The story of the discovery of these documents is still another among the many romances which archæology so constantly and so unexpectedly presents.
The site of the modern Arab village, Tel-el-Amarna, is about one hundred and ninety miles south of Cairo, on the eastern bank of the river Nile.
The mountain chain which here follows the course of the river, recedes at this point in the form of a bay, and upon the sandy plain thus partially enclosed, many interesting remains appear, indicating the site of an ancient city.
The tombs on the hillside have long been of special interest to Egyptologists.
This city was known to have been the royal residence, and for a time the capital of Egypt, under Amenophis IV, the ninth king of the eighteenth dynasty. This king, son of Amenophis III and Queen Teie, a princess of Mitanni, was through several generations of maternal descent more Asiatic than Egyptian.
The royal house of Mitanni—the Aram-Nahairam of the Hebrews—had given in marriage several successive princesses to the kings of Egypt. Tothmes III, during his wars of conquest in western Asia, had obtained a princess of Mitanni in marriage, and this alliance was further cemented by the Egyptian kings, his successors, to the period of Amenophis III, the father of Khu n Aten, Amenophis IV.
These frequent alliances had brought about an inclination for the gods of the Mesopotamian mothers, and after while this younger son of the royal house of Egypt, openly professed his adoption of the worship of Aten, the supreme Baal of the Semitic people of Asia, and attempted to substitute this for the worship of Amon, the god of Thebes. He erased the name of the Egyptian god from the monuments and temples wherever found. This so aroused the indignation of the powerful priesthood devoted to the worship of Amon, that Amenophis found it necessary to leave for a time the capital of his kingdom at Thebes and to found another elsewhere.
This was established on the site of the modern Tel-el-Armana. The king took to himself a new title, Khu n Aten, “The Splendor of the Sun’s Disc,” by which name also he designated his new city. His reign after this seems to have been of short duration. After him, two or three princes of his house succeeded him, but with him Egyptian supremacy in western Asia was at an end and the subject provinces of Syria and Palestine passed out of Egyptian hands and rule.
The mummy of this monarch has recently been found in a royal sepulcher of the kings of Thebes with those of other kings of this ancient dynasty.
The revolt against the heretical king was extensive and Egypt was distracted with civil wars. The adherents of the ancient religions soon brought the worship of the new heresy to an end, and Rameses, first king of the nineteenth dynasty, restored the worship of Amon and the ancient gods of Egypt, with all power and dignity and brought with him a return of peace.