Akhenaton
Akhenaten, son of Amenhotep III, ascended the throne with the name of Amenhotep IV. His mother Tiy was a woman of modest origins whose veins ran Nubian blood.
Many aspects of Pharaoh's life and his reign remain unknown to us today. Whether he suceeded to his father directly after his death or whether he first joined him as a second king is a question still widely debated. However, it seems difficult to accept the first hypothesis, which would want him to be on the throne at twelve, because we know that he undertook the great Atonian religious reform - which took place with vigor in the fourth year of his reign - when he left Thebes to move the Egypt's capital to Middle Egypt, to Akhetaton. He would have been just sixteen at the time.
More plausible is the hypothesis that he would see him crowned around the age of eighteen, reigning for a few years together with his father Amenophis III. This reign together would last more or less a decade, during which the old king, who remained in Thebes, would have kept aloof in his palace in Malgatta and would have entrusted the reins of the government to his son.
According to the latter hypothesis, we can therefore place the reign of Amenhotep IV between 1367 and 1350 (it is certain that he reigned for seventeen years).
It is unknown what role belongs to the relatives of Amenhotep and his wife Nefertiti in the religious revolution that he put into action by imposing the cult of Aten. However, it seems certain that the essential causes of his behavior must be ascribed to his mystical and dreamy nature, although it is appropriate not to underestimate the importance of the example given to him by the first, albeit timid experiment of atonian reform promoted by his father and, without a doubt, Nefertiti's encouragement.
The clergy of Ammon were gradually deprived of their prerogatives and possessions and the name of Ammon was deleted from the inscriptions. In the fourth year of his reign, Amenhotep changed his name to Akhenaten "Splendor of Aten", he left Thebes, a land consecrated to Amon, and settled in a new capital, in a place free from belonging to any divinity. The city he chose was called Akhetaton and the officials linked to the new regime integrated that of Aten to their name. Entirely occupied with imposing his new cult and glorifying the god who was his object of veneration with hymns of his composition, Akhenaten abandoned the official control of the Egypt for some time, for which he harbored a certain contempt.
Then revolts broke out in Egypt, favored by the priests of Ammon. Towards the end of his reign, Akhenaten clashed with Nefertiti and a certain Smenekhkare joined the throne.
He gave him his eldest daughter Merytaton to marring.
According to some scientists Smenekhkare was Akhenaten's brother, although the king offered him the title of Nefertiti. Nefertiti, that in the meantime moved to the north palace, seems to have continued to reign alongside him.
The reason for Akhenaten's separation from the queen remains unknown; however, it is believed that, at least in part, it may have been caused by divergences of a religious nature, although even here, opinions are differ. Also according to some researches Akhenaten wished to reconcile himself with the clergy of Ammon against the advice of Nefertiti and for this he would have sent his son-in-law and his daughter to Thebes as ambassadors. However, the opposite seems more likely, namely that the pharaoh closed himself in his palace to continue his religious policy while Nefertiti, who had welcomed the young Tutankhamun (called Tutankhaton at the time) into his palace, entered into negotiations with the clergy of Ammon for the return of the administration to Thebes.
It is not known what Akhenaten died of, nor how Smenekhkare, who was still young, disappeared. With the death of Akhenaten, traditional cults are also re-established.
From now on Akhenaten will be referred to as the "enemy", his name will be erased from the annals and the city of Akhetaton destroyed. The pharaoh's name will no longer be pronounced until 1917, when a tomb was discovered in the Valley of the Kings, number 55, dating back to the time of Tutankhamun. What is the name of the deceased is impossible to say since both the sarcophagus and the inscriptions on the walls were erased with chisels. The only clues came from studying the skull of Tutankhamun and the skull of Akhenaten. The comparison, according to experts, revealed a direct relationship, probably of the 1st degree. Many argue that the tomb belongs to Akhenaten, whose body was transported to the Valley of the Kings by Tutankhamun, while for others the discovered body is actually Smenekhkare.
During Akhenaten's reign, Egypt did not have a good foreign policy: it was unable to oppose the rise of the Mitanni and the Hittites in Asia Minor, thus losing those vassal states of the Syrian-Palestinian area, which brought wealth. In fact, the Hittite king Suppiluliumas took advantage of this situation very well and built a powerful empire.
From the cultural point of view, however, Egypt experienced a great splendor: Armanian art was born, revolutionary for the period, as it contrasted the classical static nature of Egyptian figures with a new dynamism, enriched with details, such as natural images imported from Mycenae. Furthermore, through the art, real life scenes are represented which, for the first time, also represent the pharaoh's family.
