TAA i.3.9.6

                                            –           2            –    

of Southern Egypt was Thebes – “hundred-gated Thebes”, and the

18th. dynasty, the dynasty of Tutankhamen, was a Theban dynasty.

          It is not my purpose here to deal with all the great

Pharoahs^sic of the 18th dynasty. Nine of them preceded Tutankhamen

including the mightiest Pharoah^sic who ever ruled Egypt, Thothmes

III.

          The splendou power and splendour which marked the reign

of this great Pharoah^sic were continued in the next few reigns but

after a time the power dwindled, though the pomp and gorgeous

splendour remained. This, as we know too well from analogies

in later history, is always <a> o/<b>ad sign, when power and prosperity

give rise to luxury and extravagant spendour^sic.

          Omitting remarks about the three kings who followed the

Great Pharoah^sic, Thothmes III, we come to a king who is particularly

interesting. He was Amenhotep IV. or Akhenaten, who is usually

known as “the heretic king”, for he attempted to introduce into

Egypt a new religion. The worship of Amon was the orthodox and

official religion of Egypt and at Thebes, the Southern Capital,

stood the great Temple of Amon, and the priesthood of Amon was very

powerful, and when the heretic king changed his religion, the

priests of Amon became, naturally his fierce opponents. The reason

of Amenhotep<’>s change of religion is not clear, but he may have

been influenced by his mother who was a foreigner from the North.

For Amon he substituted the worship of Aten, the Disc of the Sun,

He therefore changed his name to Akhen – Aten “The Spirit of the

Solar Disc”, deleted the name ox[?]/<f> Amon from all momuments^sic and

closed the temple of Amon at Thebes. He moved from Thebes and

built a new city to the Solar Disc 100 miles to the north called

Tell-en-Amarna<:> and here he lived <in artistic splendour> and here