of the Kings, but evidence suggested that it was a
hasty reburial. It is conceivable that, during the
reign of Tutankhamen, many of the Akhetaten
royals were reburied in the same tomb.
Clearly at the end of Akhenaten’s life, there
were two male heirs, Smenkhare and Tutankhamen,
who may have been sons or nephews of
Akhenaten. Each was a legitimate heir to the
throne because each married one of the king’s
daughters. When Tutankhamen inherited the
throne at the age of 9, he married Ankhesenpaaten
and lived first at Akhetaten.
Tutankhamen moved the royal residences back
to Men-nefer and Waset soon after he became
king. It is probably the fact that the return to
orthodoxy and the worship of Amen took place
under the influence of the Divine Father Ay, who
guided the steps of the young Tutankhamen. He
issued a famous edict restoring the traditional
priesthoods and encouraging the nation to rise
from the mistakes of Amenhotep IV.
Tutankhamen returned the worship of Amen to
its pre-Akhenaten state and called himself “the
Living Image of Amen.”
The king who closed down the Akhetaten age,
destroying as much as he could of the image of
Akhenaten, was the general of Tutankhamen,
Horemhab, who became king on the death of
Ay. He was called Djoserkheperura Setepenra
Horemheb Meryamun, “Beloved of Amen,”
underscoring the finality of the return to Waset.
No great temples exist at Karnak that show
Amenhotep IV’s presence in art or religion. The vast
complexes of Amen, Mut, or Khonsu reveal little
of Akhenaten, but some representations in battle and
images on recycledtalatatswere used in construction
by other kings. Part of the destruction of Amenhotep
IV’s memory at Karnak was the use oftalatatsfrom
his era to erect the Ninth Pylon at Karnak erected
by Horemhab. It would be Horemhab who
would bring an end to the Akhetaten era.
Thus, the first 5 years of Amenhotep IV’s rule
were basically eradicated from the memory of
Waset by his successors. There are no memorials
or temple carvings, steles, or chapels that remain
on public display at Karnak. Without these major
material pieces of evidence, the life and activities
of the Per-aa at Waset cannot be written, and he
languishes in virtual Wasetian oblivion. This was
precisely the intention of his successors.
A connected, logical narrative was created from
the years at Akhetaten, called Amarna. There are
enough records there to give scholars some appre-
ciation of the immense activities of the king, and
this is what they use. Although he was not a war-
rior king, he was not a pacifist as some have
claimed: A small representation shows him mas-
sacring his conquered enemies in the traditional
depiction as the relief on the façade of the Third
Pylon at Karnak, but also on thetalatatblocks
where even Nefertiti was seen brandishing the
White Mace over the heads of vanquished ene-
mies. Even with these skimpy examples of art at
Karnak, it can be seen that Karnak was not his
place and Waset was not his city.Molefi Kete AsanteSee alsoAkhetatenFurther Readings
Asante, M. K., & Abarry, A. (Eds.). (1996).African
Intellectual Heritage. Philadelphia: Temple University
Press.
Grimal, N. (1994).A History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford,
UK: Blackwell.
Redford, D. B. (1984).Akhenaten:The Heretic King.
Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.AKHETATEN
Akhetaten is the name of the city built by the king
Akhenaten when he abandoned the capital city of
Waset in a theological and political dispute with
the leaders of the Great Temple of Amen.
Akhenaten, who had been named Amenhotep IV
after his father Amenhotep III, began practicing a
religion that elevated the deity, Aten, to the high-
est position in the Egyptian pantheon. This action
created deep divisions within the spiritual leader-
ship in the main worship center of Amen, Waset.
Because the entire history of the 18th dynasty
until the time of Amenhotep IV had been based
on the great power and energy bestowed on the
people by their devotion to Amen, the action by
the young king was unforgivable and challengedAkhetaten 33