A window into the past
Dating back to the reign of Amenhotep III, the ninth king of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty, who ruled from 1391 to 1353 BC, Aten is the largest ancient city ever discovered in the North African country.
The excavations yielded artifacts from later historical periods among which the Roman rule (30 BC–639 CE) and the Islamic era (642–1517 AD). “Among the artifacts unearthed were 628 ostraca inscribed with hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek texts, along with bronze coins from the Ptolemaic era,” the ministry explains.