circa 1349 b.c.
A few years after the death
of his father, Amenhotep IV
begins a radical religious
shift in Egypt to the
worship of one god, Aten.
ca 1349–1336 b.c.
Art depicts Nefertiti and
her husband—now named
Akhenaten—in a new style
that flouts millennia of
rigid artistic tradition.circa 1336 b.c.
Akhenaten dies, and his
reforms are abandoned.
Nefertiti’s exact fate is
unknown, but she may
have ruled as Pharaoh.circa 1334 b.c.
Tutankhamun, stepson of
Nefertiti, takes the throne
at age nine. Under his
short rule, Egypt returns
to its traditional faith.SUN CITY
Dedicated to the solar god Aten, the
ruins of Akhenaten and Nefertiti’s
capital city, known today as Amarna,
sit on the eastern bank of the Nile. The
Egyptian capital returned south to
Thebes (modern Luxor) after his death.
KENNETH GARRETT