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The initial name of Akhenaten was
Amenhotep IV who was a pharaoh from the 18th Dynasty who ruled
between 1379 and 1362 BC. He transformed the polytheist Egyptian
religion in a monotheist one and proclaimed the Aton god as the
only god of Egypt. After the death of Akhenaten, his successor,
Tuthankamun came back to the old polytheist cult. The epoch of Akhenaten was one of the most controversial; there are not many
information about the pharaoh` s childhood. It is supposed that
he was raised in Theba, the actual Luxor. He became a pharaoh
between 16 and 24 years, and at his ceremony he adopted the
traditional Egyptian titles. He was married with Nefertiti, a
woman with a great influence in his epoch. In the first years of
his reign, Akhenaten took care especially of Heliopolis, with
the purpose of stopping the Thebans` ambitions. Under his orders
were built temples in Karnak in the honor of the Sun` s god and
proclaimed himself a ‘the Great Priest’. In his sixth year of
reign, about 1350 BC, as result of a revelation, Amenhotep IV
changed his name in Akhenaten which means ‘the Aton's servant’.
He proclaimed the country's monotheist adhesion to the cult of
Aton, the one who will would protect his reign. At one moment,
during his reign, his wife Nefertiti disappeared but there are
no references to her disappearance. After 18 years of reign, the
pharaoh Akhenaten died, being buried in the tomb he made in
Tell-al-Amarna. His body was never discovered. Nobody knows for
sure what happened in Egypt after his death. All members of his
family disappeared from the history's sources after the death
of Akhenaten. It's still a mystery why the pharaoh changed the
Egypt's religion, ordering new ritually practices. |
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