The tomb lies about six kilometres up the Royal Wadi from its mouth, high in the cliffs forming a narrow side‐valley. It was planned to accommodate several interments rather than only that of the king. The architectural design shows both finished and unfinished portions, indicating that its construction was interrupted before all intended burial chambers and annexes were completed. The burial chamber of Akhenaten himself is the only part of the tomb that appears fully completed.

The tomb’s decoration program is centred on the royal family and the worship of the Aten, the sun disc, rather than traditional funerary texts or imagery associated with the Osirian afterlife. Many surfaces originally intended for elaborate decoration (possibly painted or plastered reliefs) have been lost due to both ancient desecration and the soft quality of the bedrock and plaster, which made preservation difficult.

After Akhenaten’s death, probably around 1338 BCE, the tomb was desecrated, plundered, and abandoned when the royal court relocated back to Thebes under Tutankhamun. Over time, destruction and looting—both ancient and more recent—have removed much of what would have been the tomb’s full decorative and funerary contents.

circa 1355 BCE- Present

Akhenaten, formerly Amenhotep IV, established a new capital city named Akhetaten (modern Amarna) early in his reign, and redirected religious worship to Aten, elevating it above the traditional gods.

The tomb was begun presumably during Akhenaten’s reign. It reflects the shift in religious ideology of the Amarna Period, including how royal afterlife was conceived. Meketaten (one of his daughters) died during Akhenaten’s lifetime, and she is known to have been buried in the tomb. His mother, Queen Tiye, is also believed to have been placed there. However, queen Nefertiti’s intended burial there is uncertain; her chamber annex remains unfinished.

Following Akhenaten’s death, the royal court abandoned the site. The return to older religious practices under his successors entailed defacement of Atenist imagery, removal or destruction of names and reliefs, removal of funerary equipment, and plunder of tombs. In the Royal Tomb, many of the chambers beyond the burial chamber remained unfinished, decoration deteriorated, and artefacts were destroyed or removed. The fate of Akhenaten’s corpse is unknown, since reports of human remains found near the entrance in 1891 CE by Georges Daressy are not verifiable today.

circa 1355-1338 BCE

Layout
The Royal Tomb’s structure is rock-cut, carved high into cliffs of the Royal Wadi, approximately 6 kilometers from the mouth of the wadi. Its layout includes an entrance corridor, staircases, a ramp, and multiple rows of chambers branching off the main axis. A principal burial chamber lies at the end of the corridor. Subsidiary chambers are arranged for the interment of Meketaten, Tiye, and possibly Nefertiti. In particular, there is an unfinished annexed section believed to be for Nefertiti. One innovation of this tomb is the ramp descending into the burial chamber along the central axis, which seems earlier than such features elsewhere in royal Eighteenth Dynasty tombs. The use of multiple chambers for family members diverges from purely individual royal tombs. Because the rock quality is relatively poor, much of the decoration was not directly carved in durable stone but was applied in plaster or gypsum on rock surfaces; this has meant greater loss over time.

circa 1355-1338 BCE

Decoration Program
Decoration in the tomb emphasizes royal family depictions under the rays of the Aten. Scenes include the mourning over the death of Meketaten, representations of Akhenaten, Queen Nefertiti, and their daughters in religious or ritual acts directed toward Aten. Traditional funerary texts (e.g., Book of the Dead) are striking by their absence. In the chambers for Meketaten, some decoration has survived better. Reliefs here reflect the ceremony of mourning and royal rituals. The artistic style corresponds to what we call the Amarna style: elongated forms, naturalism, intimate domestic family scenes, soft modelling of figures and somewhat exaggerated anatomy of the royal family. Colour was likely present, with plastered and painted surfaces, though surviving decoration is fragmentary. Reliefs were mostly in low relief (or painted after plaster), and many details are lost either because of the collapse of plaster, surface erosion or later deliberate defacement.

circa 1355-1338 BCE

Artefacts recovered give insight into funerary equipment under Akhenaten and the tension between traditional burial customs and Atenist reforms.

Fragments of granite sarcophagi and lids for Akhenaten and Meketaten have been recovered. Akhenaten’s sarcophagus has been reconstructed from many fragments; it is displayed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It was made of red granite (from Aswan), and is rectangular (departing from the typical anthropoid (human-shaped) sarcophagus). Its decoration replaced protective deities in the corners with figures of Nefertiti; the lid’s sloping form recalls the shrine shape of Upper Egypt; rays of Aten extend along its length.

There is an alabaster canopic chest for Akhenaten, also restored, with lids shaped as the king’s head, wearing either the khepresh crown or a wig; corners are ornamented with falcons with outstretched wings. The inscriptions are limited to names and titles of Aten and the king.

Over two hundred shabti-figures of Akhenaten were found. These are funerary figures intended to serve in the afterlife, though often with variation in form (some holding ankhs instead of hoes/picks) and inscribed only with Akhenaten’s names and titles, rather than full spells.

In addition to sarcophagi fragments, chest fragments, and shabtis, there were pottery, jewellery, scarabs, statues in various materials (wood, stone, faience, glass), and human remains (though the latter are fragmentary and poorly documented). Many of these are dispersed among museums worldwide.