Item Size:  12" High     Type:  Statue on Base

Material:  Casting Stone, with Antique Stone Finish

Original:  18th Dynasty, circa 1350 B.C.E.

Current Location of Original:  Egyptian Museum, Cairo

King Akhenaten, who was originally named Amenhotep IV, ruled Egypt for seventeen years, from circa 1353 to circa 1336 B.C.E., together with his beautiful Queen Nefertiti. He was son of Amenhotep III, and, like his father before him, King Akhenaton initially recognized the priests of Amun, at Thebes, as having power. But after the fifth year of his reign, he changed the state cult of Amun to that of Aten, the unique god. He also assumed the name Akhenaten, which roughly means, "He who is of service to Aten." This began two decades of religious reforms, overthrowing millennia of traditional religious and civic life. Akhenaten erected a temple to the sun god at Karnak. The Aten temple contained a peristyle court whose twenty-eight pillars supported colossal statues of the King. This bust is what remains of one of them.