Layout
The Great Temple of the Aten lay to the north of the Central City part of Akhetaten and was separated from the Palace by many storehouses. The Temple was oriented on an east-west axis and the western entrance to the Great Temple was along the Royal Road, a road that ran through the city and parallel to the Nile River. Soon after the death of Akhenaten, Atenism was rejected as a religion and the city was destroyed. The temple was dismantled, covered in new sand, and paved over, but ironically this has preserved the site better than it might normally have been for archaeologists today. In 1890, Flinders Petrie, with permission from the Egyptian Antiquities Service, began excavating the area. Based on the remaining foundations he found as well as on multiple scenes of the Great Temple found in private tomb decoration in Amarna, a comprehensive reconstruction of the temple has been possible.
One of the most distinctive aspects of the Temple was that there was no cult image of the god. Instead, the Temple was open-aired and had no roof, so that people worshipped the actual sun directly overhead as it traveled from east to west. In fact this was a common theme amongst all of the Aten temples; they were all arranged to direct worship towards the sky (such as in the Ḥwt Aten (Mansion of Aten), the smaller temple of Aten located 500m south of the Great Temple in Akhetaten).
In the Great Temple there were two main structures, the Gem-Aten and the Sanctuary, which were separated by about 300m. Upon entering the enclosure wall, one faced the first of these structures, the Gem-Aten, which was a very long building preceded by a court called the Per-Hai (House of Rejoicing). On the left of the main entrance to the Temple was a columned pavilion and on both the left and the right were small chapels. These chapels, originally built for Queen Kiya, were later taken over by the elder princesses. The first great pylon directly ahead was the entrance into the Per-Hai and it had swinging doors and five pairs of tall masts with crimson pennants flanking the doorway. The inside of the Per-Hai had two rows of four columns on each side. Within these colonnades were altars made of limestone carved with images of the King and Queen giving offerings. Through the Per-Hai and the next great pylon was the Gem-Aten, the He Who Found the Aten, and this was a series of six courtyards separated by pylons, all leading to a main sanctuary and altar. This Temple differed from temples of other gods because as one progressed through the courts, they became more open to the air and light, as opposed to temples like those of Amun-Ra where the halls would get darker and more shrouded in mystery. The first court had a high altar with small chapels and chambers on either side. Each successive court had altars and magazines where offering supplies could be stored. The fourth court was columned and had many furnished chambers where people could rest in the shade. The final court had a main High Altar intended for the Royal pair, and it was surrounded by 365 mud-brick altars on either side, one for each day of the year, divided to represent Upper and Lower Egypt. The offerings given here were dedicated to the Aten but were then used to feed the officiating priests, the temple staff, and even some of the local populace. Beyond this High Altar the Gem-Aten abruptly ended in a blank wall, which shows no sign of having had a door in it. On the outside of the Gem-Aten there was enough room to have a large ambulatory and there were 40 rows of 20 offering tables set up on each side.
Between the Gem-Aten and the Sanctuary, the main building at the east end of the enclosure, was a smaller, more sacred pillared portico with statues of Akhenaten and his family standing in front of each column. Inside the portico was a great quartzite stela next to a colossal seated statue of Akhenaten. This stela was carved with images of Akhenaten and Nefertiti and was a variation of a benben stone, a sacred solar symbol of Heliopolis. Traditionally, the benben stone was a representation of the island created by the sun-god Atum at the beginning of the world. This marked one of the holiest areas in the Temple and it was heaped in flowers and offerings. Today only a fragment of this stone has been found (discovered by Carter in 1892), but it was identified as a benben stone based on scenes of the Temple found in nearby tombs.
Also between the Gem-Aten and the Sanctuary in the Great Temple was a large square building where meat offerings were slaughtered and prepared, but further excavation of the area is difficult because of the presence of the modern-day cemetery of Et-Till.
The second main structure of the Great Temple was the Sanctuary at its east end, which may have been inspired by the Fifth Dynasty Sun Temples at Abu Ghuroub (c. 2400 BCE). The Sanctuary started with a pylon that led into an open court, on the south side of which were three houses probably intended for the priests on duty. A second pylon led to a causeway that went through two large colonnades with colossal statues of Akhenaten on either side wearing the Red Crown and the White Crown. The causeway continued into a final court that had a high altar surrounded by offering tables. This main altar was probably intended just for the Royal Family, especially after the Gem-Aten was built and put into regular use. Behind the Sanctuary there were other rooms including a large room which housed the original shrine of the dedication ceremony, but these rooms were only accessible from outside the Sanctuary.
Against the northeastern end of the enclosure wall was one final altar called the Hall of Foreign Tribute. This was a large set-in altar and was most likely where offerings from foreign lands were made.
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