How Did Amon Influence Ancient Egypt

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With the removal of the Hyksos, Thebes became the most prominent city in all of Egypt. With this came Thebes as Egypt's main cultural center and the rise of Amon as the central deity during the New Kingdom of Egypt. The popularity of this deity rose sharply, and eventually was merged with the sun god of Heliopolis, Ra or Re, to form Amon-Re, the creator deity and ultimate advisor of the pharaohs (Wikipedia.) Amon-Re affected Egypt as well as the rest of the world by unifying Egypt, influencing pharaohs that ruled under his name, and his influence on other cultures.

Amon was primarily worshipped in Thebes and surrounding areas only. It was only after the establishment of the New Kingdom that his importance increased. Thebes flourished and was seen as the most important city of Egypt. Amon, the wind God gained popularity with the Egyptians to the point where he was combined with Ra. Amon-Re was hailed as "King of the Gods" and although other gods were still worshipped, Amon-Re was venerated higher than any other by both commoners and …show more content…

Under the rule of Amenhotep III, Egypt achieved a level in art. He expanded the Temple at Karnak, built new temples, and built statues of himself to honor the god Amon-Re. Temple priests of Amon-Re benefitted from having a pharaoh of the god that they worshipped. The worship of Amon-Re would be challenged by Amenhotep IV, a worshipper of Aton. He went as far as to change his name to Akhenaten, "the spirit of Aten". Under his rule, Akhenaten made Aton the ultimately and only god in Egypt. He closed temples of other gods, tried removing the names of other gods from Egyptian documents, removed all priesthoods of Amon-Re, and built a capital dedicated to Aton. Akhenaten changed Egypt's art and ways of worship. The changes of Akhenaten were quickly reverted soon after his death ("The New Kingdom Begins in Egypt: c. 1557