What Was Akhenaten's Accomplishments

Lester Pecayo
Mr. Jason Whitmarsh
HUM 2020
12 April 2017
Life of Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV)
Amenhotep IV is the second son of Amenhotep the Magnificent and he was a pharaoh of Egypt. The time he reigned was during the New Kingdom period. The New Kingdom was known to be time of Egypt's prosperity; as a result, Amenhotep IV, who would later change his name to Akhenaten, was able to do whatever he wanted. This can include starting a religious revolution and ignoring your allies. After Akhenaten's reign, many of his projects were destroyed by other leaders in Egypt. Historians assumed that many leaders of cults hated Akhenaten because of the religious revolution he started. They hated him so much that they tried to erase everything that has
His very first project in the temple was to continue to decorate a gateway that had been begun during the reign of his father. The carvings on the decorated gateway showed the worshipping of the sun god Re-Horakhti which will be called Aten later. These carvings was the first indication historians have that Amenhotep IV was creating a new god. The new god Aten had been gaining popularity during his father's reign. At the third year of his reign, he started to announce that Aten is a new god who was a self-created god who renewed himself every day and could not be presented in human form. Aten could only be represented by the symbol of the sun
After Meretaten, Meketaten was born, then Ankhesenpaaten, then Nefernefruaten Tasherit, then Nefernefrure, then, lastly, Setepenre. The holy royal family was often portrayed as hugging each other which was considered informal behavior in the Egyptian Art. By the way, he also had other wives which he had at least three other children. During 1342 B.C., a deathly plague has spread through the Middle East that Akhenaten received many requests for help from other kingdoms. It was certain that 1342 B.C. onward, Akhenaten's family has started dying. Innovations in art, religion, and language and other changes add up to a genuinely revolutionary spirit (Mertz 213). These caused uproars in the whole Middle East. Tutankhaten, the most famous pharaoh for people today, had worked hard to remove the bad reputation of Egypt by destroying many of Akhenaten's works. Because of Tutankhaten's actions, historians knew little of Akhenaten's death. Akhenaten may have been the heretic king, but he had interest in evolution of arts by distorting arts and breaking traditions from idealistic to more of a realistic