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Egyptian Religious Revolution |
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Fact 1 |
The Egyptian Religious Revolution
occurred during the reign of
the Heretic Pharaoh Arkhenaten
who ruled Egypt 1351 BC
-1337 BC |
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Fact 2 |
Arkhenaten radically changed
Ancient Egypt from a polytheistic religion, with many gods,
to monotheism (the worship of one god). The sole god was
called the Aten |
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Fact 3 |
Akhenaten used the might of
the military commanders to destroy the old religion
and its powerful priesthood who worshipped all the
gods particularly the main god Amun at the
Temple of Karnak at Thebes |
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Fact 4 |
The Egyptians worshipped almost
2000 different gods, and had done so for literally thousands
of years |
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Fact 5 |
About 4 years into his
reign, Akhenaten declared that all the old gods
should be abandoned and replaced by a sole god - the Aten |
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Fact 6 |
Akhenaten was first known as
first known as Amenhotep meaning "Amun is content" but changed
his name to Akhenaten, meaning "Effective for Aten"
when he forced the change to monotheism |
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Fact 7 |
Akhenaten built a new city
called Amarna which was located on the banks of the
Nile about midway between Thebes and Memphis |
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Fact 8 |
He forced the population of Thebes,
totalling over 20,000, to move to the new city of Amarna
abandoning their businesses, homes and religion at Thebes |
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Fact 9 |
The role of the priest in the new
religion was decreased as only the Pharaoh and his chief
wife Nefertiti were allowed to directly worship the Aten. |
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Fact 10 |
Akhenaten ordered that all images
of all other gods were ordered to be destroyed. |
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Fact 11 |
The traditional temple based
economy, run by priests of Amun, was destroyed and run
by local administrators and military commanders |
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Fact 12 |
The new regime became corrupt and
in 1337 BC, after a reign of 17 years, it is believed
that Akhenaten was forced to abdicate and soon after died |
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Fact 13 |
In 1334BC when Tutankhamun was just
9 years old he was made Pharaoh |
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Fact 14 |
In 1331 BC there was a growing
backlash against the new religion and the young pharaoh changed his name
from Tutankhaten to
Tutankhamun and the new city of Armana was abandoned when
Tutankhamun was forced to return to Thebes |
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Fact 15 |
King Tut
died unexpectedly in the year of 1325 at the age of 18/19
and was replaced by the Pharaoh Ay |
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Fact 16 |
Temples to the old gods were
reopened, their worship was allowed and the roles of some of
the priests of Amun were restored. But the god Aten remained as the supreme god, allowing continued worship of
the Aten. |
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Fact 17 |
After a brief rule of just 4 years
Ay died. Their names were struck from royal lists and their
tombs and monuments were usurped. |
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Fact 18 |
General Horemheb became Pharaoh.
Horemheb had the names of Ay, Akhenaten, Nefertiti and to a
lesser extent Tutankhamun publically condemned and removed
from Ancient Egyptian records and history. |
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Fact 19 |
The tomb of Ay, his sarcophagus and
paintings were all violently desecrated indicating the
hatred that Horemheb felt towards Ay |
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Fact 20 |
The Ancient Egyptian
revolution ended in 1321 BC with the death of Ay |
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Egyptian Religious Revolution |
