Les lettres d'El Amarna

The Amarna tablets owe their name to the plains of Amarna on the right bank of the Nile approximately 300km south of Cairo. This was the location of the city of Akhetaten, which was briefly the capital of Ancient Egypt in the 14th Century BC. It was founded by Amenhotep IV, who was known by the name of Akhetaten and was one of the most famous Egyptian kings, renown for his religious reforms and also called the “heretic king” and the “first monotheist”. It was here, among the ancient remains, and probably in 1887, that farmers found these clay tablets bearing some kind of writing and the clandestine excavations began.