Early in the 5th year of his reign ,
Amenhotep IV
decided to cut all links with the traditional religious capital of
Egypt
and its god Amun , and to build an entirely new city on virgin soil that would be devoted solely to the cult of
Aten
. At the same time , he changed his name to
Akhenaten
, probably meaning 'Creative Manifestation of the Aten' . The new city , nowadays known as Amarna , was called Akhetaten 'Horizon of the Aten' , that is the place where the Aten manifests himself and where he acts through his son , the King . The King set up some boundary stelae defining the territory of Akhenaten . We do not know when exactly the King took up residence in Akhetaten , but presumably it was within a year or two of its foundation . As soon as the decision to move had been made , all building activities at
Thebes
ceased . And the king's original name was removed from the inscriptions and replaced by the new one .
Once Akhenaten was firmly settled in his new residence , a further radicalization of his religious reforms took place . In the 9th
year , the official name formula of Aten was changed to 'the Living One , Re , Ruler of the Horizon who Rejoices in the Horizon in his Identity of Re the Father who has Returned as the Sun-disc' . Probably at the same time as this name's change took place , the traditional gods were banned completely and a campaign was launched to remove their names and effigies (particularly those of Amun) from the monuments . The traditional state temples were closed down and the cults of their gods came to a standstill: the religious festivals with their processions and public holidays were no longer celebrated either .
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