Akhenaten, Egypt's false prophet

"In this re-evaluation, Nicholas Reeves takes issue with existing views of Akhenaten, presenting an entirely new perspective on the turbulent events of his seventeen-year reign. Reeves argues that, far from being the idealistic founder of a new faith, Akhenaten cynically used religion for purely political ends in a calculated attempt to reassert the authority of the king - to concentrate all power in his own hands. Thebes, Egypt's premier city, would prove unreceptive to the king's ideas, and a new city was founded - at el-Amarna. Soon after, in an attempt to suppress continuing opposition from Amun's priesthood, he unleashed a terror which reverberated down the centuries, Ultimately, however, Akhenaten's revolution failed: political, financial and moral corruption gradually overwhelmed the regime - and his traditionalist successors showed little mercy. With a ruthless determination not seen in Egypt before or since, all trace of pharaoh's existence was systematically expunged." "Nicholas Reeves presents these arguments in a closely written narrative, backed up by abundant archaeological and documentary evidence. In the process he provides new insights into questions which have baffled scholars for generations - the puzzle of the body from Tomb 55 in the Valley of the Kings; the fate of Nefertiti, Akhenaten's beautiful wife, and the identity of the mysterious successor, Smenkhkare; and the theory that Tutankhamun, Akhenaten's son and true heir, was murdered."--BOOK JACKET.