His name at his accession was Amenhotep IV, but he changed it to honor the god
Aten . He is important for religious innovations. He abandoned polytheism to embrace monotheism.
He held that the sun, named
Aten, was god, and god alone, and that he was Aten's physical son. The solar monotheism was absolute; the new system allowed no accommodations and no exceptions. Through the rays of the sun everything that lived had its being. In honor of
Aten the new capital was called Akhetaten,
the modern Tell el Amarna, and new provincial capitals were founded in Nubia and Syria. The royal artists founded a new artistic school, characterized by the abandonment of convention and a turning to nature
because it showed the power of the sun. Akhenaten's fanaticism was its own undoing. He defaced every monument on which appeared the name of
Amun, previously the greatest god of Egypt. The Aten cult died with Akhenaten because the sentiments of the priesthood and the
Egyptian people were outraged by his destruction of their traditions. Akhenaten's religious zeal also lost Egypt the empire, because he had seriously neglected the provinces.
As a result, his successors, Smenkhkara and Tutankhamen, received-instead of an empire including Nubia and Syria-only Egypt and some of the upper
valley. Of the many artistic achievements of the era of Akhenaten, the most familiar today is the bust of his
wife Nefertiti.
The story of Akhenaten and his name itself was erased efficiently from Egyptian
history, and he was referred to as 'that heretic' or 'rebel' if necessary. An
intriguing mystery remains about the bodies of Akhenaten and his family. To
further the mystery, it has been suggested that Smenkhkara the mystery
successor of the Egyptian Pharaoh, was in fact Nefertiti.
Page last updated: 15 Feb 2008
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