More than 3,300 years ago a man named Akhenaten rose to power to rule over Egypt during the 18th dynasty. His radical belief in monotheism was cause for alarm during his reign and later rulers of Egypt tried to omit him from the official lists of kings. The Pharaoh Akhenhaten, who came to the throne in 1353 BCE, is an attractive figure to historians and archeologists: what possessed a pharaoh to abandon all the traditional gods and put so much effort into one deity? What caused his rapid fall from grace following his death? Was he the father of the boy king, Tutankhamun, and why did images of Akhenaten depict him with such strange features?

Monotheism

Shortly after coming to power, the new pharaoh changed his name from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten, meaning “He who is of service to the Aten”, in honor of what he believed to be the one true god. Although he initially allowed the continued worship of traditional Egyptian gods, he eventually forbade worship of any deity other than the Aten.

Akhenaten is believed to be the world’s first monotheist by putting his faith in a single god (although other gods were still mentioned in inscriptions). His belief in the one god, Aten, was so powerful that he moved his capitol city from Thebes, one of the largest cities in Egypt at the time, to the city of Akhetaten (modern-day Amarna). This city was to be a tribute to the sun disc god and roughly translates as “Horizon of Aten”.

Akhenaten began removing depictions of other gods as he pushed his people to follow his monotheistic view. Statues, carvings, and paintings of other deities were defaced or destroyed. Any tribute or economic gains offered to other gods were absorbed into the new belief system.

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On 4 November 1922, Howard Carter made one of the most remarkable and important archaeological discoveries of the 20^th century. In the Valley of the Kings, he unearthed the tomb of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, a boy king named Tutankhamun. Unlike every other tomb excavated in modern times, it quickly became apparent that Tutankhamun’s resting place had not been entirely ransacked by grave robbers soon after it was sealed. An unparalleled wealth of extraordinary treasures, that had lain buried for over three millennia, were about to be revealed to the world.

Years of Searching

Howard Carter was born in Britain in 1874 and developed a passion for Egypt in his youth. He first journeyed to the Land of the Pharaohs at the age of seventeen and in 1907 began working for Lord Carnarvon, a British aristocrat who often passed the winter in Egypt due to ill health. Carnarvon provided funding for excavations and was granted a license to dig in the Valley of the Kings, where Carter believed the tomb of Tutankhamun was located.

Work was put on hold during World War One, but Carter maintained that several funerary items he had uncovered, all bearing the name Tutankhamun, constituted strong evidence that there was a tomb to be found. Excavations continued from 1917 to 1922, but after five years no significant discoveries had been made. Carnarvon was losing faith and interest in Carter’s endeavours, but granted him funding for one last season in the Valley of the Kings. On 1 November 1922, Carter’s men set to work.

The First Step

Howard Carter was both methodical and meticulous in his techniques, dividing the area into rectangles and marking them off one by one. On 4 November, his patience and logic were finally rewarded, as a stone step was uncovered in one of the final spaces to be excavated. Removal of sand soon revealed fifteen more steps, at the bottom of which stood a sealed doorway.

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Ramses II was about twenty years of age when he succeeded his father, Sety I, a leading general, to the throne of Upper and Lower Egypt. His royal wife, Nefertari (not to be confused with Nefertiti), remained his primary wife and his great love until she died at an early age. Nefertari whose name means ‘the most beautiful’ was laid to rest in an exquisitely decorated rock-cut tomb in the Valley of the Queens.

Ramses the Great, as he was known, ruled Egypt for sixty-seven years and during his reign the Egyptian Empire was greatly expanded through both military conquests and treaties. The two great foes of the Egyptians during this period were the Hittites, who emerged from southern Turkey as a fearless and ruthless power bent on expansion, and the Nubians to the south in modern-day Sudan, whose desire always had been to campaign northwards to overthrow Egypt and acquire the fertile Nile valley for their own nation.

Rameses and Nefertari

Ramses the Great mounted military excursions and repelled Nubia on several occasions. He ordered a temple to be built on the banks of the Nile at Egypt’s southern border (at Abu Simbel) where four colossal statues of Pharaoh Rameses glowered menacingly at anyone who might dare to challenge his might. On the same site he erected a beautiful temple for Nefertari, dedicated to the goddess Hathor. Nefertari is shown in statues at the front of the temple standing next to Ramses the Great. Her statues are the same size as those of Rameses, an almost unheard of tribute to his royal wife. The inscription reads, Nefertari, for whom the sun does shine.

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Undoubtedly one of the most famous sights in the world, the three great pyramids of Giza are for many the defining icon of ancient Egyptian culture. Built in less than 100 years, between 2600 and 2500 BC, they represent the pinnacle of precision and organisation; perfection in pyramid building. As they stand today, stripped of their fine white limestone casing and having lost integral parts of their complex, the pyramids are slightly less brilliant than they once were, but no less astounding. Who were the kings who envisioned such immense structures as their eternal resting place? How did they build them?

The 4^th Dynasty

The pyramid form was developed in the 3^rd Dynasty and was already in use as the superstructure for royals tombs, but it was Sneferu’s reign that saw the first attempts to create a ‘true’ pyramid. When Khufu (Cheops in Greek) came to the throne his father’s extensive pyramid building programme had allowed techniques to be honed and important lessons learned. (Pictured is Khufu’s ‘great’ pyramid). The ambition of Khufu would be realised because the designers, masons and labourers had the ability and the knowledge to undertake such an exorbitant project. Surely this would distinguish their king for the rest of history.

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