William de Rimpel

And, um,

Within a decade, a city of 20 or 30,000 people had risen from the Bad Desert.

And this is a time when, you know, there are no other cities of 20 or 30,000 people, except possibly Babylon or Ur of the Colossus.

Are there any other 20,000 people cities at this period in history?

This is not Memphis as in Elvis Presley.

And just to describe it, I'd like to just sort of the image of this city at its center, the great temple of Aten, an open air enclosure of unprecedented size.

None of the dark inner sanctuaries of traditional Egyptian temples because Aten required no darkness, no ritual mystery.

You just sunlight and you have all these complaints to foreign dignitaries.

It's too hot.

Why are we sitting out here?

They're rather prettier than Victorian versions.

I mean, I have to say that I know that everyone is down on that.

I think it's the most, the supreme moment of Egyptian art.

The art from this period is astonishingly gorgeous.

And there's very simple lines.

And there's that weird head of, I mean, not head, there's that colossus of Akhenaten himself in the Cairo Museum, isn't there, with these sort of weird lips and tummy, which was one originally of seven or eight lined up against the Temple of Aten.

More of that.

I can never look at a barn in the same way again now.

That's awesome.

With plastic cows on them.