Akhenaten

Akhenaten came to the throne as Amenhotep IV, succeeding his father Amenhotep III at the height of New Kingdom wealth and imperial power. Early in his reign, the young king broke radically with centuries of tradition. He elevated the Aten, represented as a radiant sun disc whose rays ended in protective hands, to become Egypt's supreme deity. In doing so, he sidelined the powerful priesthood of Amun at Thebes, changed his own name to honour the sun god, and altered the traditional conventions of Egyptian art to favour a more intimate and expressive style.

To cement this religious revolution, Akhenaten abandoned traditional centres of administration and founded a new capital city named Akhetaten, modern Amarna, on virgin ground in Middle Egypt. There he lived with his royal women, including his influential chief queen Nefertiti and second wife Kiya, along with his daughters and his son Tutankhamun. Life in the new city centred upon open-air worship in vast courtyards, away from the dark sanctuaries of earlier temple architecture. The king also directed significant early building at Karnak, including the Gempaaten complex, constructed using small, portable stone blocks known as talatat.

Akhenaten reigned from about 1352 to 1336 BC, with dates uncertain by about a decade. His religious experiment proved controversial and short-lived. Following his death, his successors steadily dismantled his religious reforms, abandoned his capital city, and chiselled away his royal images and inscriptions in a systematic effort to erase his memory.

Egyptologists reconstruct his reign through surviving boundary stelae, diplomatic tablets discovered at Amarna, damaged reliefs, and fragmentary wall paintings, as well as remnants from his royal tomb in the Amarna cliffs and controversial human remains from tomb KV55 in the Valley of the Kings.

Monuments

• City of Akhetaten (Amarna)
• Great Temple of the Aten
• Karnak Gempaaten

Explore further

Try the name on the Cartouche Desk, or see where the reign falls on the timeline.