Akhenaten is one of the most interesting and controversial pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, having reigned in the time of the New Kingdom, ruling from 1353 to 1336 BC. He was a member of the 18th dynasty, and had very influential family members, such as his father Amenhotep III, his great royal wife Nefertiti and his son and heir Tutankhamun. But during his seventeen-year reign he made many changes to the traditional norm and was considered a heretic, and his reign was deemed a failure to some extent. Although, he is considered remarkable for his ideas of art and architecture. Unlike his family members, he was not considered as prominent in increasing New Kingdom Egypt’s prosperity, and after his death information about him was covered up and his son Tutankhamun took to the throne and him and future pharaohs started reverting back to how things were before Akhenaten’s reign. Akhenaten was born …show more content…
Though the kingdom of Egypt prospered during his unusually long reign of seventeen years, the socio-political reforms he imposed were not well received by anyone, including other foreign leaders. His changes were only supported by the royal family and courtiers, meanwhile the masses rejected them. Future pharaohs also didn’t like the changes, and his successor Tutankhamun subsequently started to return Egypt back to the older days of polytheism, and Akhenaten’s reign was covered up and his records as pharaoh were removed, which means that as a pharaoh he was considered a failure. He completely disappeared from history until the 19th century. But even if he failed back then, to modern historians he is still one of the most fascinating pharaohs, meaning his legacy was not a failure. Since his rediscovery he has been described in both good and bad ways, but due to the public revolt after his reign it can be deduced that his reign was indeed a failure to some