Use the links above to see more photos.

Another interesting pharaoh at the tail end of the 18th dynasty was Ahkenaten - "the heretic pharaoh" (reigned 1351 - 1334 BC). He was Nefertiti's husband and Tutankhamun's father. He began his reign as Amenhotep IV. But in the 5th year of his reign he changed his name, rejected Egypt's polytheism, got rid of all the gods and replaced them with one - Aten, the sun god. He then moved the capital from Thebes to a small town downstream, Amarna.

None of this won him any popularity contests with the nobles, the priests and the populace. When he died the capital was moved back to Thebes and the many gods of ancient Egypt were restored to their former glory.

His successors tried to erase every vestige of him they could get their hands on in a very early case of what the Romans later called damnatio memoriae.

Why he did all this remains a mystery. Creating Aten and then trying to get people to believe he was Aten's one and only main man on Earth - it seems obvious this was a power play. So was he just another megalomaniac? Or was he a visionary who led the way to the more modern religious idea of monotheism? Or, as some think, was he insane? No one has the answer.