![](http://www.ancient-egypt.co.uk/cairo%20museum/cm,%20akhenaten/images/akhenaten.jpg)
Pharaoh Akhenaten was a great ruler of Egypt, in the
18th dynasty. He is best known for the introduction of monotheism in a polytheistic culture. Akhenaten was also also an object of controversy because of his strange mannerism, rumors about his daughter, and his peculiar appearance. This man was very influential in Egypt and is still well-known among historians today.
Akhenaten originally grew up as Amenhotep IV, named after his father Amenhotep III.
Amenhotep III was also a pharaoh and his mother was Queen Tiy, making this famly was a royal dynasty. He went by his birth name until the 5th year of his reign. He changed his name to Akhenaten, "horizon of the sun". Setting himself up to be depicted as close the sun disk,
Aten. Akhenaten revered the sun disk with such reverence, he decided to close off all other temples and exculde all gods except Aten, intorducing montheism.
(source)This
![](http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/1320Hist&Civ/slides/10akhen/akhenaten3.jpg)
man was also an object of controversy because of his peculiar appearance in art. He was potrayed as having very slender limbs, wide hips, and a proturding stoma
![](http://www.uned.es/geo-1-historia-antigua-universal/EGIPTO%20RELIGION/akh_worship_a_page2-2_02.jpg)
ch which gave the appearance that he was a woman disguised as a man or was born with an intersex condition. Until his mummy was located and researched, no one knew if these abnormalities were literal or not.
At the beginning of his reign, he was married to
Nefertiti and had six known daughters; Meretaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenpaatan (later the Queen Of Tutankahmen, Neferneferuaten-Tasherit, Neferneferure, and Setepenre. He was alo married to a women named Kiya and it has been rumored that his daughter Ankhesenpaatan gave birth to a child of his.
Ahkenaten was a great and peculiar ruler, with quite a lasting effect. His introduction of monotheism was undone at the end of his reign and years later his mummy was found. Ending the story of Pharaoh Akhenaten was his death, which no one is sure of the cause. This interesting man had a lasting affect on Egypt.
online book summary, no publisher/date/city. http://www.heptune.com/art.html
movie source.