Egyptian wall relief, taken 1989

Shows a group of blind singers beneath a large scene of the pharaoh Akhenaten (reigned 1350-1334 BCE, Dynasty XVIII) and his family worshipping the Aten (sun-god). Akhenaten moved the capital of Egypt from thebes to a virgin site where he built a city named Akhetaten (the horizon of Aten, now known as el-Amarna). This wall relief is from the tomb of Meryre on the south wall of the pillared hall, east side. Apart from congenital eye defects, blindness in ancient Egypt could be caused by one of many eye diseases prevelant along the banks of the Nile such as leucoma, cataract (which the Egyptians called barleycorn), conjunctvitis and trachoma, a chronic contagious disease caused by the organism Chlamydia trachomatis. Trachoma is also called Egyptian Ophthalmia and granular conjunctivitis.