Egypt tried to erase Akhenaten, the pharaoh who put one sun disc first
Akhenaten tore up centuries of Egyptian religion to worship the Aten, the disc of the sun, and built a new capital in its honour. After his death, later rulers smashed his statues, dropped him from king lists and called him simply that criminal. He stayed nearly forgotten until archaeologists dug up his city.
He began life as Amenhotep, a younger son of Amenhotep III and his chief wife Tiye, and only became heir when his older brother, crown prince Thutmose, died. Taking the throne around 1353 or 1351 BC, at an age guessed anywhere from 10 to 23, he ruled as Amenhotep IV, a name meaning Amun is satisfied. In his fifth year he swapped it for Akhenaten, effective for the Aten. Scholars still argue over whether he first shared power with his father; a 2014 tomb inscription naming both kings was hailed as proof, then disputed.
His religious turn replaced Egypt's crowded pantheon with devotion centred on the Aten. Egyptologists disagree whether this was true monotheism or the elevation of one god above others, but it clearly foreshadowed later single-god faiths. The art of his reign broke from tradition too, and his queen Nefertiti became one of the most famous faces of the ancient world.
The revolution did not last. Tutankhamun, likely his son and certainly his son-in-law, changed his own name from Tutankhaten and let the old gods return. About a dozen years later, a new dynasty with shaky claims to the throne worked to discredit Akhenaten and his circle, dismantling and hiding his monuments.
Rediscovery began in the late 19th century at Amarna, his capital Akhetaten, where Flinders Petrie's digs fuelled public fascination. In 1907 Edward Ayrton found a mummy in tomb KV55 that genetic tests show was Tutankhamun's father, though whether it is Akhenaten remains debated. Verdicts on the man swing wildly: an idealist and the first individual in history to some, a fanatic or even mad to others.
Source: Akhenaten
