Page 56 - All About History - Issue 180-19
P. 56
Akhenaten
The Heretic
Pharaoh
By replacing a pantheon of gods with the Aten,
himself and his queen, this Egyptian king threw
his nation into turmoil
Written by Dr Charlotte Booth
he pharaoh Akhenaten ruled Egypt during named for the new capital city during his reign,
in the 18th dynasty and is one of the most Tell el Amarna in Middle Egypt.
written about rulers of ancient Egypt. Throughout the modern era he has been
This infamy is due to his religious overhaul referred to as the world’s first monotheist, a
Twhere he replaced the rich pantheon of pacifist, an alien and the heretic king. Additionally
deities with the Aten – the sundisc. he has been compared to Moses, Martin
However, despite this post-mortem fame, Luther, Oliver Cromwell, Adolf Hitler, Stalin and
Akhenaten was not an important king in the Christ. Eminent Egyptologist, Margaret Murray
grand scheme of Egyptian history and he ruled commented in 1949, “The Tell el Amarna period
for a mere 17 years (1350-34 BCE). This period of has had more nonsense written about it than
Egyptian history is known as the Amarna period, any other period in Egyptian history … in the
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