Boundary Stelae of Akhenaten

They are carved into the cliffs surrounding the area of Akhetaten, or the Horizon of Aten, which demarcates the limits of the site.

It served as a sacred space for the god Aten in an uninhabited location roughly halfway between Memphis and Thebes at today's Tell El-Amarna.

[1] According to Barry Kemp, the Pharaoh Akhenaten did not “conceive of Akhetaten as a city, but as a tract of sacred land”.

[6] A partial translation of the stelae had also appeared in James Henry Breasted’s Ancient Records published in 1906.

[8] The inscription on the stelae K, M, and X is dated to the fifth regnal year of Akhenaten in day 13 of the season of Peret.

[10] The Earlier Proclamation also includes a promise from Akhenaten to build various temples and other structures to the god Aten in the location.

The inscription of the Later Proclamation is dated to year six of Akhenaten's reign in the day 13 of the season of Peret, which corresponds with the one year anniversary of the Earlier Proclamation, and includes a “renewal of the oath” that appeared in the Earlier Proclamation regarding the location and permanence of the site,[13] with some modifications to include more land, especially a swath of agricultural land in the cultivation on the western side of the river.

[13] Early in the year eight of Akhenaten's reign, in the season of Peret, a repetition of the oath of Akhenaten regarding the site is added to the stelae furnished with the Later Proclamation, and later that same year, in the season of Akhet, another text, termed the “Colophon” by Davies, is added to stelae A and B.

The boundary stelae are a major source of information about the religious reforms of Akhenaten, as they include the full titulary of the god Aten and other clues about the cult practiced in Akhetaten.

The stelae are royal monuments commissioned by the pharaoh and thus contain an inherent bias that favors the king's undertakings and condemns those who opposed his reforms.

Stelae X, M, and K have an image carved on top of the text, showing Akhenaten and Nefertiti worshipping Aten with their daughter Meritaten.

[18] Barry Kemp argues that the full expression of the beliefs of Akhenaten “demanded the creation of a physical sacred landscape” and that the boundary stelae are “the most extensive personal testimony we have as to what was in his mind”.