A model of Tell el-Amarna

Extract

Tell el-Amarna, the short-lived capital built by the pharaoh Akhenaten around 1350 BC, remains the largest ancient city in Egypt which is still above ground. Over the last century a succession of archaeological expeditions has revealed large areas of its plan. During 1999 the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, in connection with a temporary exhibition of Amarna art, commissioned a 1:400-scale model of a major part of the city, based on the survey which, in recent years, the Egypt Exploration Society has carried out. It was designed by Mallinson Architects, with advice from Bany Kemp, field director of the EES expedition to Amarna, and built by a Clapham firm of architectural modelmakers, Tetra (Andy Ingham Associates). The completed model measures 12 x 10 feet (3.7 x 3.0 metres).