Egyptian Dreams

[anneke]

This sunshade which first seems to have belonged to Kiya and later taken over by Meritaten is an interesting structure.


(Image from Wikimedia Commons)

I was reading Barry Kemp's book The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti and it struck me in the description that this was built in the desert.
Kemp mentions that the ground water is rather brackish, and that the water used in the Maru-Aten was likely hauled up from a well. There is no evidence of any system that would have brought water in from the river.

The whole structure is rather interesting to me. It looks like they were trying to create an oasis by having a park with water features. The T-shaped basins (labeled #4) are intriguing. They were surrounded by a pavement that was decorated with nature scenes. I cannot quite tell how large these basins were or what the purpose would have been.

There was an artificial island (#2) created in an artificial lake.
Makes one wonder how long it would have taken to create something like this and how much work it would have been to maintain something like this.

Kemp mentions that the Maru-aten is relatively far away from Meritaten's known residence, which was the North Palace. It would have been quite a chariot ride for her to go from her palace to this sunshade. Only for special ritual occasions maybe?

There is a short article on wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maru-Aten
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