[citation needed] The archaeological evidence of such cities is best preserved, and has been most thoroughly delved, at El Lahun, Deir el-Medina, and Amarna, though some averment of urban planning exists at other sites as well.
The city was rebuilt three times during its inhabited life, and in at least one of its incarnations, its houses were placed very regularly along a main street.
Other known pre-dynastic settlements, such as those of the Badarian and Naqada cultures, are laid out arbitrarily and lack a defining plan.
[5] Located near the entrance to the channel of the Nile that leads to the Faiyum Oasis, it housed the workers who constructed Senusret's pyramid as well as the priests who maintained the royal funerary cult, and possibly even the king himself.
It was centered on the temple of the Senusret's pyramid, which visually dominated the village, and it consisted of two unequal quarters enclosed by mudbrick walls on at least three sides.
The smaller western quarter contained the relatively humble dwellings of the workers that were laid out on a rectangular grid pattern.
Flinders Petrie, who first excavated the site, noted how the layout of the neighborhood would allow a single nightwatchman to easily guard the area.
The streets were paved, and stone drainage channels built into them, leading to a central drain, allowed the disposal of dirty water from the houses.
[7] For the location, he chose Amarna, a fresh site on the eastern bank of the Nile, about 275 kilometers northwest of the old capital city of Thebes.
On the opposite side of the road from the palace lay a group of some of the largest houses in the city, probably belonging to nobles who were close to the king.
On the entire western side of the road and probably reaching down to the riverside was the Great Palace, consisting of several stone courts and halls, and housing at its center a huge courtyard surrounded by statues of Akhenaten.
[14] South of the palace (on the west side of the road) was the Mansion of the Sun-disc, a religious building whose purpose is not completely understood but was likely the king's mortuary temple.
[16] Due east of the king's house were offices, the archives (in which the Amarna Letters were found), and police and military barracks.
[18] These sprawling suburbs housed the large population needed to maintain the court and run the administration of the Central City.
Residing in the suburbs was a very mixed collection of social groups, the priests, soldiers, builders, sculptors and scribes having the most prominent houses.