The Strange Life of Akhenaten

History is full of complex and fascinating stories. Discover the strange, but very real, pharaoh who attempted to overturn the kingdom of ancient Egypt to create his own version of a religious utopia. This was a collaboration project with The Armchair Historian.

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[Molfish]

I feel I must point out a few things which I think are erroneous. Akhenaton was not a boy king, that was Tutankhamen. His father, Amenhotep III, made Akhenaten his co regent for a number of years before he died. There is evidence that the old pharaoh and his wife, Queen Tiye, embraced the faith of their son and lived in Akhetaten for a period of time. Nefertiti was a very important dignitary in the religion of Aten worship. She is depicted many times beside her husband performing rituals. The worship of the Aten was not a new religion. Aten or Atum was in the pantheon of Egypt’s gods with the centre for worship in earlier times being in Heliopolis (for obvious reasons). What was revolutionary was that it was a monotheistic tradition in that Ahhenaten wanted his followers to put aside evidence of other deities. Evidence has been found that the ordinary people in Akhetaten did not exactly follow this rule as statuettes of other deities have been found buried in some of the dwellings. Although recent Egyptologists have given their imprimatur that Tutankhamen was Ahenaten’s offspring, I’m not sure that I am convinced that recent DNA evidence proves his paternity. Before he died(?) he had a co-regent for a short period, this was Smenkhare but he appears to have died about the same time as Akhenaten. It is not known his paternity, but he could have been a younger brother. In all, it is believed Akhenaten was Pharaoh for about 17 years. Just wanted to correct a few points that might have given the wrong impression.

[tennisguyky]

There’s something so odd and enigmatic about Akhenaten. I feel there’s a lot more to the story, that hasn’t been discovered yet. He was a really unusual pharaoh.

[gordianturkey]

The power of the pharaohs was being over-taken by the power and wealth of the priests. Making one overarching sun god, firmly represented by the pharaoh, was designed to reduce the power and wealth of the priests of the differing cults.

[monicacall]

I’ve loved ancient Egyptian history since fourth grade when my teacher made it come alive for my class. However, it wasn’t until I saw the Metropolitan Opera’s premier of Philip Glass’s opera “Ahknaten” two years ago that I first heard of Ahknaten. After seeing that fantastic opera I tried to find out everything that I could about him. From what I have learned about him, his father Amunhotep III and his son Tutankhamen these three pharaohs had reigns that were so completely different from each other’s in spite of them being three generations of the same family. How a pharaoh who so completely changed the religion and culture of Egypt during his reign could then be lost to history for millennia fascinates me. BTW the opera “Ahknaten” is returning to the Metropolitan Opera in May and June of next year (2022). It’s the musical equivalent of this video and is an incredible telling of Ahknaten’s life story. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Thanks for a fascinating video. I learned some new facts about this enigmatic pharaoh and his reign.

[nenlyLarry]

12:32 that's an understatement. He stood out definitely and no other Pharaoh came close.

[qianaglaze]

Keep in mind that Egyptian priest had enormous wealth and sold relics and potions for everyone to have altars in their homes along with all the temples for individual god's.. The priest where abusing the faith of the people and they where kinda untouchable much like the Pope and the Vatican..

[PrincipledUncertainty]

Aten represented the light from the Sun, not the physical Sun.

[barbp]

Akhenaten’s name was written on ‘The Copper Scroll’ found among ‘The Dead Sea Scrolls’.

[harrietharlow]

I hope that at some point, you will add Part 2. This is fascinating.

[mexikolisa]

that young pharaoh would melt like wax in the Egypts sun

[davidoverstreet]

His greatest prayer was "to be delivered from fear." 🙏

[MaidenOfHusbands]

I'm 18 and I just can't picture myself ruling an entire Kingdom😭 I'm so young and I'm still literally a child. That's so insane to me. Me being 18 ruling over people from the ages of 1 to 90 and cra

[rooneye]

The open top temples were a nightmare for the people that worked in them and the dignitaries that came to visit. They baked in the sun lol

[meelusine]

Akhenaten was not the only one to worship the sun or take himself for the sun. They did it in all other countries and times. Not so long ago with Louis XIV who named himself "the sun god".

[JoeRivermanSongwriter]

I think he (Ahkenaten) might've been onto something.
Tutankhamen was probably controlled to bring back the old religion and erase as much of his dad's legacy and once he served his purpose he was killed too.

Think about it. The old pantheon meant priests representing the multitudes of gods would have had no job or purpose.

[bunnsinger]

Someone help me to understand why there is an image of a person of European descent at 0:16 when discussing Akhenaten who was Egyptian with brown skin. It is misleading.

[RalphEllis]

Correction - the first 8 years of his reign were in a co-regency with his father.
So the first years were actually spent as a cult leader, with a cult center in the center if Egypt - playing at god. It was only later when his father died, that he could use the army to close down all the old temples, and make the Aton the supreme god.
As an aside, the Israelite god was also called Adon.
R

[HectorDomino.]

17:49 The background piano music is so epic! Very unfortunate, no track name on the description...

[knutknutsen]

There is a strange relation with this Farao and the Jewish religion.
If we look at the story of Moses, we find that he fits aproximately in this period.
Moses is the founding father of the Jewish monotheistic religion, and it cannot be ruled out that the roots of that religion takes their nourisment from Akenaton.

[keithmallory]

Picture at 11:03 shows how the Sphinx could have looked adding a new tall platform feature above on head... area around hole in sphinx head shows tbis