Original subtitles

Narrator: The lost city of amarna --

An ancient mystery buried deep In the egyptian desert.

Stevens: This was a huge city.

It had a population Of perhaps 50,000 people.

Narrator: This sprawling metropolis

Is home to egypt's Most famous rulers --

Akhenaten, queen nefertiti,

And the boy king tutenkhamun.

Why does it vanish Almost without a trace?

One could look at it as A monument of a great ambition,

Or you could look at it As the work of a maniac despot.

Narrator: Today, investigators journey Deep inside ancient tombs...

And use forensic analysis

To reveal one of the darkest Chapters in egyptian history.

Amarna doesn't just disappear.

There may have been A deliberate attempt to forget

That this place Ever existed.

Narrator: to unearth the secrets Of amarna,

We will lift up this buried city From the desert floor.

We'll blow away the sands From magnificent tombs...

...Resurrect lost temples...

...And reveal the astonishing True story of egypt's

Most notorious pharaoh.

--captions by vitac-- Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

Egypt.

Land of the pharaohs.

This ancient country is home To many astonishing wonders,

Gigantic pyramids, And huge temples,

But its desert hides what may be The greatest secret of all --

An abandoned megacity Called amarna.

Amarna is one of The great

Archaeological sites In the world.

We have here the footprint Of an entire ancient city.

Narrator: Amarna lies in middle egypt,

Halfway between the ancient Cities of luxor and memphis.

This buried metropolis Is bigger than both.

The desert sands hide A lush oasis

That stretches across more Than 50 square miles.

They're all that's left Of a once-magnificent city.

In its prime, amarna is home To up to 50,000 people.

At its center stands A huge royal palace,

And not one, But two vast temples,

The largest stretching more Than six football fields

From end to end.

Why does this city disappear For thousands of years?

What secrets lie buried Beneath the sands?

♪♪

Archaeologist dr. Anna stevens

Investigates this Vanished metropolis.

Its rise and fall is one Of egypt's greatest mysteries.

Amarna is the vision

Of an enigmatic pharaoh Called akhenaten,

A king thought to be the father Of the famous tutenkhamun.

Stevens: the size of this place Is extraordinary.

We're standing here at the very Northern end of ancient amarna,

And when we look out, We can see the nile river

Running alongside us here,

Really the source of life For the ancient egyptians.

The ancient city stretches,

Originally, from right Alongside the riverbank,

All the way across To the eastern cliffs.

Narrator: akhenaten's city Appears almost nowhere

In egypt's official records,

But the cliffs Behind the city center conceal

A remarkable account Of its origins.

Here, anna joins egyptian Archaeologist hamada kellawy.

They decipher a gigantic stone Tablet carved into the rock.

Stevens: This is a boundary marker.

We call it a stela.

It's one of 15 stelae Of this kind

To mark out the territory Of ancient amarna.

A ring of boundary markers Like this straddles

Both sides of the nile.

They define the city limits,

But the tablets also describe Every major building inside it.

Ancient symbols called Hieroglyphs reveal

That akhenaten builds them All for the egyptian sun god,

The aten.

He's really setting his vision For this new city,

So he's listing the monuments

That he's going to create For the sun god

And the endowments That he's gonna create.

Narrator: the ancient egyptians Believed that the aten

Is the creator god.

He appears in the sky As the sun disc.

♪♪

♪♪

Mm.

This city in a scorching Hot desert

Is the perfect home For a sun god,

But why does the pharaoh Build him an entire city?

A clue lies 5 miles away To the east

In amarna's Very own valley of the kings.

Buried beneath tons of stone And rubble,

A sloping shaft descends

Straight into the rock Of the mountainside.

In the deepest chamber lie Elaborately carved fragments

Of an impressive Stone sarcophagus.

This is a tomb of high status, But there's no mummy inside,

And severely damaged hieroglyphs On the surrounding walls

Hide all clues To the tomb's owner,

But in the chambers beyond, One carving remains intact.

Beneath an image of the aten God himself are two figures --

Akhenaten and a woman.

What can these faded carvings

Reveal about the origins Of this lost city?

Anna ventures inside the tomb.

Haunting images of the pharaoh Cover almost every wall.

All egyptian tombs Are generally covered

With images of the tomb owner.

This figure here is very badly Damaged, but it's akhenaten.

He's standing the closest To the sun god

And the rays of the sun god.

Narrator: a female figure stands Next to the pharaoh

In almost every image.

Decoding the hieroglyphs here

Reveals That this is akhenaten's wife,

A queen called nefertiti.

♪♪

So, this figure's standing Close behind the king.

Under the rays of the aten Is nefertiti.

This tomb is highly unusual.

Nefertiti is shown to be almost As powerful as her husband.

The key figure here Is obviously akhenaten.

He's the largest figure.

He's the one who's closest To the aten,

And he, of course, Is the head of the family.

He's the head of the city,

And, of course, He's leading egypt, as well,

But you can see also That nefertiti is represented

On really quite A large scale.

She, like her husband, Akhenaten, is semi-divine.

The burial chamber Also depicts their children.

The identity of one family Member in particular

Is extraordinary.

What it seems to show Is the death

Of princess meketaten In childbirth.

What's also really Interesting here

Is that we seem to have a Depiction of the princess' baby.

Some scholars suggest it's Possibly tutenkhamun himself.

Narrator: this might be The earliest depiction

Of the famous boy king.

The tomb reveals that The abandoned city of amarna

Is a family project.

Most pharaohs' tombs Of the new kingdom

Were cut just For the king himself.

The royal tomb at amarna Is a little bit more unusual.

So we think that not just Akhenaten was buried here,

But one of the royal princesses.

The king's mother might also Have been buried here,

And there's a really prominent Suite of secondary chambers

That look as though They were intended

For nefertiti's burial as queen.

Narrator: Amarna is not just another city.

It's supposed to be egypt's New capital,

The home of the royal family,

But this tomb also hints At a troubled history.

These chambers are Never completed.

Many of the carvings here appear To be deliberately damaged.

One figure that we know wasn't Buried here was tutenkhamun.

He was actually buried in the Valley of the kings at luxor.

There's a question mark

About whether nefertiti Might have been buried here.

The suite of chambers that seems To have been cut for her

Is unfinished,

So it's unlikely that her body Was actually interred here.

Narrator: Amarna is a vast puzzle.

Why does the pharaoh Move his family

And egypt's entire capital

To the middle of nowhere Only for it to fade away?

A secret shrine in a lost corner Of the city

Could hold the answer.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: 3,000 years ago,

A mysterious pharaoh Called akhenaten

Builds a magnificent new city At amarna in middle egypt.

This barren desert plain By the nile

Is hundreds of miles From egypt's traditional cities.

Here, the pharaoh rules With his wife,

The beautiful queen nefertiti.

Why does this Spectacular metropolis

Suddenly appear here From nothing?

Archaeologists anna stevens And hamada kellawy

Hunt for evidence In the city center.

At dawn, the sun rises From behind a gap

In these distant cliffs.

This is really lovely, isn't it, The way you see the columns

And the wadi behind it.

Like he's...

Yeah.

Amarna is unique.

It's the only city in egypt Built for a single god.

But outside These spectacular temples,

There's evidence That not everyone

Is devoted to the sun god.

In the suburbs of this Glorious city,

Its ordinary citizens live In basic, closely-packed houses.

Constructed from Rough mud bricks,

Painted with a simple coat Of white paint,

House upon house Is packed together.

Nearby, built in the same way, Is a simple chapel.

Inside, an open space With benches.

At one end, there's an altar And a shrine

To two of egypt's Traditional gods, isis and shed.

Why are they hidden away in A run-down corner of the city?

♪♪

Egyptologist aidan dodson Explains that amarna

Is the result Of a forgotten revolution.

Amarna is the brainchild Of one man.

It wouldn't have existed without

The fevered imagination Of akhenaten.

Narrator: a clue to the city's Secret history

Lies hundreds of miles Away in thebes,

Egypt's ancient capital.

Aidan explores Its vast temple of karnak.

This mega-temple is dedicated To egypt's

Most important Ancient god, amun,

But faded carvings reveal traces Of an unthinkable attack

On egypt's holiest site.

Looking at these texts, There are plenty of places

Where I can see things Have been scratched out,

And what was once there Were the names of amun.

Narrator: aidan believes this Vandalism is the work of none

Other than Akhenaten himself.

Dodson: This is a wonderful example

Of how agents were sent All over egypt by akhenaten

To remove amun's name and title Wherever it appeared.

Narrator: These scratched-out carvings

Reveal that akhenaten rebels Against all of the old gods.

Dodson: what akhenaten is doing Is clearly a revolution --

A revolution from above, But a revolution nevertheless.

It's not only religion. It's art.

Even the way The language is used in public.

Everything changes.

It's year 0.

Narrator: For more than a millennium,

The egyptians worship more Than 2,000 gods and goddesses.

Among them, anubis,

The jackal-headed God of the underworld;

Thoth, the knowledgeable God of the moon;

And powerful amun, King of the gods.

But akhenaten erases them All from his temple walls,

Systematically replacing them With a single one --

The sun god.

Across egypt, the aten now Reigns supreme through his son

On earth, the pharaoh.

♪♪

Archaeologist anna stevens Investigates

How the pharaoh builds His new world order at amarna.

She heads inside the tombs Of the city's noblemen.

Many of these Underground chambers

Are remarkably well preserved.

Stevens: As soon as you enter the tomb,

You see this figure standing Here wearing all his finery,

And this is a man called meryre.

He was a really important Person at ancient amarna.

He was the high priest Of the aten.

Narrator: Priests are powerful people

In ancient egyptian society.

They often have their Own magnificent tombs

Celebrating their status.

But this burial chamber Is very strange.

Normally in egypt at this time, High-ranking officials

Would decorate their tombs With imagery

That really celebrated Their achievements in life.

Here, at amarna, though, We see the tomb owner very much

In supporting roles.

The focus is on the king, The queen, and the aten.

Narrator: Nefertiti and akhenaten Totally dominate this scene.

Only they stand beneath The aten sun god.

So, here you see meryre,

And what he's doing

Is supporting the king As the king worships the aten,

So he's handing over offerings Up to the pharaoh.

The king wanted the focus to be On the aten cult

And on his special relationship With the sun god.

Narrator: At the buried city of amarna,

Nefertiti and akhenaten Have total, absolute control.

There will be no other temples, No other priests,

No other gods to challenge them.

Stevens: What akhenaten was doing here

Was an anathema To the idea of world order.

You cannot deny the existence Of other gods

And focus worship Only on one god.

This would have been Incredibly upsetting

To the egyptian world view.

Narrator: Amarna is the dawn of a new age

And an audacious power grab.

The pharaoh completes this city In just a few years.

How does he achieve This incredible feat?

And how many would suffer For his dream?

♪♪

Narrator: 3,000 years ago,

Tens of thousands Of egyptians toil

Under a blazing sun at amarna.

Here, they build a new capital For their godlike ruler,

The pharaoh akhenaten, And his queen, nefertiti.

This pre-planned metropolis Is far removed

From the sprawling cities Of the past.

Dodson: amarna probably was The nearest thing

To a model city Egypt ever produced.

♪♪

Narrator: egypt's ancient Capitals at luxor and memphis

Grow up Over thousands of years.

Their individual palaces And temples

Take decades to finish.

The great pyramid at giza is A 20-year construction project.

By comparison, everything At amarna emerges

In just a few years.

How do engineers build This huge city so quickly?

Archaeologist hamada kellawy Is on the hunt to find out.

He's in charge of protecting This abandoned city.

No one knows its geography Better than him.

Hamada heads deep into the Desert sands to look for clues.

In barren dunes, he analyzes Row upon row of ruined walls --

A village for amarna's workers.

♪♪

These suburbs are An ancient time capsule.

They reveal how most of amarna Is made from local material.

♪♪

Amarna's housing is quick And easy to build,

But engineers also construct The city's grand stone buildings

With the same astonishing speed.

A giant temple dominates Akhenaten's city.

Its outer wall encloses More than 40 acres --

A space big enough to fit Tens of thousands of people.

Inside, there are six immense Gateways,

Each more than 90 feet high.

The temple has no roof,

So worshipers are never shaded From the sun god's gaze.

And in the open space beyond Are almost 1,000 stone tables

Used for lavish offerings To the god in the sky above.

This is a temple Of monumental proportions.

How did akhenaten build so much So fast?

Today, amarna's grand temples Are in ruins.

Fragments of their stone blocks Are scattered far and wide.

So egyptologists search For answers here at thebes.

This ancient city could hold The secrets

Of amarna's construction.

It's where akhenaten Begins his reign.

For thousands of years,

Nearly every pharaoh Builds here.

Tayeb mohamed investigates This incredible site.

♪♪

♪♪

Tayeb thinks that thebes is Where akhenaten

Learns to build big And build fast.

He ventures inside The magnificent temple of luxor

In the heart Of the ancient city.

Akhenaten's buildings here No longer exist,

But thousands Of ancient stone blocks

Are stacked high Behind the temple walls.

Tayeb takes a closer look At these fragments

Amongst luxor's masonry ruins.

They are instantly familiar.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

These stone blocks date To just a few years

Before work begins at amarna.

♪♪

♪♪

These blocks are the fragments Of one of akhenaten's

Very first buildings --

An early lost temple To the sun god.

Careful scrutiny reveals Another intriguing fact --

These stones are much smaller Than any other masonry here.

♪♪

♪♪

These small blocks Are called talatats.

Each one is three hands wide.

Early egyptians invent them,

But they're an outdated Technique by akhenaten's reign.

So why does the pharaoh Use them?

♪♪

Azab hamdan is an Expert stonemason.

He uses modern tools, But the same techniques

As the ancient egyptians, To create a talatat stone.

Azab discovers that creating Such a small block

Is quick and easy.

♪♪

Azab's rapid work confirms The theory

That these smaller stones Are what make amarna possible.

They allow akhenaten To complete one

Of the most ambitious Construction projects

In egypt's entire history.

♪♪

More than 1,000 years Before akhenaten,

The egyptians build the great Pyramid around 2580 b.C.

Each stone block requires Hundreds of workers

To drag and lift into place.

But akhenaten abandons This technique.

He cuts talatat stones that Are a fraction of the size.

♪♪

Now one worker can each carry A single block,

Speeding up construction.

With this technique,

Akhenaten's city is raised from The desert sand in just 3 years.

Amarna is one of the greatest Engineering projects

In egyptian history.

The sheer scale of it rivals

The construction of The great pyramid at giza,

A tomb that took 20 years to complete.

Stevens: Before akhenaten came here,

It would have been Quite a barren landscape.

There were thousands of people

Engaged in This mass building project

On behalf of akhenaten.

What sort of effort was required To develop this city

From the ground up Within just a few years?

Narrator: akhenaten Builds a vast metropolis,

A huge royal palace Where he lives in luxury

And worships his solar god.

But what is the human cost Of amarna?

A grisly discovery reveals Its darkest secrets.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: The lost city of amarna is Slowly revealing its secrets.

It's one of the largest and Fastest construction projects

In egyptian history,

But is there a human cost To this mega-metropolis?

Archaeologist anna stevens Explores a cemetery

On the outskirts of the city.

Stevens: in the desert On the eastern fringe of amarna,

We find Four huge burial grounds.

There's several thousand people Buried here.

Narrator: the pharaoh akhenaten And his wife, nefertiti,

Live in luxury here,

But the graves of their subjects Reveal a darker side

To this glittering new city.

Beneath the sand and silt Of the river valley,

Deep narrow pits Are the final resting place

Of more than 200 people.

They are buried unceremoniously,

Sometimes two or more piled Into a single grave.

They have no grave goods to take With them into the afterlife,

And only coarse rush matting As a simple shroud.

The skeletal remains are small And reveal a startling trend --

These bodies are almost All adolescents.

What can their early deaths Reveal about amarna's

Hurried construction?

Forensic archaeologist Gretchen dabbs

Unlocks the secrets Of these bones in her lab

At southern illinois university.

They contain startling clues

About the health Of the population.

Dabbs: this is A 6- to 8-year-old individual

Who has arthritis in its feet,

Which we can tell based on The flattening of the margins

Of the places where The two bones touch one another.

Narrator: The discovery of a child With arthritis is extraordinary.

In the modern world, it's Usually a disease of old age.

Dabbs: this individual has Arthritis of the knee,

And the most likely reason For seeing arthritis

In the young individuals Of the north tomb cemetery

Is hard work, hard labor That started very early in life.

Narrator: many of the 200 youths In the cemetery

Are also severely malnourished.

Nearly all of those buried At amarna

Also have serious bone injuries.

Gretchen compares This modern bone sample

With the x-rays From the cemetery.

Dabbs: one of the most common Injuries that we found

In the south tomb cemetery

Is Called a compression fracture,

Where the elements actually Smash down on each other

And break the bones.

You can actually see the body Of the upper vertebra

Is intruding on the body of The lower vertebra right there.

Narrator: these injuries reveal The disturbing reality

Of daily life in amarna.

We interpret these as evidence That these individuals

Were carrying Extremely heavy loads.

It's possible that they were Involved in the heavy work

Of quarrying.

And the quarries were located Right on the cliffs

Just above The north tomb cemetery.

Narrator: the bodies discovered In the cemetery

Show little of the respect Ancient egyptians

Usually show to their dead.

Egypt's long line of pharaohs All employed

Tens of thousands of skilled Workers to build their pyramids.

They are well treated, In life and in death.

Tombs carefully built from Mud bricks lie in the shadow

Of the great pyramid,

A place of honor Next to their sacred pharaoh.

Each contains a single body Wrapped in linen

And carefully positioned

With the face towards The rising sun in the east.

Alongside the bodies, knives, Jars of beer, and bread

Ensure a comfortable passage Into the afterlife.

Amarna's burials stand out.

Here, its builders Are worked to death.

Dabbs: the lack of care that we See in the north tomb cemetery

In the way that the individuals Were buried suggests

That it wasn't their family Or loved ones

Who were doing the burial,

That it was more industrial-type And expedient-type burial.

Narrator: amarna is Far from the glorious city

The pharaoh proclaims.

Its founders are malnourished And die young

In akhenaten's rush To build his city.

Why does the pharaoh Need to build so quickly?

Could the answer reveal

Why amarna vanishes Almost without a trace?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: the city of amarna In egypt has a dark history.

The pharaoh akhenaten drives His workers

Into an early grave to build it.

But this metropolis Is suddenly abandoned

When the pharaoh himself dies.

Why?

Amarna is a really special Archaeological site

Because it was only occupied

For the space Of a single generation.

It's really this remarkable Snapshot of egyptian history.

Narrator: akhenaten rules egypt For 17 years.

After he dies, power eventually Passes to his son tutenkhamun,

But the boy king is buried far

From his father's tomb In amarna.

His magnificent tomb Lies in the valley of the kings,

Egypt's traditional Burial ground.

Egyptologist aidan dodson Thinks amarna's decline

Lies with the pharaoh's son And heir, tutenkhamun.

He hunts for clues At luxor temple.

Stylistically, this relief Couldn't come from any period

Other than the reign Of tutenkhamun.

It's got a certain elegance, A naturalism.

Narrator: akhenaten shuts down The temples in thebes

During his revolution To banish the old gods,

But these carvings reveal that By the time his son tutenkhamun

Is pharaoh, It's up and running again.

Aidan thinks that tutenkhamun Is going back to the old ways.

Dodson: the overall scene has Tutenkhamun on the left there

Making an offering To amun on the right.

This indicates without any doubt That tutenkhamun has now

Rejected the religion Of his father.

Narrator: Tutenkhamun betrays his father.

He moves back to thebes and Kick-starts a counterrevolution.

A row of sphinxes reveals that The old gods are back in town.

These magnificent sphinxes At luxor

Originally bear the heads Of akhenaten himself

And his wife, nefertiti,

But in the years Following akhenaten's death,

These statues are Relocated and rebuilt.

Their heads are removed,

And each Is replaced with a ram's head --

The symbol Of the original god, amun.

A figure of the new pharaoh Is added,

And symbols at their feet bear

The name of Akhenaten's son and heir.

It's tutenkhamun himself.

Why is the old pharaoh's Own flesh and blood

Destroying his dream?

Is this why amarna Also comes to an end?

Aidan finds a clue lies with one

Of tutenkhamun's Official decrees.

It reveals how egypt Has fallen on hard times.

He starts off, As an introduction,

Basically saying How bad things are.

He says that the temples have Been deprived of their revenues,

They're falling into ruin,

And as a result of this, That the gods are not happy.

Narrator: tutenkhamun seems To be carrying out

An extraordinary act Of family betrayal,

But, for aidan, Something doesn't add up.

When this declaration is made,

Tutenkhamun is about 9 years old.

Dodson: He came to throne as a child

And died on the verge Of adulthood,

So the policies Which are set out in here

Will have been the work of those Who were ruling for or with him.

Narrator: aidan thinks There's a secret mastermind

Behind this attempt to tear down The old pharaoh's legacy.

His investigation takes him On the short journey

Across the nile To luxor's western bank.

Here, a range of rocky mountains

Houses the tombs Of thebes' ancient nobles.

One small tomb Remains closed off.

Aidan has gained special Permission to unlock the tomb.

Once he enters, he can begin To decode the artwork

That covers its chambers.

Dodson: well, this is the tomb Chapel of a priest called pairy.

Narrator: Graffiti dates the tomb To just after akhenaten's death.

It reveals that another ruler Seizes power before tutenkhamun.

The identity of this New pharaoh is shocking.

Dodson: it's dated to year 3 Of king neferneferuaten,

Who we are almost certain Is none other

Than the former queen nefertiti, The wife of akhenaten.

Narrator: nefertiti seizes power Following her husband's death,

Perhaps acting as regent Until tutenkhamun comes of age.

But the graffiti Reveals another surprise.

The new pharaoh and her priest

Are worshiping The old god, amun.

This is the really exciting part Of the tomb for me, anyway.

The main body of it Is a prayer to amun.

So it shows that in year 3 Of her reign, amun is back.

This graffito is written Shortly after his death,

Probably 3 years After his death.

Narrator: astonishingly, Nefertiti quickly abandons

Her loyalty to her husband And his sun god, the aten.

She reinstates one of The old gods -- amun.

The idea that amun would be Restored to his position

Under akhenaten's own wife Seems quite incredible,

And I'm sure that akhenaten Was spinning

In his sarcophagus At this point.

Narrator: incredibly, nefertiti And tutenkhamun,

Akhenaten's wife and son, Reject his ideas,

But do they also Abandon amarna?

The desert sands reveal A shocking secret...

And a campaign of destruction Designed to wipe amarna

From the face of the earth.

Narrator: amarna in egypt --

Built to worship the sun god.

But when its founder, The pharaoh akhenaten dies,

His wife, nefertiti, And son tutenkhamun

Bring back Egypt's traditional gods.

But who kills off amarna?

Why is this city lost For thousands of years

Under the desert sands?

Professor aidan dodson Investigates.

He hunts for clues in the Ancient capital of thebes.

Aidan's quest takes him To a corner

Of the magnificent Karnak temple

And a monumental gateway Known as a pylon.

It dates to just after Amarna disappears.

This pylon is quite badly Ruined now,

But that does mean we can see Some of the blocks

Which were used to fill The interior when it was built.

Narrator: buried within the Outer faces of its walls

Are small talatat stones, The same kind of building blocks

That akhenaten uses To construct his temples.

This, of course, all means that When this pylon was being built,

The structures akhenaten Constructed at karnak

Were already being demolished, And the blocks reused here.

Narrator: this dismantling of Temples by future generations

Isn't that unusual in egypt.

Every pharaoh builds Massive monuments

As a symbol Of their power and status.

They often reuse stones As a quick and cheap method,

But as aidan continues his hunt, He discovers that the demolition

Of akhenaten's buildings Is malicious.

Dodson: this is another block From akhenaten's temple.

It looks like one of the king's Names has been erased.

It looks like it's been Purposely damaged.

The erasure of names Tends to imply

That somebody was not liked By later generations.

Narrator: akhenaten is not Simply forgotten and rejected,

But hated by future pharaohs.

It explains why so little Remains at amarna.

Here, the sun god's Magnificent temples

Are not only dismantled Block by block --

Each talatat stone Is smashed to pieces.

And in akhenaten's royal tomb,

The images of the old pharaoh Are cruelly scratched out,

And this is just The tip of the iceberg.

Aidan analyzes a text taken From an ancient stone carving.

It's composed just 40 years After akhenaten's death.

It reveals the campaign against Him extends to his family.

Dodson: what we've got here is A list of the kings of egypt,

And all the main Great names are here.

But when we look At the last part of the list,

There's no mention of akhenaten, Tutenkhamun.

So what this shows is, within A few years of their deaths,

They've been written Out of history,

And according to the official Lists, they didn't exist.

♪♪

Narrator: Future generations of pharaohs

Condemn akhenaten as a heretic,

His traumatic reign And religious revolution

Considered an abomination.

They try to erase all memory Of him and his family.

For more than 3,000 years,

Their story lies hidden Beneath these sands.

As an experiment, you'd have To assess that amarna,

In the end, had failed.

Akhenaten's vision Of the solar cult

Didn't live on beyond his rule.

Amarna was abandoned.

Narrator: but, today, In an ironic twist of fate,

His desert city stands as one of Egypt's greatest achievements.

And his son tutenkhamun

Is the most famous pharaoh Of them all.

Archaeologists continue to piece Together amarna and its secrets.

This remarkable desert city Is opening up

One of the most radical chapters In egyptian history.

Amarna's temples And palaces reveal

The vision Of an all-powerful ruler,

Paid for with the blood Of its poorest citizens.

Amarna is the legacy Of a failed experiment,

And akhenaten, Egypt's forgotten pharaoh.

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