Egypt had always been a polytheistic empire with its most important gods being Ra and Osiris. Ra was the sun-god and Osiris was the god of vegetation. (Bratton, The First Heretic, 53) Amenhotep IV then created Atonism with Aton being the only God and he was "the father and mother of us all." (Bratton, The First Heretic, 49) At this point, Amenhotep IV changed his name to Ikhnaton and began building temples to Aton in Thebes. After the construction of the temples was complete, Ikhnaton demanded that Thebes, which was the city of Amon, be called "The City of the Brightness of Aton." None of this satisfied the young king so he also ordered that the name Amon be erased from all statues, buildings, and scriptures. (Bratton, The First Heretic, 87).
Ikhnaton got tired of how Thebes had become because of all the priests being so sullen about not being able to worship Amon. The king decided to leave Thebes forever in search of a new place to start the worship of Aton. (Bratton, The First Heretic, 91) Ikhnaton settled at Amarna, "The City of the Horizon of Aton," accompanied by Nefertiti and their children as well as an artist, sculptor, priest, chief counselor, and royal vizier. Ikhnaton ordered the building of many estates, temples and business places. (Bratton, The First Heretic, 100).
Ikhnaton was the first king to ask to be depicted in pictures as he was in everyday life and he didn't care about what anyone thought about him. This was based on "maat" or truth for living. He believed you should only live in truth and be true to yourself no matter what. (Bratton, The First Heretic, 135) Unfortunately, as beautiful as Amarna was, its downfall was soon to come as the king continually ignored pleas for help in military affairs in other areas of Egypt as well as threats from other countries. (Bratton, The First Heretic, 113).
The urgency of pleas for help in military affairs continued, but Ikhnaton continued to ignore them and didn't realize the actual conditions.
