Ruins at El Armana - House of Ranefer

Akhenaten built a new capital city which he called Akhetaten, the 'Horizon of the Aten' dedicated to the god Aten. It was located in middle Egypt and was protected by cliffs on three sides and the Nile on the fourth side. In this new place Aten could be worshipped without competing with the other gods. The architecture here was also new. It was open to the sun with outside altars and platforms instead of dark as traditional Egyptian temples had been.

The city is located at El Amarna today. The site was rediscovered in 1887 when a woman digging for sebakh discovered a cache of over 300 cuneiform tablets (the Amarna Letters). The city was abandoned after Akhenaten's death and was only occupied for 20-25 years.