Throne name Neferkheperure waenre. Original name Amenhotep IV. Son of Amenhotep III and Tiy. It is probable that he was not the eldest son, as a Prince Thutmose is attested but presumably died young. It is also not clear if there was a coregency between his father and himself or whether he succeeded only upon his father’s death. Akhenaten sought to establish the primacy of the cult of Re-Harakhty in the form of Aten, the sun’s disk. Following opposition in Thebes from the followers of Amun, he established a new capital at Akhetaten, now Amarna, and built his royal tomb nearby.

His opposition to the older cults gradually grew more intense, and they were eventually proscribed. His religious beliefs have been wrongly described as monotheism, as Akhenaten did not abandon those cults associated with the sun god or with kingship, namely his deified father and himself.

His reign is also noted for a revolutionary new art style, which is far freer than older Egyptian conventions and depicted the royal family and he himself in a particular manner.


Some have sought to identify a medical problem in this style, but it may simply have been a new artistic convention. His wife, Nefertiti, assumed a prominentrole in royal scenes, and it has been suggested that she even succeeded him. The circumstances that ended the reign are unknown.

Akhenaten’s eventual successor, Tutankhamun, who may have been his son, abandoned Amarna and reverted to the worship of Amun. Akhenaten’s name and that of his immediate successors wer

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