Akhenaten: Egypt's Mystery Pharaoh

[Music] it was during the 19th century at the dawn of a new era of serious archaeological inquiry that the extensive remains of an ancient city were discovered in Egypt in a secluded arid plateau roughly in the center of the country whilst the site was certainly an interesting example of Egyptian architecture from the 18th dynasty roughly the period between 1549 to 1292 BC it seemed unremarkable at first especially when compared to the vast wealth of other discoveries being on earth in places such as the Valley of the Kings this was until evidence began to surface of the mysterious god king who had built the city in the first place along with significant evidence that precisely why he had built it the city had been called a mana and it has served as a royal capital to a mysterious and powerful Pharaoh who supposedly carved it out of the desert in a seemingly ridiculous place on a whim his name was Akhenaten during his 17 year reign pharaoh pursued the particularly unusual policy of rejecting the traditional Egyptian gods in preference to a brand new religion which he had apparently created himself based upon the worship of a single solar deity named Artem whilst much that happened during this time is still shrouded in mystery a number of modern scholars have credited Akhenaten's religion as being one of the first monotheistic Creed's on earth the peculiar nature of his reign and his rejection of the old gods is certainly unique within Egypt during the ancient world and possibly even within the wider world Akhenaten was born during an extremely prosperous period in Egyptian history it was a golden age of architecture and cultural achievements and Akhenaten's father Amenhotep has spent much of his reign building temples and monuments to the gods all of the evidence suggests that he was very much the typical traditional Egyptian pharaoh the latest in a long line dating back thousands of years when Akhenaten succeeded his father for the first five years of his reign he seems to have continued his father's work as was tradition some time during his fifth year of rule ha'la'tha Akhenaten strayed further from the norm than any Pharaoh before or after whilst he had previously spent much of his time dedicating temples solely to the Egyptian gods related to the Sun he now outright rejected all of the old gods in preference for exclusive worship of one solar deity Artin stoned bureaucrats and court followers could do little or go along with the Kings new religion even as he uprooted the entire royal court and administrative heart of the kingdom for Memphis and Thebes and moved them out into the desert to start work on his new capital it was an epic undertaking and once surely only achievable because of the immense wealth and power possessed by Egypt to the sign the location of the city was said to have come to Akhenaten in a vision and was possibly marked by a naturally occurring blemish in the cliff face which resembled the Egyptian hieroglyph for the son Akhenaten built truly colossal temples at Amarna larger than any previously built and of a completely different time gone were the dark closed interiors and idols of the old religion in their place can great ruthless courtyards to worship the Sun itself by all accounts the city thrived as thousands of commoners and Nobles alike travel to the new sites it's likely that most Nobles still worship the old gods in secret small idols found at the Manor support this theory the common people on the other hand largely left out of the historical record likely weren't affected too much by the new religion which seems to have been largely an aristocratic affair in 1907 a tomb was uncovered at amana subsequently excavated the mummified remains found inside a widely believed to be those of Akhenaten and they just add further to the enigma of this mysterious ruler the mummy appears to have strange elongated features which many have suggested could have been the result of birth defects possibly even as a result of inbreeding or even intentional cranial deformation as other people have practiced throughout the world contemporary depictions of the King also portray him in a similar manner with unusual effeminate features images of the Pharaoh and his wife Nefertiti also represents a huge break from the traditional culture of Egypt often portraying them eating and in domestic situations with their families which is absolutely unique for Egyptian royalty who we usually portrayed as aloof and almost inhuman upon Akhenaten's death resurgence to the old beliefs came fairly quickly although it's unclear just how quickly this happened and how devastating it was for the followers of our turn the old gods were restored to their former prominence and Akhenaten was struck from the historical record we know that the young heir to the throne tooten Artem changed his name to Tutankhamun in reference to the old gods rather than to the artem worshiped by his father who in turn began to be referred to as the great enemy and the great heretic in the aftermath of his reign great efforts were made to expunge all evidence of him and his religion from history the city of Amarna itself was gradually abandoned to be reclaimed by the desert only to be rediscovered by archaeologists millennia later [Music] you

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Keywords: iMovie, akhanaten, egypt, egyptian history, akhenaten, history, history time, egyptian, tutankhamun, amarna, amarna reign, archaeology, egyptology, monotheism, history of religion, valley of the kings, thebes, memphis, egyptian gods

Id: 9xqmXNxQYEo

Length: 6min 3sec (363 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 01 2017