What Was Akhenaten's Accomplishments

Akhenaten is regarded as one of the most unusual and the least known pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. One of the main reasons that Akhenaten is regarded as the most unusual was his introduction of monotheism and the god Aten. Scholars, historians, archaeologists, and most of the general public doesn't know a whole lot about Akhenaten because most references of his rule were destroyed at the end of his reign. However there is at least enough information regarding his rule that we are able to decipher some of his accomplishments and his twist of religion.

Akhenaten, born Amenhotep IV, was a pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt who ruled for seventeen years and died some where between 1336 BC or 1334 BC. At the start of his rule his family

With his presentation to the world the people worshiped him not only as a pharaoh but as a god. Historians, artists and scholars all agree that Akhenaten was one of the only pharaohs to be depicted artistically as he actually was. The fact that Akhenaten made that decision creates a lot of unanswered questions of why he chose the aesthetic that he did. Prior to his depiction most pharaohs were created to be exceptionally tall and perfectly proportionate. Megaera Lorenz from heptune.com describes Akhenaten as, “having a long, slender neck, a long face with a sharp chin, narrow, almond-shaped eyes, full lips, long arms and fingers, rounded thighs and buttocks, a soft belly, and enlarged breasts. His odd appearance was particularly prominent in art from the early part of the reign. One early statue portrays the king in the nude and without genitalia of any kind,” a complete contradiction to previous

He made massive changes to religion and heavily invested in creating new cities and temples to honor Aten. According to J. Hill from Ancient Egypt online, Akhenaten built several structures during the early part of his reign while he was still using the name Amenhotep. These temples included Rud-menu, a palace and a complex named Gempaaten where the royal family spent their winter months. It's also noted here that the name change was during the “fifth or sixth year” of his reign at which point Akhenaten started to heavily build, invest and promote the one god Aten to turn Egypt from a multi-god pantheon to a monotheism. He constructed a new city Akhetaten meaning “Horizon of Aten” in the area of Armarna. Armarna was an area that was not associated with any other god thus a perfect place to dedicate to Aten. Hill also states that “during the ninth year of his reign, he declared that Aten was the only god, and that he was the only intermediary between the Aten and the