William de Rimpel

And me, William de Rimpel.

Now, in the 12th year of his reign, the pharaoh Akhenaten staged the most spectacular ceremony of his rule.

From across the known world, delegations came to the new capital city of Amarna bearing tribute to

Ivory and gold from Nubia, painted pottery from the Aegean, horses and lapis lazuli from the kingdoms of the Near East, exotic animals, bolts of fine cloth, cedar wood from Lebanon, the tomb paintings of Akhenaten's officials recorded in extraordinary detail.

Dozens of figures prostrated before the king and his queen, the rays of the Aten pouring down on all of them, Akhenaten and Nefertiti.

at the absolute zenith of their power.

The revolution triumphant.

But you're not speaking from the British Museum, I take it though.

Okay.

No!

It's not one of those many missing pieces from the British Museum that we keep reading about in the papers.

So this is year 12 of the Amana Revolution.

The Great Durbar is about to take place, and it's worth spending a moment looking at this city at its peak.

And Nathan's had it built at astonishing speed.

And some accounts say it's actually quite jerry-built, that when you look inside the kind of gleaming exterior, they've sort of shoved all sorts of rubbish inside.

And it's like one of those sort of Indian airports that get built at double speed, and then all the bits fall apart.

There was a, there was a, can you remember when the Olympics happened?

Yes.

All the, all the, all the crooks in Delhi built these bridges that fell as soon as the Olympic crowds turned up.

Anyway, it was that sort of thing.