Tell el Amarna Guide — Akhenaten moved Egypt’s capital here during the Amarna Period in Egypt!
The tomb reliefs in Tell el Amarna are unlike any other style of ancient Egyptian art.
Tell el Amarna was Egypt’s capital during the Amarna period. Amarna Egypt and Tell el-Amarna were Pharaoh Akhenaten’s vision of a new city centered around a new religion, the worship of the Aten, or sun disk.
You can visit El Amarna to see:
The Tomb of Akhenaten
Where the Amarna letters were discovered
Amarna art—The Amarna style of art is unique and beautiful!
Amarna style tombs
The city of Amarna
And more!
These images show the location of the Amarna sites in relation to the nearest big cities (Minya and Asyut), and also in relation to Cairo.
How to get to Amarna
Amarna is in a remote part of Middle Egypt, and getting there (and going from site to site within Amarna) requires hiring a private car and driver. The nearest major cities are Minya (about 90km north when taking the desert road) and Asyut (about 100km south when taking the desert road). Getting to Asyut or Minya is fairly straightforward from Cairo or Luxor by train, but the journey takes several hours. I recommend spending the night in Minya (more on that later), and then hiring a private driver from Minya (email me at gus@egyptadventurestravel.com if you would like the contact information for the driver we used), doing Amarna in a day trip, and then returning to Minya that evening to spend the night before leaving the next morning. There are other sites to see around MInya, like the tombs of Beni Hassan, so travelers could opt to spend a few days in Minya and do more sightseeing than just Tell el Amarna.
The view from Horus Resort in Minya
Where to stay in Amarna
There is no hotel in the area by Amarna, and the nearest major hotels are either in Asyut or Minya. I opted to stay at the Horus Resort in Minya, and loved my time there. The hotel was comfortable, clean, included a basic breakfast, and cost around $60 USD per night for a double room. The location was beautiful—right along the Nile River! The only downsides to the hotel were the loud noises from weddings (they hosted a wedding both nights we were there), but the noise stopped around midnight each night. As long as travelers do not go to Minya expecting the same quality and service as an international hotel brand in the USA, there are plenty of options like the Horus resort, or several other hotels on www.booking.com. Hotels do not necessarily need to be booked in advance; our stay at the Horus Resort was booked as a walk-in reservation.
Stop reading this blog post right now and grab a copy of “Amarna”, a guidebook edited by Anna Stevens, and put out by the Amarna Project. It has a series of articles and writeups about Tell el Amarna and is a complete guide to the site, including options for lodging, sightseeing, and more.
Where to Eat in Amarna
Since El Amarna is in a remote part of Egypt, there are no restaurants on site, and food options in the villages nearby are limited. Eat a hearty breakfast before starting out, pack some snacks (you can ask your driver to stop in Minya before you hit the road), and then once you get to Amarna, you can order sandwiches for lunch from the visitor center. Having a quick lunch stop at Amarna in between seeing the Royal Tomb of Akhenaten, Boundary Stela U, and the North Tombs was a great way to maximize our time on site. More on our itinerary below!
Kofta (ground beef made into a meatball and grilled) sandwiches for lunch at the Amarna visitor center
Then, once back at your hotel, you can go out for dinner! I tried this delicious restaurant in Minya called Orkeed…I would highly recommend it!
Itinerary for Amarna
Check the YouTube video for the full overview!
When you get to Amarna, here is a great itinerary to maximize your time in Akhenaten’s ancient Capital:
Start at the visitor center, buy your tickets (60 EGP for the visitor ticket, 40 EGP for Akhenaten’s Royal Tomb, and 10 EGP for the car), and head off to Akhenaten’s Tomb to start!
Visit Akhenaten’s royal tomb—it has been badly damaged by floods, but is still a marvel to see.
Visit the Boundary Stela U
Visit the North Tombs
Return to the visitor center, and have some lunch!
After lunch, drive out of the north tombs area and through a local village, and then take in the ruins of the temples and the palace (not much to see, but still awesome sites)
Finish out the day touring the Southern Tombs with their beautifully preserved reliefs showing all the beauty of Amarna art and the style of the Amarna period
The tombs in Amarna were left in various states of completion, giving travelers a glimpse into the building processes of ancient Egypt.
Quick note on tips and police escorts
The tourism police exist to keep travelers safe in Egypt, but in Minya and Tell el Amarna, I found them to be a burden and a hassle that had to be endured.
From the start of arriving in Minya, the police were tracking my every move, and would not even let me leave the hotel to simply walk to dinner (two blocks away) without a lot of asking and arguing. They finally let me go off on my own for dinner (Minya is a very safe city), but said that they wanted me to give them “something nice” at the end of my trip (a tip).
Throughout our time in Amarna, a police escort was in the car with us. I tipped him 100 Egyptian Pounds at the end of the day (around $4 USD), which he was happy with. I also tipped the police at the hotel who were bothering me about going out for dinner 50 Egyptian Pounds (around $2). For any travelers wanting to visit Middle Egypt and Amarna, just be prepared to potentially have a police escort with you everywhere you go, and try not to let it cramp your style—it is much easier to work with the tourism police than to antagonize them.
For tombs in Amarna, it is a kind gesture to tip the attendant who opens the tombs for you 50 EGP each. I ended up paying 4 different tombs attendants 50 EGP each, so less than $10 USD in tips for all of the sites we visited. And of course, tip your driver and tour guide (if you hired a tour guide).
Is Amarna on your list of places to visit in Egypt? What questions do you have about Akhenaten’s capital city? Let me know by leaving a comment below!
