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Explain The Changes From The Reign Of Akhenaten

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During the New Kingdom Egypt, the 18th dynasty gave way to religious, social, and political tensions due to the changes in the religious beliefs and practices. The most significant of these changes came from the reign of Akhenaten, formally Amenhotep IV, who religious reform to monotheistic beliefs caused upheaval in both Egypt and its allies. One of the most prominent tensions caused by Akhenaten’s conversion to monotheism was with the religious powers of ancient Egypt New Kingdom (1570 BCE-1051 BCE) specifically, the religious cult of Amun. The Cult of Amun was the most powerful religious cult in the New Kingdom, with the god coming into prominence at the start of the 18th dynasty as the new king of the gods, however, was mentioned in religious …show more content…

Akhenaten let the worship of multiple gods continue, stating that “All the gods are aspects of the sun, so the sun must be worshipped by both humans and gods.” But around the ninth year of his rule, he closed all of the old temples of the gods and banned the worship of polytheism altogether. Barbara Watterson states that this was “. a very serious matter, for these institutions played an important part in the economic and social life of the country.” By closing the temples, he centralised his own power by claiming to be the only mediator between the Aten and humans, but he also damaged the economy of Egypt as there was not as much money coming in to support the building projects of the pharaoh. Building projects such as moving the capital city from Thebes to the new city in modern-day Amarna, then called Akhetaten, was an enormous shift that would’ve drained the economy. The city was dedicated to the worship of the sun disc, Aten and was the area that the royal family stayed. This move would’ve been met with upheaval and protest due to the capitals Memphis and Thebes traditionally being dedicated to the gods,

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