Akhenaten

Akhenaten was an Egyptian pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty who abolished the traditional gods in favour of a single deity, moved the capital, and was erased from the record within a generation of his death. He came to the throne around 1353 BC as Amenhotep IV, the son of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye. In his fifth regnal year he changed his name to Akhenaten, meaning effective for the Aten, and elevated the Aten — the visible disc of the sun — above all other gods. Within a few years he had closed the temples of Amun, whose priesthood at Karnak was enormously wealthy and politically powerful, defaced its images, and diverted its revenues. Whether this was genuine monotheism or the promotion of one god among many is still argued; the Great Hymn to the Aten, probably his own composition, addresses the Aten as sole creator. He built a new capital at Akhetaten, modern Amarna, on virgin desert, and swore never to leave it. The art produced there breaks entirely with a thousand years of convention: elongated skulls, heavy hips, and intimate domestic scenes of the king, Nefertiti and their daughters under the Aten's rays ending in hands. The Amarna letters, a cache of diplomatic correspondence found at the site, show vassals in Syria and Canaan pleading for help against invaders while Egypt did little, and imperial influence contracted. He reigned about seventeen years. His successors abandoned Amarna, restored Amun, and struck his name from king lists; Tutankhamun, probably his son, changed his own name from Tutankhaten. The city was demolished, which is why its foundations survive so well.

• Nationality: Egyptian
• Roles: ruler, religious_reformer