Akhenaten was first named Amenhotep IV. His chief wife was the famous and beautiful Nefertiti. But Nefertiti did not bear him a son. His son, Tutankaten, who later renamed himself Tutankhamun, was by another wife.

Amenhotep IV became convinced that the worship of the ancient gods, headed by Amun-Re, was wrong, and that there was only one true god, the Sun god, Aten.

So he changed his name to Akhenaten and then caused enormous disruption to the Egyptians by closing all of the temples dedicated to Amun. He also decided to move his capital from Thebes 300km north to a place in the desert which is called Amarna. There he built an entirely new city in the desert.