Life in Ancient Amarna/Akhetaten
Much of what is known about Amarna's founding is due to the preservation of a series of official boundary stelae - 13 in all are known - ringing the perimeter of the city. These boundary stelae are cut into the cliffs on both sides of the Nile (ten on the eastern side, three on the west) and record the events of Akhentaten (Amarna) from the founding to just before its fall.
To be able to make the move from Thebes to Amarna, Akhenaten needed the support of the military. Ay, one of Akhenaten's principal advisors, exercised great influence in this area because his father Yuya had been an important military leader. Additionally, everyone in the military had grown up together, they had been a part of the richest period and most successful period of Egypt's history under Akhenaten's father, so loyalty among the ranks was strong and unwavering, and, perhaps most importantly, "it was a military whose massed ranks the king took every opportunity to celebrate in temple reliefs, first at Thebes and later at Amarna."
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