‘Heretic’ Pharaoh Akhenaten: In Search of His Traces - The Kyunghyang Shinmun
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The Egyptian Civilization Expedition looks around the site of the Aten Small Temple in Amarna. Amarna | Yoon Seung-min
Akhenaten. ‘Beneficial to Aten.’ It is the name of a pharaoh who ruled Egypt in the mid-14th century BCE.
He is not a pharaoh widely known in Korea like Ramesses, Tutankhamun, or Cleopatra. Even Khufu, the pharaoh who built the largest pyramid, is not so familiar in Korea. Koreans do not know the names of every king who ruled the Korean Peninsula, and even if they know the names, they do not remember all their deeds. It is not strange to forget the name of one among the many ancient Egyptian pharaohs who lived across millennia.
Yet looking at the traces from Akhenaten’s reign, he remains hard to forget. He cracked the polytheistic order that had persisted throughout ancient Egyptian history and left behind artifacts whose artistic style is entirely unlike what came before or after.
Who was Akhenaten, and what did he leave behind? The first 2026 journey of the ‘Egyptian Civilization Expedition,’ organized and hosted by Itiwon with support from the Kyunghyang Shinmun Humanitas Research Institute, set out along the Nile to seek answers.
The expedition, planned by Gwak Min-soo, head of the Korea Institute of Egyptology and one of Korea’s leading Egyptologists, began in 2020. Suspended by the COVID-19 pandemic and resumed in 2023, it focuses on seeing more pyramids, temples, and other remains from ancient Egypt’s golden age. From the Great Pyramid of Khufu and the Sphinx in Cairo and its metropolitan area, the old Egyptian Museum, and the Civilization Museum, to the Great Temple of Abu Simbel in the south and Luxor’s ‘Valley of the Kings,’ where many renowned pharaohs are buried, the expedition has encountered the artifacts and sites that represent Egypt.
Including this year’s first and second journeys, the expedition marks its tenth and has adjusted its route slightly each time. The first 2026 trip, held from the 2nd to the 13th, chose an overland route along the Nile, unlike before. From antiquity to today, with most of its territory desert, Egypt built its cities and lived along the Nile.
Previously, the main axis of the overall itinerary was flying domestically between Cairo in the north and Luxor in the center or Aswan in the south. This time, after flying from Cairo to Aswan, the group traveled north by road from the southernmost point, Abu Simbel, returning to Cairo. It was to visit Amarna, where Akhenaten founded a new capital. The theme of the first journey was ‘In Search of the Forgotten Pharaoh, Akhenaten.’ It was the first time the expedition had gone to Amarna. Amarna is a place that even many international tourists to Egypt rarely visit.
Akhenaten was a pharaoh who ascended the throne around 1350 BCE. He was originally called Amenhotep IV, succeeding his predecessor and father, Amenhotep III. He rejected Egypt’s entrenched polytheistic order and proclaimed a monotheistic system. He also moved the capital from Thebes (present-day Luxor) to ‘Akhet-aten’ (‘Akhet-aten’ (Horizon of Aten)), today’s Amarna. Because of this, Akhenaten’s reign is known as the ‘Amarna Period.’ No record survives that clearly explains the reason for the move. It is inferred that he sought to strengthen royal power by escaping the influence of the priests of various gods, who wielded significant power under polytheism.
A relief on the wall of the Great Temple of Abu Simbel in Egypt. It depicts various gods and pharaohs in the typical style of ancient Egypt. Abu Simbel | Yoon Seung-min
Ancient Egypt shared nearly the same symbols for millennia. This is revealed through artifacts and sites spanning from the early dynasties established around 3100 BCE to the 4th century CE, when Rome annexed Egypt and proclaimed Christianity as its state religion. The sun god Ra; Osiris, god of death and rebirth; Isis, goddess of motherhood and beauty; Set, god of chaos and cruelty; Nephthys, goddess of sorrow and protection; Horus, son of Osiris and god of kingship, and his wife Hathor, goddess of marriage… Whether at the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut, a predecessor of Akhenaten, or at remains left by later pharaoh Ramesses II, or in temples from the Ptolemaic era just before Rome’s conquest (4th century BCE), they appear in similar forms and with the same symbols. You see Horus with a falcon’s head, Hathor with a cow’s head, their mythic stories, and pharaohs worshiping the gods.
A relief on the wall of the tomb of the noble Merina in Amarna, Egypt. It preserves the human depiction of the ‘Amarna Period,’ distinct from other eras. Amarna | Yoon Seung-min
A relief on the wall of the tomb of the noble Merina in Amarna, Egypt. It preserves the human depiction of the ‘Amarna Period,’ distinct from other eras. Amarna | Yoon Seung-min
The differences were clear when we visited three nobles’ tombs and a royal tomb in Amarna on the 9th. Near the ceiling, the walls invariably show a sun radiating straight beams of light down toward the earth. This is Aten, the one god Akhenaten chose. Egypt’s gods sometimes share similar traits with one another. If the sun god Ra signifies the sun at its zenith around noon, then Khepri corresponds to the sun at dawn, and Atum to the sun at dusk. There were also sun gods such as Amun and Aten. However, Aten had been regarded as merely ‘one attribute’ of Ra. For Egyptians, Aten was not a god of great influence or presence. For reasons unknown, Akhenaten proclaimed Aten the sole god and changed his name from Amenhotep (Amenhotep · Amun is satisfied) to Akhenaten. Akhenaten’s Aten-centered monotheism is regarded as humanity’s first monotheistic faith, earlier than Judaism.
In Amarna’s tombs, no figures stand out as clearly as the pharaoh and his familyAkenaten’s queen, Nefertiti, and their children appear repeatedly on the inner walls of nobles’ and royal tombs. In other pharaohs’ times, those places would have been occupied by the pharaoh and numerous Egyptian gods. This shows that the mediators linking the one god Aten to the people were the pharaoh and his family. In other words, the pharaoh replaced the priests, who had wielded considerable power under the polytheistic system.
Even more striking are figures depicted more realistically than before. The people drawn on the walls prostrate flat on the ground, bend at the waist, and at times hurry along. In Amarna-period artifacts in other museums, you can see people with heads tilted up toward the sky, both hands raised high. Compared with other ancient relics, artifacts, or artworks visible today, their profile-like, woodcut-flat look may not seem special. Yet in the thousands of years of ancient Egypt, the human images not seen elsewhere appear only in the Amarna Period, which makes them feel unfamiliar.
Stone blocks from the Amarna Period on display at the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Giza, Egypt. Giza | Yoon Seung-min
Stone blocks from the Amarna Period on display at the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Giza, Egypt. Giza | Yoon Seung-min
The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) near Cairo in Giza, which officially opened last November, exhibits stone blocks from Akhenaten’s time and explains this period’s distinctive style as follows: “The traditional depictions of gods and kings give way to realistic expressions of life unfolding under the court, the royal family, and Aten.”
Before reaching Amarna, the figures of various gods and pharaohs seen in many tombs and temples across major citiesCairo at the start, Abu Simbel, Aswan, Luxorare uniform. They mostly stand with backs and necks ramrod straight. Which pharaoh is which can be known not from their features but from the name written in hieroglyphs within the frame called a cartouche. In the Old Kingdom (27th22nd centuries BCE), the New Kingdom (16th11th centuries BCE), the Ptolemaic era under Rome’s influence, and even afterward, the modes of expression barely changed. They even depicted Roman emperors as pharaohs; the pull to follow past methods in ancient Egypt was powerful. Artisans who made tombs were judged not by ‘how beautifully’ they worked but by ‘how faithfully they conformed to tradition.’
A bust of Akhenaten on display at the Luxor Museum in Egypt. Luxor | Yoon Seung-min
Perhaps that is why the statue of Akhenaten at the Luxor Museum left a deeper impression. Of course, traditional conventionslike the nemes headcloth, a symbol of pharaohs, and the false bearddid not disappear entirely. Yet compared with other pharaohs, the unusually elongated face stands out even when compared only to other pharaoh sculptures in the relatively small Luxor Museum. Having focused for a time on identifying which god or which pharaoh appeared on the walls of temples and tombs, we had not imagined that ‘different expression’ was possible in Egypt.
A statue of Akhenaten on display at the Egyptian Museum shows the lower body as well, with a prominent belly and thighs. We cannot simply conclude that depictions changed because Akhenaten looked different from other pharaohs. Director Gwak explained, “It is possible they depicted him this way because a pharaoh was supposed to embody both masculine and feminine qualities.” Since Akhenaten limited ‘encounter with the divine,’ formerly performed by priests, to the ‘pharaoh and family,’ perhaps they imbued the pharaoh’s sculpture with features of many male and female deities.
A statue of Akhenaten on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt. Cairo | Yoon Seung-min
Along with the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum in London and the Dendera Zodiac at the Louvre in Paris, the bust of Nefertiti at the Neues Museum in Berlin, Germany, is regarded as one of the ‘three major removed Egyptian artifacts.’ This bust, depicting Queen Nefertiti during Akhenaten’s reign, dates to over 3,000 years ago, yet its vivid colors and realistic depiction stand out. The reason the left eye’s pupil was never added remains unknown, which only heightens its aura of mystery.
However, after Germany discovered the bust at Amarna in 1912, it was exported and remains in Germany. After announcing the finds, Germany was to take half of what Egypt did not select to keep; critics argue Germany hid the existence of the bust and shipped it home./p>Calls for the return of the Nefertiti bust have continued in Egypt to this day. Since the state-of-the-art GEM officially opened last year, European arguments that ‘Egypt lacks the capacity to preserve artifacts’ have lost force.
The bust of Nefertiti on display at the Neues Museum in Germany. Wikipedia
Not many conspicuous traces of the Amarna Period remain. After visiting the tombs, we found that other Amarna sites, including the Great Aten Temple, did not preserve massive outer walls or diverse sculptures like temples in other cities. Among the nobles’ tombs were unfinished traces, with only underdrawings where reliefs should have been.
Akhenaten reigned for less than twenty years, and after his death Egypt rapidly returned to the former ways. The capital moved back to Thebes, and temples that had been shuttered reopened. Soon after, later pharaohs carried out ‘erasing Akhenaten,’ a kind of erasure from the record. In the Amarna tombs, faces of Akhenaten and his family had been chiseled away. On a wall at the temple of Seti I, a later pharaoh, in Abydos, there is the ‘Abydos King List’ of 76 previous rulers, but Akhenaten’s name is omitted there as well. A gilded wooden coffin on display at the Egyptian Museum has its face and name gouged out, and through later excavation and research it is regarded as belonging to Akhenaten.
On the wall of the tomb of the noble Ahmes in Amarna, Egypt, traces remain of a relief left unfinished with only outlines drawn (right). Amarna | Yoon Seung-min
A gilded wooden coffin on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt. It is presumed to belong to Akhenaten. Cairo | Yoon Seung-min
There were other reasons as well. The capital of Akhet-aten, a kind of ‘new city’ built at Amarna, went up rapidly. The main building material was mud brick. Among the reasons pyramids could retain their form over thousands of years are Egypt’s arid desert climate and that stone such as limestone was the principal material. Mud brick is easier to make than stone, which is formed under great natural pressure, and is correspondingly harder to preserve over long periods. Director Gwak also explained, “The stone produced in this region is of poor quality, which made it difficult to carve reliefs in tombs and elsewhere.”
Even so, the traces of Akhenatenthe maverick of the long history of ancient Egyptand the ‘Amarna Period’ he ushered in are etched as deeply as the many pyramids that overwhelm by sheer scale. We could not learn why he attempted such change only by looking at the artifacts he left behind, but imagining what history Egypt might have written had the changes not halted was fascinating.
Another intriguing fact is that Akhenaten’s son, despite leaving no great achievements during his reign, has become the most widely known pharaoh among the public since the 20th century. Because his accomplishments were not great, he escaped the tomb robberies that had flourished since antiquity, and thus preserved splendid artifacts that could be unveiled to the modern world. His name was originally Tutankhaten (Tutankhaten · the living image of Aten), and later, changing the name of the one god from Aten to Amun, he became ‘Tutankhamen.’ (To be continued in the next installment)
A view of Amarna seen from in front of a noble’s tomb in Amarna, Egypt. Amarna | Yoon Seung-min
