the chief servitor of the Aton in Akenhaten. Aton was the god that Akhenaten worshipped and some of these people had shrines to them.
