The last pharaoh of the XVIII Egyptian Dynasty, Amenhotep IV or, more popularly, Akhnatan (or Akhnaton). Unlike previous pharaohs,Akhnatan had little interest in military might and foreign aggression. Instead he, and his supposedly beautiful wife Nefertiti, cared more for the religious revolution which they initiated to replace the traditional polytheism customary to Egypt with a form of monotheism centered in the worship of the sun-god Aton. As a result of this shift in focus, Egyptian holdings in Canaan esp., were swept into a time of chaos, which was dramatically painted for us by the multitude of official letters found in the library of his capital at Tell al-Amarna. The religious reformation he initiated never took hold and, after his death, every attempt was made to remove all traces of his montheistic 'heresy.' His death returned the country, one last time and for a while, to military might and glory with the establishment of the XIX Dynasty by the pharaohs Seti and Rameses II (under whose watch Israel made the exodus).
©ALBERITH
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