This was perhaps the beginning of the real
heresy of Amenhotep IV. The jubilee was never
celebrated in the third year; it was normally cele-
brated in the 30th year of a king’s reign. To break
this tradition meant that the king could break any
tradition. Of course, the king knew what others
did not know at the time: that was he was plan-
ning his move to a new capital. He called his
sculptors around him and ordered Bek, the son
and successor of his father’s chief sculptor Men, to
begin the construction for thesdfestival.
Four major structures were to be erected:Gm-
(t)-p3-itnGemti pa Aton (The Sun-disk is found),
hwt-bnbnhuut benben (the Mansion of the ben-
ben-stone),Rwd-mnw-n-itn-r-nhh ruud menu n
Aton r neheh (Sturdy are the monuments of the
Sun-disk forever), and Tni-mnw-n-itn-r-nhhteni
menu n Aton r neheh (Exalted are the monuments
of the Sun-disk forever). Although these buildings
were mentioned time and time again, their pur-
poses were not disclosed, and they are nowhere
described in detail as far as I know. Nevertheless,
references to the sun disk appear in the early
instructions.
A New God and a New CityWaset was becoming quite uncomfortable for the
king by his fourth year. During that year, he vis-
ited a site he claims was “revealed by the Aten
himself” and he called it Akhentaten, “the horizon
of the sun-disk.” Amenhotep IV laid out the city
with 14 boundary stelae, 11 on the east and 3 on
the west. This was to be a new Waset, perhaps
even with certain elements of old On, a new
Heliopolis, because he had built a private royal
necropolis and a cemetery to the Mnevis bull.
Imagine what it must have been like when
Amenhotep IV, named after his famous forebears,
announced that he was abandoning Amen and ele-
vating the priesthood of Aten as the national reli-
gion. What terror was struck in the heart of the
Amen priesthood? What confusion existed in the
vast bureaucracy at Waset that had been increas-
ing in size since the days of Ahmose? What would
this official pronouncement mean to the keepers
of the sacred place, the holy of holies? Did the
king know what he was doing? Had he lost his
mind? Was he really an Egyptian? How would the
royal bureaucrats at Men-nefer and Waset take
this sudden change in their status?
Such massive transformation called for a new
title for the king: He proclaimed his new name on
the inscription on the boundary stelae on the east
at Akhentaten. He changed his Heru name from
“Mighty bull, tall of feathers,” which was too
closely connected to the previous kings of Waset,
to “Mighty bull, beloved of the Aten.” His Two
Ladies name, “Great of kingship on Ipet-sut,”
became “Great of kingship in Akhetaten,” and his
Golden Heru name was changed from “He who
uplifts his diadems in southern On” to “He who
uplifts the name of the Aten.” He kept his coro-
nation name, but changed Amenhotep to
Akhenaten, meaning “he who praises Aten,” thus
completing a universal overhaul of his theological
existence by comprehensively replacing Amen
with Aten.
When Akhenaten took the royal authority to
the new town of Akhetaten, he did not take with
him the old religious authority. He took with him
the royal court, and chief among his advisors were
his mother, Queen Tiye, and his wife, Nefertiti.
Themansion of the benbenstone in Waset was
given over to scenes of Nefertiti’s dominance over
the enemies of Egypt, but yet she is never men-
tioned in the diplomatic correspondences of the
king. Her influence declines noticeably in the
public record at Akhetaten. His daughters and his
mother are mentioned frequently, and she may
have been separated from her husband given the
fact that one of her daughters, Meritaten, appears
to have taken the ceremonial place alongside the
king and later married Smenkhara who succeeded
Akhenaten as king at Akhetaten.
It is good to remember what the king had left
behind in the glorious city of Waset. Although
Amenhotep IV did not particularly care for the
high priests Her or Suti, he was in many ways a
child of Ipet-sut more than he was of any other
temple or place. The death of his father,
Amenhotep III, coincided with the maturity of the
great temple of Amen at Karnak. An entourage
coming down the river from the Temple of Mut
and turning into the canal leading to the great
temple could see a monumental entry with the
pylon of Amenhotep on one side and farther south
constructions built by Hatshepsut.Akhenaten 31