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WELCOME

Dear Friends, I am Pharaoh Akhenaten. As you wish, I will tell you about myself. I am the son of Pharaoh Amunhotep III and Queen Tye; My Father was a mighty Pharaoh, the ninth ruler of the 18th Dynasty. My Older brother died soon before my father did. I was then the Heir to the throne. Since I was not the firstborn, before my brother died I was not learning how to rule a country, I was learning about religion and art, so when my brother died, I did not know anything about military training or matters of the high court. I had to learn them fast. When My Father died I became the next Pharaoh, I was about 19. I ruled from 1353-1336. I Married Nefertiti, the Daughter of Aye, My Vizier. In my sixth regnal year, I Changed my name to Akhenaten, which means "Living image of the Aten" (My birth name was Amunhotep IV). I moved the Capitol from Thebes, the city of Amun, to My new city, Akhetaten, which means "Horizons of the Aten." I started worshiping only the Aten, or sun disk, a manifestation of Ra.

Later, the priests of Amun were mad at me because I wanted them to worship the Aten; they were very rude and hateful towards me, so I closed all the other temples. I also had a wife named Kiya. From her I had 2 sons, Smenkhkhare, who died shortly before me, and Tutankhaten, whom you all know well as King Tut. From Nefertiti, I had 6 daughters, 2 of which were Meritaten, who married Smenkhare, and Ankhsenamun, who married Tutankhaten.

Many say that I portrayed myself strangely in my art, It was just a new art style and, as your Egyptologists have just now discovered, when you put my statues at the height they were supposed to be looked at from, you are looking up at them. when you do this, they look relatively normal.

After I died my son Tutankhaten began to rule, he was only 9. He changed his name to Tutankhamen and re-opened all the temples. After he died, Aye, my vizier, began ruling, he started to destroy my monuments and removed my cartouche from my statuary and temple. When he died, Horemheb, my General, ruled. He did even more damage, destroying my temple, and using the same bricks over again for his temples, and then that was the end of the 18th dynasty. The first Pharaoh in the 19th dynasty was Ramses I. He toppled my statues, removed my cartouches, did more damage to my temple, even taking a statue of my chief wife Nefertiti and stacking the blocks up-side-down so it looked as if she were walking on the ceiling!

Aye, Horemheb, and Ramses I all thought of my reign as a national catastrophe.

Your Egyptologists never found my mummy, maybe they never will, I do not know. But all in all, I reigned for 17 years, relatively short compared to other Pharaohs, my fathers reign being 35 years. I hope you enjoyed talking to me, come back any time.

And if you would like to know more about the discovery of KV 55, Please visit "Important Egyptological Finds that shaped what we know about History" (At the moment under a major construction project, it may not be finished for several months)

Good books if you want to learn more:

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