Akhenaten, formerly Amenhotep IV, built his city in a bay of cliffs on the east bank of the Nile as a centre for the worship of his ‘new’ religion, Atenism.
The archaeology of the city is defined by low excavated or reconstructed walls and in some cases only bare outlines of the structures can be made out on the sand-covered plain, since most of the stonework was removed in ancient times and any remaining mudbrick is badly decayed.
Only one generation after Akhenaten's death, there were few physical remains of his superb innovative structures, for a short moment in history one of the greatest cities of ancient Egypt.
It was previously unoccupied and thus was a blank page upon which the pharaoh could write his new history of the world.
Despite his radical beliefs (monotheism), Akhenaten did not abandon all tradition, and he apparently prepared a royal tomb for himself and his family in the cliffs of Amarna.