Tell el-Amarna is the modern name of the place chosen by Pharaoh Akhenaten around 1350 BC to be the centre of the cult of his preferred god, the Aten, the disc of the sun. Within a few years a complete city was built on the desert, containing the temples to the Aten, the royal palaces and houses for many thousands of people. Not long after his death, Amarna was largely abandoned, after a lifespan of less than twenty years. Archaeological excavation has uncovered large parts of the city, but these lie exposed to slow destruction by the weather and are threatened by the expansion of modern villages and fields. The lecture looks at what we know of the city, and what is being done to preserve it.