Akhenaten: The Myth, The Mess

Akhenaten: The Man, The Myth, The Mess
How young is too young to rule? Every culture has its own answer to this particular question. In ancient Egypt, young men were allowed to inherit the throne at a very young age. In the instance of the pharaoh Akhenaten he was given the throne at age eleven. Even though he did not directly rule for the first years of his reign, his name is still attributed to them. Akhenaten was born to a father who was an amazing and beloved pharaoh, Amenhotep III. A sickly and disproportionate child, it was not known how old Akhenaten would live to be. Originally, Akhenaten was named Amenhotep IV after his father. Once he became old enough, the young king changed his name from a reference to Amen-Ra, Amenhotep, to a name
Along with the new religion, another foolish decision he made was creating a new capital city. There were no capital cities in ancient Egypt before this time. During Akhenaten’s rule he created a capital city of Akhenaten. Many people flocked there, seeing the wealth of possibilities that it could hold. The reason that this new city’s formation was an issue was due to the cities that were “once-thriving administrative centers . . . stood idle” (Redford 153). These previously thriving cities were Thebes and Memphis. These cities were known far and wide to be religious and governmental centers. With the shift in religion the major buildings in these cities were torn down. Since these cities used to be very religious they were home to many statues and temples worshiping the old gods. The inhabitants of Thebes and Memphis lived in rubble after the king brought his new religion and tore down any reference to the old religion. Not only did the religious areas in these cities get destroyed, but since ancient Egypt was a theocracy, governmental buildings were also taken down and left desolate. Redford reiterates this when he explains that “temples and governmental offices had been virtually shut down” (153). Not many people stayed in those cities except for the ones with strong ties to those cities. There were very few things that the people in those areas could do for work, besides farming, since the government was now run out of Akhenaten. Explains how “great cities of Memphis and Thebes were no longer thriving centers as they had been for some 1,700 years” (Rupert