Akhenaten

King Amenhotep IV was a pharaoh in ancient Egypt of the 18th dynasty (c. 1353–1335 BC). During his reign Amenhotep displaced all the Egyptian gods with a single deity, the sun god, Aten, in honor of whom he built many temples. The pharaoh renamed himself Akhenaten meaning, “It is well with Aten.” This was the first concerted attempt to establish a form of monotheism (the worship of a single god).

Statue of Akhenaten wearing the Egyptian Blue Crown of War

Akhenaten's favourite wife was Nefertiti. Her name roughly translates to "the beautiful one is come". She also shares her name with a type of elongated gold bead that she was often portrayed as wearing, known as "nefer" beads. Her beauty is now famed through celebrated portrait busts of the period.

Akhenaten was married to Nefertiti at the very beginning of his reign, and six daughters were identified from inscriptions. However, Akhenaten fathered his successor Tutankhamen with one of his biological sisters.

The fashion for ladies of the Egyptian court to wear beehive hairstyles and polish their heads to achieve a smooth, elongated profile, was begun by Nefertiti’s six daughters. Their heads were narrowed by doctors during birth to minimize their mother's labor pains.

Akhenaten's religious reforms were detested and his successor Tutankhamen restored the traditional Egyptian religion with the original gods. The Aten temples were demolished, and Akhenaten became known as "the Enemy."