How Did Akhenaten Change Egypt

Akhenaten, the son of Amenhotep III, was an Egyptian king of the 18th Dynasty who brought many cultural reforms to Egypt during his reign. It is generally thought that Akhenaten acted through his reign without any precedent or foreshadowing. However, it has also been speculated that he may have drawn his ideas from the rule of his father. Akhenaten, with his revolutionary focus on Aten and being the first Egyptian king to truly embrace monotheism coupled with henotheism, revealed the importance of the sun cults in the Egyptian world. Akhenaten was raised in the court of his father, and as such was constantly exposed to and heavily influenced by Amenhotep’s progression towards a reformed Egypt. The elements of Amenhotep III’s reign that Akhenaten particularly drew on were art and architecture, religion and foreign relations.

One of the elements of Amenhotep III’s reign which Akhenaten drew upon was art and architecture. Amenhotep III followed in the footsteps of his predecessors in constructing monuments at all the important religious sites in Egypt. …show more content…
The structure of Akhenaten’s city and the change in representation of the typical Egyptian figure, particularly Akhenaten himself, is clearly drawn from the beginnings of change shown in the art and architecture of Amenhotep. The religious aspect of Egypt, where the idea of henotheism was beginning to be brought about by Amenhotep, was bled and reshaped by Akhenaten until it resembled a whole new approach to worship - that of monotheism - for the very first time in Egyptian history. The influence of Amenhotep on Akhenaten in terms of foreign relations is not as strong as other elements of reign, however it is still present. From these points a conclusion can be reached that Akhenaten, while perhaps not as politically adept as his father, was still most certainly very strongly influenced in most other elements of his