Was he a visionary revolutionary or a heretical, mad fanatic? Possibly neither-some historians have argued that moving the capital may have been more of a political strategy on the part of the new pharaoh to break the stranglehold of Amun's priests on Egyptian culture and society. AdvertisementĪkhenaten also moved the capital away from the city of Thebes, setting up a new capital on the site of what is now the city of Amarna, halfway between Thebes and Memphis. He worshipped Aten instead (hence the name change) and would eventually try to suppress the worship of Amun entirely. (His queen was Nefertiti, and his son, who would eventually assume the throne, was the famous boy-king, Tutankhamun.) Akhenaten rejected the traditional polytheistic religion, dominated by the worship of Amun, and decided to start his own religion. The pharaoh's eldest son and heir, Thutmose, died young, so the throne passed to his second son, Amenhotep IV, who soon changed his name to Akhenaten. Analysis revealed that Amenhotep III died between 40 and 50 years of age, and he likely suffered from various ailments in his later years (most notably arthritis, obesity, and painful abscesses in his teeth). He was buried in the Valley of the Kings, and his mummy was discovered in 1889. (Mud bricks at the site were also marked with Amenhotep III's cartouche.) There are more surviving statues of Amenhotep III than any other pharaoh. Hieroglyphic inscriptions found on clay caps of wine vessels at the site date the city to the reign of the 18th-dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III (1386-1353 BCE), whose generally peaceful tenure was marked by an especially prosperous era, with Egypt at the peak of its international power. The archaeologists dubbed the site 'the lost golden city of Luxor,' and they believe it may have been devoted to manufacturing decorative artifacts, furniture, and pottery, among other items.

A team of Egyptian archaeologists has unearthed what some describe as an industrial royal metropolis just north of modern-day Luxor, which incorporates what was once the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes (aka Waset).

Ancient cities in egypt