Person1336 BC

Akhenaten

Also called: Amenhotep IV, Ikhnaton

Eighteenth-Dynasty pharaoh (r. c. 1353 – c. 1336 BC), born Amenhotep IV, who imposed the sole worship of the Aten

Son of Amenhotep III, he led the cult of the Aten together with his queen Nefertiti. He seized the wealth of Amun’s temples and had Amun’s name erased across the land. His Great Hymn to the Aten survives. The Amarna letters contain many pleas for help from vassals in Syria, leading some to judge that his absorption in religious reform led him to neglect foreign affairs. After his death his name was struck from the king lists.

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1 related event

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1353 BCReligious Reform of Amenhotep IVleader
Amenhotep IV replaced the god Amun with the sole worship of the sun disc Aten, renamed himself Akhenaten and moved the capital to Amarna, but the reform was reversed after his death.

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Early Civilizations and Empires3500 BC – 486 BC
From the first civilizations in the great river valleys to the first empires of the Near East, India and China — comparing their writing, law, religion and rule